Thread: My Rope Theory
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Old 01-19-2011, 12:15 PM   #1
graham christian
Dojo: golden center aikido-highgate
Location: london
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,697
England
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My Rope Theory

HI. Thought I might share with you a viewpoint of mine and equate it with Aikido as a whole. The reason I havn't posted it on an ongoing thread is that I believe it deserves it's own, we shall see.

I call it The Rope Theory and in it's simplicity it is this:

Imagine the whole of Aikido, all organizations, all styles, all individuals are all part of one rope called Aikido.

Now every individual is a strand of that rope.

That's the basic theory and it leads to fascinating questions.

As I see it you can then look at Aikido as a whole and see what makes it stronger and what makes it potentially a weak rope.
If the strands argue and fight each other for example then it is not good for the rope.

If a strand thinks it is the rope then it is deluded.

If a strand turns against other strands then it is banning itself from the rope.

So what makes the rope stronger?

My opinion is when a strand realizes it is a strand and all others are strands in their own right and then through sharing the rope itself gains strength and quality.

To me it's one of those analogies that the more you look at the more you see. For example you could look at all people in the world being strands of the same rope etc. etc.

Thus when one strand goes against others it is obvious from this analogy that it is defeating it'self. For example if a person decides they are against people with green eyes then that person has opposed millions, one verses millions. The thread thus destroys it'self and the rope becomes that much weaker.

I thoght in an Aikido context and indeed this Aikiweb Rope this analogy may help and even lead to some fun responses. Anyway got to go training in half an hour.

Regards. G.
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