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Old 03-07-2002, 08:29 PM   #1
thomasgroendal
 
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Dojo: Hoshu Portland Dojo
Location: Portland, OR
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 53
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Question Self-aware Aikido

Aikido is the art of peace. It is the art of brotherly/sisterly love and whatnot. It is COOPERATIVE. This is wonderful, and it is the reason that it forms the center of my attempt at life.
Unfortunately it has led me to a crisis. Excessive, and uncontrolled cooperation is to martial arts sort of like inbreeding. All around me, in the mystic isles of Japan, I have people who have learned to practice so cooperatively that a sho dan is expected to be able to throw aiki nage like osensei, and realistically take swords from unfriendly attackers. Practicing these things is essential, but even osensei didn't probably succeed at them after a scant few years of practice.

I have become a swordsman of sorts over the years, and I consistently see aikiken demos, even by upper ranking yudansha where the attacker cuts like an amateur. The sword tip dips deep below level, and the feet walk, they don't slide. Even if the yudansha is osensei times two, anybody with a critical viewpoint can take us apart. I am hard pressed to defend the art.

Here is my point...
What level should we be at? How do we measure it?
What changes could we go through as a community, to more fully reevaluate the way that ukes attack? Without something, and something large scale, I fear that I see aikido sliding away from its martial origins, and it is the honest facing of life and death that opens the doors to the spiritual goals we all speak of so lightly, and desire so genuinely.

What do you think?
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