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Old 04-29-2014, 04:49 PM   #19
mathewjgano
 
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Dojo: Tsubaki Kannagara Jinja Aikidojo; Himeji Shodokan Dojo
Location: Renton
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,276
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Re: Effective Technique

I don't know if the following is exactly right or useful (I am pretty low on the amount of training compared to most everyone here), but a thought hit me a little later after reading this, so, in the spirit of wondering aloud for whatever it might be worth:
I kind of like the Bunny-Masher spectrum idea and have always considered myself to be more on the bunny side of things. To my mind it's analogous to what I've been taught about Aikido being a sort of communication process, having a kind of "listening" and "speaking" mindset. The Listening/receiving aspect, as I understand it, would be reflective of focusing on being sensitive and making sense of what's coming in. The Speaking/delivering aspect would be reflective of making aite move in some specific way (making sense of affecting power outward). Neither is exactly the whole thing and we all employ both to some degree, though we all have our own preferences based on personal goals and proclivities. The "trick" I suppose would be in how we combine the two aspects, and I would guess this might have something to do with the nature of practice as uke and nage. As nage, we're still "listening" to what's happening, just as when uke, we're still trying to issue power on some level. Over time, hopefully our ability to match these two aspects turns them into a kind of singular quality, which is neither doing nor not-doing, but a balanced happening, if that makes sense.
Also, I think labels are very tricky because we all inject our own semantics, but they do have their utility. As long as we can understand the intended meaning, I think, as Pete the Cat would say, "it's all good."

Last edited by mathewjgano : 04-29-2014 at 04:52 PM.

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