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Old 03-30-2007, 07:47 AM   #8
Robert Rumpf
Dojo: Academy of Zen and the Ways
Location: Kailua, HI
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 164
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Re: Feldenkrais, Nature and Martial Response

Quote:
Mike Sigman wrote: View Post
Personally, I think a lot of the Japanese use a very vague paradigm/explanation of how the Ki things work and that means that very few Japanese even get it very well.... westerners even less so. In fact, I'm beginning to think that this "vagueness" bottleneck is the main reason why so few Japanese arts have many representative members with Ki skills (and the reason why the westerners or so often totally missing the boat, regardless of the years spent in Japan).
I think this is precisely the nature of the difficulties. Understanding and transmission seems to be based on an intuitive grasp more than anything else, but as I have learned in my technical background, intuition has limitations, not the least of which is limited transmittability without a high level of common context, personal interaction, and mutual understanding. Without that, it seems to develop into mimicry.

--- Tangent ---

That was one of the things that I got out of your (and Rob John's) trip to the dojo. There was a real effort to offer concrete and concise explanation of certain ideas, and the new phrases that you guys mentioned (and certain exercises you did) have stuck with me, and given me some different ideas to think about and use in my practice in the future. Sometimes the message was similar to things I have heard, but the words were new, and that really helped.

In addition, now that I have some idea of how what you say aligns with what you do, and can come to some guess at what some of it means, I can go back and look through some of the Aikiweb posts and reevaluate them.

Some of what was done resonated with things I have seen demonstrated in passing before, but these past experiences were buried in the complacency that one gets into when on familiar ground, or lodged within a wholly different paradigm (Ki Society).

In an eight hour seminar spread over four days with complete strangers (typically of different styles) as partners, people are often grasping at straws with the most basic techniques, and so when something that is advanced comes out, like ki-related techniques, it is often relegated to the "wow, I can never do that!" bin, or conveniently ignored, instead of being a training goal.

That is one of the reasons why I respect Erick Meade - he is making an effort to characterize his ideas in a way that is abstract and robust, if abstruse. The fact that it is incomprehensible to me is at least as much my fault as it is his (like almost all of the training difficulties I face).

--- Tangent over ---

It sounds like the Feldenkrais stuff could bring new insights if you found the right instructor and spent enough time with them to learn their language. But then again, what wouldn't?

I'd be very interested in anyone providing names and anecdotal information about notable Feldenkrais instructors that have helped their Aikido.

With respect to the child learning idea, here is an article that contains related reviews and points from the linguistic perspective: http://www.slate.com/id/2148342/

Rob
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