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Old 07-29-2009, 10:20 AM   #374
mathewjgano
 
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Dojo: Tsubaki Kannagara Jinja Aikidojo; Himeji Shodokan Dojo
Location: Renton
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Is It Missing In Everybody's Aikido?

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
Well, I actually have two very good questions for you to ask people.

1. Before you experienced hands-on aiki, what level did you think you were operating at?

2. After you experienced hands-on aiki, what level did you think you were operating at?

And I'd bet that every single Aikido person who met Dan would say their answer to #1 was in the positive somewhere between 1 and 10. And I'd also bet that every single Aikido person who met Dan would say their answer to #2 is 0.
You may be right for all I know. I get the impression that Dan is very very good and that can make very slight ability seem like nothing at all...and again, for all I know, it would be literally 0, but that is absolutely nothing, not .00000000001, which may simply seems like nothing by comparison (but might seem like something next to .00000000000000001).

Quote:
If you read through the posts here at Aikiweb, Rob John, Mike Sigman, and Dan Harden have all posted descriptions, exercises, tell-tale signs, etc. Yet, that hasn't helped anyone actually *do* aiki.
I agree. Ideas will never ingrain physical ability, they can only guide our approach to it.

Quote:
People think that the correlation between mechanical or physics aspects translate over into internal aspects, but they don't.
I'm just saying any physical phenomena can be described and that "mechanical" terms (I hope that's an appropriate word now that I've used it) are one approach at this.

Quote:
For example, the most advanced robotics design currently being used in Japan is not based upon human movement at all, but upon sensors and what-if scenarios. The physics behind even the most basic movements that humans do can't be detailed at our current understanding.
There are a lot of variables if someone wanted to try to form a complete formula, but that doesn't mean we can't describe aspects accurately. Draw out a complete formula for how a car works and that will take some time too. It will include a lot of information that is useless to someone wanting to build a car, but some of it might prove useful...such as figuring how volume applies to compression in the engine...assuming that person also understood the language.

Quote:
You can talk about shear, friction, load, the air speed of an unladen swallow, but IMO, all that will do is set you back in learning aiki.
Well that all depends...is it an African swallow or an English one? Answer wisely! Seriously though, you may be right, but I suspect it depends on the individual. I'm not saying some possible mathematic formula will cause anyone any direct ability in performing aiki. I'm just saying that I can see how trying to articulate what might be happening in the body could be useful for some people in their approach. In terms of time spent I would be inclined to think any time not spent actually practicing aiki can be described as holding a person back.

Quote:
Anyone here with a Ph.D. in Physics want to post the equations for when a human goes from a walk cycle to a run cycle? Ain't gonna happen because no one out there can do that yet. Why do you think the major animation studios use motion capture instead of software based programming? The former is more realistic and the latter takes huge amounts of time to make realistic, bypassing physics altogether.
Well and a lot of the motion capture wasn't very realistic. I've played many games and the best Virtua Fighter still doesn't look like human movement, strictly speaking. The point is, if we can describe aspects of aiki (not the whole) using relatively vague concepts like ki and floating, we should be able to describe it using other imperfect terms too.

Last edited by mathewjgano : 07-29-2009 at 10:22 AM.

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