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Old 07-19-2008, 04:42 PM   #168
Lyle Bogin
Dojo: Shin Budo Kai
Location: Manhattan
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 588
United_States
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Re: Seiseki Abe Sensei video....whats going on here?

The problem I think a lot of us have is that we think any martial arts training is real. It's all fake, or we'd all be dead and crippled.

I recall a time I was personally offended by aikido and it's BS laffy taffy wrist throws. Years ago ('95?) I went to the aikikai to try aikido (at the time I was studying kung fu) and they asked me to stand in line, grab some dude's wrist, and fall when he pointed to the floor. I wonder what the look on my face was like. I was used to full contact sparring. Convinced everyone around me was a punk and or a fool, I retreated to bloody noses and swollen ankles.

After a few years of getting kicked in the knees and doing a gazillion squats and horse stances, I developed a chronic injury that stopped me from kicking (mostly). Sick of the chinese martial arts world and bored to tears by boxing I went back to aikido out of desperation.

It was rough going, accepting the format and training methods and the fact that it's a fixed game. But now I see the beauty and the brilliance of it. How refined and thoughtful it is, enabling people of all practice styles and abilities to co-habitate. I can use to to teach kids, to break up fights, and to explain everything that makes martial techniques effective without coming off as overly aggressive.

Aikido is one of the best tools around for teaching and studying the underlying principals of the arts, because it's so darn fake on the mat and so freakin' real in the world we live in.
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