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Old 08-11-2007, 06:39 PM   #17
Ellis Amdur
 
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Location: Seattle
Join Date: May 2003
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The best don't need cheap-shots, do they?

Here's a video of Robert Mustard. Notice the crisp precision, without the nastiness at the end. Robert has scary skills, but to the best of my knowledge, has not once had an injury among his students since the opening of his dojo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmndD...elated&search=

Takeno Takefumi - R. Mustard taking some of the ukemi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Y3W...elated&search=

FWIW, I consider Takeno the best aikidoka in the world today. He's got a ferocious irimi, brilliant tai-sabki and a tenkan which coupled with a grip, absolutely controls his uke. Like Shioda, he's mastered this kind of whole-body "crack-the-whip" way of exerting power.
Depending on the uke's level of skill, he either:
1. Smacks him down flat, hard and safe, within, but right at the edge of the uke's ability.
2. Moves so fast, with such power, that the uke is helpless. And unlike Shioda or his imitators, with their puckish pleasure in inflicting concussions), Takeno snaps the uke upwards or simply opens out so that, in the former, the uke is brought back from danger and the latter, he/she flies freely into a fall.
Mustard, his personal "project treats his uke's the same way.

Were I young, and passionate about aikido, Takeno, in Japan, would be the person I'd seek out before anyone else. He also is committed to teaching young people, and from all accounts, carries himself with rigorous moral rectitude. R. Mustard is also proof that he can actually teach what he knows.

Best

Last edited by Ellis Amdur : 08-11-2007 at 06:54 PM.

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