Chuck Clark

I agree Allen... greetings from Monroe, WA, by the way. I finally made the move. I also agree with Chris - great posts from Ellis and Peter. (I'm in an agreeable mood this morning since I watched a couple hours of the O Sumo basho last night after the Comcast folks got me hooked up.)

Of course, as I've been told many times, we Jiyushinkai folks don't do "aikido", but we do have tandoku renshu and sotai gata geiko as tools for learning and teaching kihon that is based on what Ellis' teacher told him. Even in the kata yakusoku, uke's role is to cause problems that tori must solve and not be "easy." Of course the levels of "I'm not going to let you do that" should be appropriate to the skill levels involved. Then our randori is all about "I'm not gonna let you get me... I'm gonna get you"... until something happens that is decisive. I try my best to make that happen in one action. If that doesn't happen, then we're both learning new lessons. I think our real job is to continue to give each other problems to solve and learn from the process until we die. I do not want any "sensitive uke" that aren't trying to continue to give me those problems... even in public demos. Anything else seems demeaning to the art and our trust in each other.

Great stuff to wake up to this morning. Thanks to all.