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Old 10-05-2005, 09:15 AM   #5
ian
 
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Dojo: University of Ulster, Coleriane
Location: Northern Ireland
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,654
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Re: Poll: How helpful has using visual media (videos, DVDs, software, etc) been in your aikido training?

I think in aikido you often cannot SEE what is going on (often for beginners they get confused on who is doing the technique!) and thus you need explanaition and feeling, and repeatedactual training is essential to learn to do aikido.

However I think reading and watching DVDs is good for the exploration of aikido, especially at a higher level. For example I spend alot of time watching Ueshiba doing techniques on DVD because so many people say aikido is this or aikido is that, or that Ueshiba did it like this or that. By watching him move repeatedly you can see that often these people are just wrong (at least with respect to Ueshiba). DVD also has the advantage of very slow play or freeze play without distortion. I don't want to get in an argument of the development of aikido, but if we don't understand what Ueshiba was doing, how you develop from that? Unfortunately, by the same token, much of what you see is quite fast and subtle so you generally have to know what you are looking for to spot this in Ueshiba's body movement. DEFINATELY though, examining Ueshiba has changed the way I think of and do aikido.

Fortunately we have the advantage over many martial arts of being able to see the originator practising it. What is often suprising is that when you are able to more critically evaluate aikido technique you can see that in the old footage even his uschi-deschi are doing something which is only superficially similar to Ueshiba (not saying that they are still like that). Fortunately for many of us we can spend 20 years plus learning aikido and still analyse the originators technique.

Last edited by ian : 10-05-2005 at 09:21 AM.

---understanding aikido is understanding the training method---
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