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Old 07-18-2011, 08:19 AM   #26
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
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Re: Moving with your center

Quote:
Lee Salzman wrote: View Post
Mary, I'll dare to put words in your mouth, this sounds like a shaddup-and-train.
I wouldn't argue with someone who wants to interpret it that way. If someone sees that as a bad thing, that's their problem and their loss. Aikido is a physical skill. I'm not going to get into any religious wars about whether it can also become something else -- mileage varies. But you can't get to the "something else" without the physical part first. It is the medium and the frame of reference, and just as you can't draw a line with a single data point, you can't extrapolate the "something else" unless you have abundant data points in the physical stuff.

Quote:
Lee Salzman wrote: View Post
But, what's good mechanics? Is it possible for someone to really have them after a year of training?
I'm sure you can argue the definition of "good mechanics" around to support either view, but I didn't say anything about "having" them. I was talking about working on them, and letting any "something elses" happen in their own good time.

Quote:
Lee Salzman wrote: View Post
And if, perhaps, good mechanics are to be regarded as what-sensei-says, and shaddup-and-train is to be regarded as do-what-sensei-says, but when sensei can't point out what's going wrong, ain't there a problem there?
Were we talking about the situation of a sensei who can't explain or good mechanics? Or is this a digression?

Quote:
Lee Salzman wrote: View Post
Could it be that good universal mechanics that apply to all movement is the entire problem of this whole martially-artsy-fartsy endeavor, and that if they were so basic that you already had them, and it was just a matter of applying them, there wouldn't be much point in training a lot anymore? If you only focus on what you think you already do right, what're you gonna learn?
That's the classic mistake of equating "basic" with "easily and trivially mastered". As a former sensei of mine once said, "It is simple. It isn't easy."
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