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Old 10-15-2007, 09:11 PM   #18
Carl Thompson
 
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Location: Kasama
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Re: Organizations- How important are they to you?

Thanks for your comment and I'm sorry you didn't like the analogy.

Quote:
Giancarlo DiPierro wrote: View Post
I'm not sure why people keep coming back to the idea of martial arts ranking being in any way like professional qualifications. They are different in very important ways.
I agree that martial arts, especially aikido, have different ranking procedures and organisational styles than the medical profession. The principle of people pooling their knowledge within an organisation to establish standards that are recognised was my point and the analogy with martial arts and medicine can be applied to many other arts and professions, regardless of their inner workings or inherent accuracy in ranking. If one feels rank is important, recognised authorities are relevant.

Quote:
Giancarlo DiPierro wrote: View Post
The idea that belonging to such an organization or having qualifications from them is a very good measure of credibility is very much questionable.
Credibility and actual skill can be very different. I would agree that a qualification in aikido is not necessarily a very good measure of actual skill. However, it is still a measure and with regards to recognition, my opinion and experience is that a qualification from a small organisation that no one has heard of is not afforded the same kudos as one from any of the bigger organisations. I'm not saying that's fair, but that's how it is so it just depends how important having a recognised rank is to you. Regarding skill, some martial arts genius could land on your doorstep, but the ranking you receive from Kev's Boondocks-kai will probably not travel as well as those awards handed out by a well known organisation. Fortunately the skills will. I personally think the skills themselves are way more important than recognition of them.

Quote:
Giancarlo DiPierro wrote: View Post
Organizations, including the aikikai, have been very successful at making this art available to a lot of people who might not otherwise have any exposure to it. I think it's important to respect that. However, this does not mean that these organizations should be accorded the kind of blind loyalty that many who belong to them often offer, generally at the encouragement of those very same organizations who are competing with other organizations and independent teachers for money and student loyalty. Organizations should serve people, not the other way around. Use them if they suit your purposes, discard them if they do not.
I totally agree with this and rest assured that no blind loyalty was expected or given here. A cool feature of aikido is that since we are all different, we all have our own individual path to walk. On the way, I've tried a few flavours while looking for a balanced diet that suits my pallet.


Quote:
Giancarlo DiPierro wrote: View Post
Martial arts are just a hobby that people do for fun. Nobody's life is at stake, and if it is, they shouldn't be getting their primary training studying a traditional martial art.
From where I am on my path, things look very different. I see friends going back to countries where their skills will make a huge difference to their personal safety and the safety of their students. For that matter, I'm sure there are plenty of doormen, cops, military personnel, paramedics and others in your own country who would also view that very differently.

Kind regards

Carl
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