Thread: Elbow Power
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Old 04-15-2012, 12:53 AM   #146
Lee Salzman
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 406
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Re: Elbow Power

Quote:
Greg Steckel wrote: View Post
More info on Elbow Power can be found in this previous thread: http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20105

I am not sure what else can be said other than Elbow Power can mean various things to various people based on the context of how the term is used; and that does not mean others are wrong in their own environment, it just means it is not right for in the context of Aiki. Just to sum up some points for aiki: the concept of elbow power is more than a simple movement of the elbow to get in a better leverage position to effect a throw. There is a mental component that controls internal energy that leads a physically movement; there is whole body connection where when one thing moves, all things move; and there is a union of opposing forces set up by internal spirals where the elbow becomes a point within a whole body spiral that effects anything that connects with the body. As Dan said, it is not just about the elbow, the aiki concept of elbow power can occur in any part of a connected body. Sorry, this may not be the well detailed road map everyone was looking for, but there is just so much going with the concept, that online discussion is pretty much useless, and an in person hands on demo says it all in a few seconds.

Just my opinion, and of course, YMMV

Greg
I am not sure saying the term could mean various things to various people does us any more good than allowing people to present pineapples as apples, because they both have the word apple in them. We're talking about apples here, well, elbow power ones. And we mean a specific variety, the aiki one. Trying to be too charitable isn't going to help the discussion when we want to ferret out a specific idea.

All the same, thanks for providing your definition of elbow power, though, because if someone had just come out and said this clearly in the beginning of the thread a lot of confusion could have been eliminated. No one expects a roadmap either, but at the same time I get frustrated by how we always seem to treat these topics as somehow impossible to discuss at all, when you just clearly discussed it here in reasonable terms. Somehow I think this is more of a social trend than a real limitation of the subject matter.
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