Thread: Time for change
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Old 05-13-2013, 07:21 AM   #20
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,604
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Re: Time for change

Hombu for those in Aikikai refers to a specific place, but it's (to some extent) like saying "headquarters" as other styles also can have a hombu dojo. By virtue of history and sheer size the Aikikai Hombu is the "commonly understood" one, but... It ain't alone. I've got a customer who travels to Japan frequently to train at the Hombu dojo of his style of martial arts that is decidedly not Aikido.

And fwiw, I wish you the best of luck and understand the motivation to some extent. However, I'd also point out that once you start awarding rank you invariably introduce the politics and all those things you say you're walking away from. Usually the real difference is that it isn't the politics as much as simply not agreeing with the current set and feel you can do it better yourself. That very well may be true, but saying you're getting away from he politics, etc. might be a bit naïve.

But that said, sincerely, best of luck. I echo the notion of finding a park or public area to train because the harsh reality is that someone has to pay for lights, supplies, insurance, or whatever incidentals come along. And I've known folk who have trained using a donation model only to find that sometimes that even "donations" come with some strings even if they're in terms of feelings of entitlement, expectation or even resentment. It's just rarely as simple as some would like, even when you try to cut away everything that seems to make things complicated.

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