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Old 09-11-2011, 01:21 AM   #116
niall
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Re: Golden Center Aikido for your pleasure

Quote:
Dan Harden wrote: View Post
Oh Bull....
I have been in rooms with some of the highest ranked people out there. Their views and opinions about what has become a deplorable state of affairs in the Asian arts (JMA and ICMA) are very strong, even severe.
Again, budo is about an effective means to accomplish a goal. If you cannot deliver...the last thing you should be doing is advertising that fact in a video. Unfortunately, in the modern era, these gentle folks who continue to infect the Asian arts don't have a clue how truly bad they are. The good news (for them at least) is that they can avoid confronting their failures and lack of understanding and convince themselves they have achieved a level of understanding worth having.
All of this has contributed to ruining the reputation of the arts,
not helping them.

Budo was never this way. The entire sum of the history of budo was of being tested. Everyone goes on and on about the effectiveness of their teachers. Now we have to give every Mary and Johnny an "A" and tell them they are all equal so we don't hurt their feelings because they cannot perform or compete as equals to those who put in more time and did better work.
The martial arts have always had master class people who stood out against the budo wall paper. Never have I seen the wallpaper crying out to be equal of their betters...usually they just asked how to get better themselves.
Dan
I gave a specific example from kobudo and it's bull? But I thought you didn't do aikido. Difficult to tell really because you don't post a profile or a video as someone else pointed out. A couple of people have told me positive things about meeting you in person which is why I didn't just hit the ignore button immediately. Well I doubt if jazz musicians pay much attention to the opinions of folk musicians about jazz either.

Who is giving A's here or anywhere? If you treat people with respect you can be constructive without being derogatory. When this was first posted I sent Graham a list of technical points to think about. It's up to him whether he wants to. But aikido is big enough and wide enough and deep enough to embrace many philosophies and approaches, not just the ones you or I think are best.

In fact maybe this discussion is just a difference in philosophy. You seem to think that there are a lot of bad aikidoka out there. Well I don't. Just aikidoka who don't understand very well yet. If they keep training sincerely they will one day. If they are not training sincerely now maybe they will one day.

I don't agree with the point about videos of softer styles ruining the reputation of aikido. Serious budoka know that there are some great aikidoka. Who cares what other people think.

we can make our minds so like still water, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life
w b yeats


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