Re: Vetting Our Skills
Tom, I think your description of the cooperative training model is spot on and I'm a strong advocate. I think its head and shoulders better than constant competition. What I'm suggesting is that cooperation by itself is incomplete and I offer my own cross training experience as an example.
I believe the classic way we train technique in aikido has a major drawback. Waza becomes a dance where everyone knows the step. Partners become used to the way each other moves and routines set in. The unpredictability of actual conflict (the thing we are ostensibly training for) gets lost and the value of the training diminishes.
I also found that the deficits pointed out by my judo friends were easily fixed once I knew I had them. I would not have known had I never stepped outside of my training methodology. I'm not suggesting anyone ditch the reciprocal approach. Rather I'm suggesting that cooperative training ONLY is shortsighted.
I'm interested to hear if other aikidoka test their skills with methods where failure a built in option.
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