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Old 11-29-2012, 03:29 AM   #226
Carsten Möllering
 
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Dojo: Hildesheimer Aikido Verein
Location: Hildesheim
Join Date: Sep 2008
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Re: Is aiki a clash of forces?

Because you cited me, I think you refer to what I said about atari and how it is explained by Endo sensei?
Quote:
Erick Mead wrote: View Post
The blades of scissors are ....
If so I can clearly state that this image does definitely not match what is practiced when learning or using atari the way Endo sensei teaches it.
atari on the contrary is about forces moving towards/against each other. atari means sort "impact". That's even part of the word meaning. Like can be seen in atemi.

As I said above:
I did only find this concept in the work of teachers having a background in Endo sensei's aikidō.

Quote:
Carl Thompson wrote: View Post
... would you say Endo Shihan has it? Do you think what he does is comparable to Dan Harden, Akuzawa Sensei, Mike Sigman et al?
I am simply not qualified to answer this question:
I only met Dan. And I only met him once.
I don't know what Endo practices in private. Whether he does solo work and if so what sort of.

Feeling Endo and feeling Dan has some similarities. And both feel different from most other teachers I know.
Endo's excercises for learning atari have some similarities with some exercices Dan showed us.
The "background" - trying to understand what Ueshiba did and said using the chinese internals as kind of translator is indentical.
Some principals are identical.

But what struck me most: When I attended a seminar of a very near student of Endo sensei, he let us have our hands on his back to feel where and how he generates ellbow power.
(He did not use the word then, but did, what he did.) I Dan remembers how he showed us is back in Spring in the Netherlands he will exactly know what this gyu tried to make us feel. Being asked, what he felt, one student said: Your back kind of "opens up" ...)
He let us extend arm up and leg down, center in the middle of both "intents".
He let us move one side down to bring the other side up.
He let us bring our center in our hands using our intent connecting both via our back.
And so on.

So I think, what Endo does is comparabel. But different.
It was him who made me listen up when I started reading Dan's texts here on aikiweb.
And it was Dan who gave me some clues to better understand and better being able to do, what Endo teaches.
It was a near student of Endo who suddenly and - for me - totally unexpected but clealy used words and practices I knew from Dan and taught the aikidō of Endo.

I think they are heading in the same direction but walking on different paths toward the same aim.
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