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Old 09-22-2009, 10:51 AM   #48
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: "Hidden in Plain Sight" - Takeda Sokaku

Quote:
Dan Harden wrote: View Post
The only real problem-if we are discussing DR- is that the stickiness or ability to draw someones power in is a skill that is essential for the connectedness in the waza-particularly the more complex ones. And it is almost never going to be developed by doing the waza.
Hey, Dan, just riffing on this part of your post... Not DR as it ain't my area at all.

The late R. Kobayashi-sensei used to tell our group that advanced techniques were nothing more than simplified basics. That expression used to have me scratching my head, but over the years I began to realize the meaning of it. We build up the more complicated waza but as they start to fall apart we have to go back to very basic things. Testing balance, structure, movement, power, intent. And usually the problem with executing the more advanced waza could be traced back into simply not doing some basic thing well. Poor posture, no support, no grounding, trying to muscle instead of using that "something else", etc. So we'd end up back at things like tests, the aiki taiso, etc. looking at what needed to be fixed. Then build back up.

So no argument with me about the necessity of developing the body/skills/feel. But the larger picture is still that eventually you want to utilize those skills under increasingly difficult scenarios. Which I think was the point I was trying to make. Kinda like "Okay, you can do a basic ikkyo. Now try doing it this way..." as a means of increasing the student's ability to instantiate those skills in increasingly challenging situations.

There is no question you have to have the basic skills first.

Last edited by Keith Larman : 09-22-2009 at 10:52 AM. Reason: spelling, grammar, incoherence, you name it...

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