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Old 12-30-2013, 09:49 AM   #27
kfa4303
Dojo: North Florida School of Aikido (ASU)
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 50
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Re: YouTube: 1984 NY Aikikai 20th anniv demo Chiba-sensei

I suppose it goes both ways. You could give an American a ticket to Tokyo and he'd be considered a "gun expert". Come to think of it, imagine a firearms instructor, or even a grunt Marine, who dropped his weapon, spun around and inadvertently pointed it at their students whilst simultaneously failing to acknowledge their mistake, and finally accepting money for his "skills". Now that takes chutzpah!
After all, a bokken, should be thought of as no less deadly a weapon than a pistol, or rifle. Shoot (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun:/) , when's the last time you heard Yo-Yo Ma so much as play a bad note, much less drop his instrument/bow mid performance and that's not even a matter of life and death. Surely we shouldn't lower the standards when the consequences are higher?
If people are going to travel around the world teaching others how to wield deadly weapons, fine, but they better dang sure know what they're doing, or acknowledge their limitations and step away. Failure to do so will not only result in diminishing the art through the formation of bad habits, but it could ultimately lead to a student being seriously injured, or killed.
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