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Old 03-12-2007, 08:32 AM   #63
Pete Rihaczek
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 61
United_States
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Re: Aikido as External Art -or- Where's the Chewy Center?

Quote:
Cady Goldfield wrote: View Post
I am wondering why this discussion about -aikido- got banished to the new "Non-Aikido" forum. I can understand why the Baseline Skillset thread Iwas plopped here, because it has so much reference to Chinese arts, but it's puzzling how a topic that explores the history and mysteries of the internal part of aikido would be considered "non-aikido."
Hi Cady, you took the words right out of my mouth. I certainly think it's fair to put a discussion of internal aspects in a separate subsection of the forum (like Internal Aspects), but to brand it non-Aikido assumes a rather prejudiced conclusion. All that "keep one point", "keep weight underside", all the talk about throwing people with ki, how people with proper ki understanding can't be moved, how they can take their opponent's balance without visible movement by movement "inside" their body, none of it has any physical meaning. I guess anyone with ki skills is automatically not doing Aikido, which is so laughable it's hard to motivate to even discuss seriously. But it's no doubt a popular view among the 99.999% of Aikidoka without any semblence of the ki skills Ueshiba possessed, even though it's the stories of those abilities that likely drew them all to Aikido to begin with. Don't worry, if you haven't suddenly developed those abilities, just dance around for another 20 years and maybe it will happen one day. Don't think it's something you'd have to deliberately focus on. Never mind that there's nothing "natural" about the optimal swimming stroke, the optimal bicycling pedal stroke, the optimal golf swing, etc, and they all have to be learned slowly and deliberately until an unnatural use of the body becomes second nature. Just keep muddling along without focus and some day you'll wake up with Tiger Woods' skills. Whatever you do, do *not* attempt to break down the mechanics of what the top people could or can do, such that you can understand and drill those skills to be called upon at will. Do *not* work your body deliberately to create physical qualities that support reaching those goals. Nothing to see here, just move along.
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