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Old 12-08-2002, 03:45 PM   #3
opherdonchin
Dojo: Baltimore Aikido
Location: Baltimore
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 586
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I think the chess analogy is very interesting. I had a friend in Israel who taught AiKiDo and Chess to some children with social and learning difficulties. He talked a lot about the similarities between the two, but I've honestly had a hard time seeing it.

Chess, in my mind, is much more like sparring or wrestling with your friends. It's a situation in which the goal on both sides is to have a competition and arrive at a winner. Sometimes this is because one or both of them want to be a winner, but lets hope that it's usually because the process is fun and interesting. In any case, both sides willingly enter into a controlled situation of conflict.

AiKiDo (at least the way I understand it) is more about how to defuse and de-escalate situations of conflict. It's just a different beast.

Which isn't to say that there isn't a lot of value and a lot to be learned by playing with the ideas you talked about, I just find it hard to think of that as AiKiDo.

Yours in Aiki
Opher
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