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rob_liberti · 03-03-2008, 12:17 AM

Well it appears I must now go to Japan and kill Rob John so I can be the only Rob. (There were seriously 14 kids named "Rob" on my highschool football team. So I'm just kind of used to it. If it will clear things up feel free to refer to me as "Ellis" from now on.)

I've personally been slammed to the ground by both Takeda sensei and Dan Harden so I'm in a unique position to compare. Both have strange power that is a bit different from each other. Takeda sensei is a bit flat footed and he can do that disappear when I attack him thing that just confuses me. I'll tell you this - Dan's teaching is a LOT clearer! I believe Takeda sensei's approach is to exhaust you until you have no movement muscles left with which to cheat and get you training OTHER things. I personally prefer Dan's more direct approach. I believe I may end up teaching aikido as a combination of both approaches - just because training that exhaustive way is very fun and gets a lot of stress out.

I think aikido demos are about showing people what they are doing with the energy given. You are trying to cleary show yang/yin - or something like 'take it in, turn it around, send it back, with nothing added or lost' - type of thing. Was aikido ever about dealing with someone who could attack like Dan? I don't know. We don't design all hand guns to be able to go through all types of body armour for instance... My understanding is that Takeda sensei had some sort of spiritual awakening so I'm not sure how interested he would be in taking his aikido in the direction of dealing with internal skills powering MMA type attacks. His approach on aikido transforms some people for the better and there is something very worth while in that. Maybe it should be a requirement before we power up a bunch of people with internal skills and risk developing some dangerous people with more power than compassion. (I don't know. I'm nearly delerious as I am writing.) I can say this. Having been recently dazzled by Dan's power, I am still amazed by how powerful and seemingly effortless Takeda sensei's ikkyo was. I think I have a much better chance of duplicating that kind of power now that I am training internal skills with Dan.

It was interesting to read Ellis's comments about Yamaguchi sensei's classes. Was that the case in Honbu only or in his private dojo as well? I heard similar things about Osawa sensei (senior) in Honbu dojo - that people would resist as ukes and be dismissed to the corner to practice rolling forward. Regardless, at least in Honbu, if that was their preferred training method, then so be it. Starting to sound to me like the #1 and #2 guy at Honbu at the time agreed to a common rule about dealing with resistance. Or was that just part of keeping the WA.

Rob
(I considered signing my post "Ellis". But seriously, can we maybe refer to Rob John as "RJ" or "Rob J" and I can be "RL" or "Rob L"...)

03-03-2008, 12:17 AM	#18
rob_liberti Dojo: Shobu Aikido of Connecticut Location: East Haven, CT Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 1,402 Offline	Re: New interview with Christian Tissier Shihan (in English!) Well it appears I must now go to Japan and kill Rob John so I can be the only Rob. (There were seriously 14 kids named "Rob" on my highschool football team. So I'm just kind of used to it. If it will clear things up feel free to refer to me as "Ellis" from now on.) I've personally been slammed to the ground by both Takeda sensei and Dan Harden so I'm in a unique position to compare. Both have strange power that is a bit different from each other. Takeda sensei is a bit flat footed and he can do that disappear when I attack him thing that just confuses me. I'll tell you this - Dan's teaching is a LOT clearer! I believe Takeda sensei's approach is to exhaust you until you have no movement muscles left with which to cheat and get you training OTHER things. I personally prefer Dan's more direct approach. I believe I may end up teaching aikido as a combination of both approaches - just because training that exhaustive way is very fun and gets a lot of stress out. I think aikido demos are about showing people what they are doing with the energy given. You are trying to cleary show yang/yin - or something like 'take it in, turn it around, send it back, with nothing added or lost' - type of thing. Was aikido ever about dealing with someone who could attack like Dan? I don't know. We don't design all hand guns to be able to go through all types of body armour for instance... My understanding is that Takeda sensei had some sort of spiritual awakening so I'm not sure how interested he would be in taking his aikido in the direction of dealing with internal skills powering MMA type attacks. His approach on aikido transforms some people for the better and there is something very worth while in that. Maybe it should be a requirement before we power up a bunch of people with internal skills and risk developing some dangerous people with more power than compassion. (I don't know. I'm nearly delerious as I am writing.) I can say this. Having been recently dazzled by Dan's power, I am still amazed by how powerful and seemingly effortless Takeda sensei's ikkyo was. I think I have a much better chance of duplicating that kind of power now that I am training internal skills with Dan. It was interesting to read Ellis's comments about Yamaguchi sensei's classes. Was that the case in Honbu only or in his private dojo as well? I heard similar things about Osawa sensei (senior) in Honbu dojo - that people would resist as ukes and be dismissed to the corner to practice rolling forward. Regardless, at least in Honbu, if that was their preferred training method, then so be it. Starting to sound to me like the #1 and #2 guy at Honbu at the time agreed to a common rule about dealing with resistance. Or was that just part of keeping the WA. Rob (I considered signing my post "Ellis". But seriously, can we maybe refer to Rob John as "RJ" or "Rob J" and I can be "RL" or "Rob L"...)