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Old 02-18-2008, 05:25 PM   #38
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
United_States
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Re: Daito Ryu's Aiki

Quote:
Cady Goldfield wrote: View Post
The problem is, Mike, that the fight here never actually breaks out. People just whine and borch and get in a snit, then go home and pout.
Some of that is inevitably going to happen, Cady. On all sides. Depends on whose Al gets Gored.
Quote:
I'd rather see a knock-down-drag-out where some of these jamokes get on the mats together, aiki the living snot out of each other, then go for beers. Resolution and peace at last, and maybe a rip-snortin' hangover for all.
I wouldn't like to see that. I really think that what needs to be done needs to be done at the level of exertion of Tohei's ki-tests and then gradually expanded to logical extensions of the particular skills. As I've pointed out a number of times, it's possible to have *some* jin skills while being too muscular and ultimately that's also a dead-end.

I remember a guy who did judo and bragged about how good his muscular "push hands" was. He even got a lot of teaching gigs, based on his judo/wrestling approach to "Tai Chi". He wanted to meet up with me, but not enough to come visit, so he insisted that I come to New York City and try it out. Well, I wasn't going to fly to New York from Colorado, but I suggested that he meet up with my pal John Carlo, the ex-UFC guy. Of course, we all knew that John Carlo (who could bench about 450 pounds, IIRC) would slap him around.... in other words, John Carlo would "win" any engagement between the two, so my challenger backed away quickly. But think about it. Suppose John Carlo had met up with my challenger and whupped him good.... would that mean that John Carlo in fact had really great Tai Chi and "internal skills", just like the other guy was claiming? Of course not.

Getting together on the mat and seeing who can kick whose butt is probably not a great suggestion. People should get together, but it needs to be kept fairly clinical or the outcome of the discussion will never be accepted by everyone.

My opinion, FWIW.

Mike
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