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Craig Hocker wrote:
What I am left with is being puzzled by willful misreading of the article.
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Smith was experienced in judo, aikido and tai chi. He pointed out that the "softness" of aikido is very different from the "softness" of tai chi, with which I agree.
Quote:
Craig Hocker wrote:
...one incident between a very senior Tai Chi teacher catching two junior aikido students in mistakes says really nothing about your point.
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Two sandans trained by Tohei (especially back in "those days") would have been pretty advanced. Advanced enough, at any rate, that if Tohei were "teaching the real stuff" that has since been omitted (and which can be learned in a matter of several weeks--certainly within a year), if it were actually related to tai chi, there wouldn't have been such an obvious difference in the use of the arms. The point is that the energy and use of energy in tai chi and aikido are different at a very fundamental level.
Quote:
Craig Hocker wrote:
It's just a case in point for how cross-training can help you learn things about your own art that you may not have understood or just been completely missed off on or are not hearing until come at from a different direction.
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I understand how cross training can help since I've done both Japanese and Chinese arts over many years. And my point is that, while cross-training can help you learn things about your own art, it can also help you learn that the various arts are different in more than just their names. They are fundamentally different arts.
Best wishes.
David