Quote:
Jo Adell wrote:
How is this aikido, though? it looks and feels much more like tai chi. And while I am the first to admit that tai chi principles do help my aikido, its more the principle of rather than being a brick wall...
I prefer to have these principles taught to me by someone who actually Does practice Aikido; I am fortunate that my sensei Does concentrate on energetic principles of Both arts, and got his training pretty much At The Source, or as close as possible.
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Hello Jo,
Well, it's a good question that I think we can look to Ueshiba for the answer. Why did Ueshiba tell Tenryu to go ahead and try to push him? Or, is that not aikido?
Or when Ueshiba does the jo trick? Um, again, is that not aikido? Or other instances when Ueshiba has people pushing on him from different directions? It's all there, hidden in plain sight. Do any of those examples sound like tai chi?
Preferences are fine. If you're happy with your practice, that's great. But, don't discount things just because they seemingly aren't coming from some aikido person. If we did that, then Ikeda sensei would never have brought in Ushiro sensei.
Not only that, but we'd all have to discount Ellis Amdur's fine posts over on Aikido Journal because, really, he's not an aikido person, so why should we learn from him?
So you see, there are precedents all over the place for what's being shown. People just don't like being told that their aikido may be lacking or inferior, especially by people who are viewed as outside the aikido world.
Personally, I like Ikeda sensei's example. You're never too high ranking to learn from someone outside your realm and sometimes you have to put on a white belt. It's a fine example I think many have missed. Shame, really.
Mark