Quote:
Mateusz Matusiak wrote:
Thank you very much for the replies gentleman. I was quite busy hence the late reply.
Unfortunate I don't know anyone that has these skills locally in order to practice it as often as 3 times a day. I also do realise that its not something you learn over night, and that it requires lots of retaining of your body as well as gaining new skills. I know how the IP feels like on the receiving end, so maybe I could look for some arts like qi gong or other that do focus on the internal element. Any ideas about this ? Maybe other suggestions ?
|
I think what Robert meant was practise 3 times day by yourself, without a teacher.
My journey started last year with a similar question:
http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19235).
I know little about gi gong, but in my understanding qi gong is related to internal training.
You may find someone locally offering qi gong lessons, but if you're looking for more than qi gong for relaxation and health, I think it's unlikely that you'll find it locally. There just don't seem to be that many good teachers for internal power available in the west. As an illustration, this weekend Dan Harden was here in the Netherlands, and about half of the students were foreigners coming to the Netherlands for the weekend just to train with him. And when he returns here in a couple of months, they'll be here again. Some have been chasing this stuff for years before they found a good teacher.
So I think you should watch out for a seminar near you. There are a couple of independent teachers who travel around the US and Europe giving seminars for small groups. Some teachers and seminars come up regularly in the Non-Aikido Martial Traditions forums. Their teachings have many similarities but there are differences (or so I'm told), so you may want to investigate a bit before you decide which seminar to go to.
In a seminar you can get your hands on the teacher, you'll see and feel him do stuff that may impress you, you'll learn exercises that will condition your body over time and you'll get to practise them with the other students so you'll be able to keep on practising on your own after the seminar.
If you keep on practising after the seminar, you'll feel some things subtly change in your body. Then after a couple of months of training, you could go to another seminar to get feedback and learn more.
That's more or less my story up to now.