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George S. Ledyard wrote:
Mike,
You are in a group of folks that has some substantial Aikido experience in the past but has chosen to pursue other martial arts as his main focus. This puts you in the same boat with all the Koryu folks, most of whom started in Aikido, who later abandoned serious practice of the art in order to pursue other training (Larry Bieri sensei is the only one of the bunch who has kept up his Aikido). I include Ellis Amdur in this group as well.
Just because you have some insights into areas which could substantially benefit us, as practitioners of Aikido, doesn't mean that you are an Aikido guy. Ellis is teaching Aikido workshops all over the country but that doesn't make him an Aikido guy either. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't attend one of his classes, in fact I have had him to my dojo on a couple of occasions to conduct his workshops. He knows enough about Aikido to have intelligent, relevant things to say about it. But he's not an Aikido guy either.
Some of us are on the mat every single day doing Aikido. Our primary focus is on Aikido. If we do other training it is to make our Aikido better. That's what I mean by "doing Aikido". The fact that you have done Aikido doesn't make you an Aikido guy in my eyes any more than the fact that I have done some koryu, some escrima or some systema makes me a real practitioner of those other arts.
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Good points, George, but remember that my question was essentially what minimum criteria it would take to clarify the rhetorical discussion of who "does Aikido". I think that having done "some Aikido" is better than "never did Aikido", but after that it gets murky to me.
Think about it in terms of Taiji (Tai Chi in Wade-Giles), so that we can be a bit more dispassionate. There are tons of people who "do Taiji" who have no qi/jin skills. The Chinese who really do Taiji simply look at it and say "not Taiji". Much blunter than I am, believe it or not, but I would say the same thing even if they have been "teaching Taiji and know all the applications" for 20 years.
So now take Ushiro Sensei's comments once about "no kokyu, no Aikido". My point is that saying who does Aikido and who doesn't can lead to an emotional discussion, particularly if someone has "done Aikido" for a number of years. This issue of Ki and Kokyu skills is unique in the way that the idea of "who has experience in Aikido" becomes very murky. That being said, I just happen to like it as a philosophical discussion while in the real world I don't emote about it very much.
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As for the Expo thing... I think you are making excuses. I have demo-ed or taught classes at each of the Expos. Sure, if you are not one of the "Big Ten" instructors, or a Soke, or somesuch, you don't get much time to show your stuff. But most of the real important interaction was off the mat between training sessions anyway. It's really about making connections between people. I've made a whole array of good friends by attending the Expo and it has paid off in my training.
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No, I'm serious. I couldn't constructively show anything in a too-limited environment. It's a *reason*, not an "excuse". I've even "gone outside" with a few guys at expo's who wanted to make a point... but kicking someone's butt doesn't make the point either. It's simple and yet it's very complex, George... I don't mind spending the time occasionally trying to show and explain, but it's simply not possible in the Expo environment. I've done things like it before. It does not work.
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The folks that I know who have had serious back-off about the Expo were all folks who basically had a hard time handling group situations and were sensitive to the issue of "being judged". They didn't like appearing somewhere they weren't center stage and couldn't control the interactions to their own satisfaction. The Expo is an event that is about showing your stuff. You have to "take the risk" of putting your stuff out there for all to see. If some meaningful technique gets imparted, that's great. For many of the senior folks who had a deep foundation, I know the training there had some serious impact.
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Yeah, but I read that as a form of minimalization, George. If someone doesn't accept an invitation to Expo, then there is a negative connotation that implies their stuff isn't the real stuff and therefore it can be trivialized. I would suggest in turn that showing well at Aiki Expo has little or nothing to do with the validity of these skills. How about the possibility that many Aikidoists would feel more secure in being surrounded by their own equally knowledgeable-or-ignorant peers when looking at something which may or may not upset their applecart. Fair enough?
Regards,
Mike Sigman