Quote:
Robert John wrote:
Well, I think if someone is smart, they might be able to make inroads to other modes of movement using only waza...
theoretically...
over a loooooong period of time.
But why the hell would you do that if there's a direct way to train it, and the whole point of training the waza is to get the skill in the first place?
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Good example? Morihei Ueshiba was born in 1883 and spent most of his adult life in various forms of budo, beginning as a teenager at this father's behest. He claimed
revelation -- sudden recognition after long effort
at the age of 42. Then at critical points where he was faced with deep disappointment over the failures of "power" his realization progressively flowered from that that root experience at the ages of 57 and 59.
Aikido is primarily about growth and sudden discovery of something that comes forth on its own -- not skill by the production of conscious effort. Natural skill comes with mindful growth -- but not necessarily the other way around. No one teaches the tree to stand against the wind -- the wind taught it that.
I have just built an addition on my house originally built in 1911. I can cut through the new, replanted lumber like butter with a sawz-all, while I have regularly burnt up blades in the old-growth heart timber. Natural skill through growth brings things that are hard to define in purely structural "strength" terms -- old and new timber are "equal" in nominal strength, but the 1911 timber toenailed together makes better more durable connections and has withstood a half dozen major hurricanes, whereas the new growth (even sheathed in plywood) requires all sort of framing strap and steel reinforcement to give the engineers a conscious comfort in its performance Growth brings toughness, chiefly, a real and unmistakeable thing.