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Old 11-19-2007, 09:16 AM   #55
G DiPierro
Location: Ohio
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 365
United_States
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Re: significance to testing/belt rank?

Quote:
Amir Krause wrote: View Post
Mr. G DiPierro
What is your beef with Aikikai? You seem to try and blacken them at every opportunity, and I start wondering why?
I would like to mention I am not of Aikikai affiliation, or even Ushiba Aikido affiliation. If I have this feeling, what do members of that organization feel?
You're a little late to this here party. Most everyone else packed up and went home a couple of months ago. But if you really want to know, I talk about the Aikikai the most because that is the organization I have the most experience with, having been a member of several dojos affiliated with that organization and also having attended many other classes and seminars with top-ranking teachers in that group. I have my criticisms of other organizations as well but I don't mention those as much because I don't have as much experience with them.

The Aikikai, specifically through a couple of US-affiliated groups, was a significant part of my life for a number of years. I left, gradually in small steps over time, mainly because they would not allow me to continue down the path I was going while continuing my relationship with them. It was their choice, and while I don't have any problems with that choice (honestly it probably has worked out better for me this way, though I'll never know for sure what might have happened had things been different), I found a lot of the behavior I encountered over the years in that group to be very hypocritical, with many people both in and out of positions of authority trying to claim the moral high-ground all the while taking actions for no other reasons than aggrandizing their own egos and advancing their petty political agendas. That's the part that I found sickening. If they had been more upfront with me I'm sure that I would have a lot more respect for them now.