Quote:
George S. Ledyard wrote:
This has led to an immense gap in sophistication between different places one might train. Many people are putting in many hours of hard training, expending much time and effort, but the place where they are training will simply not produce anyone who gets to the top level of skill because of the way they train or the lack of sophistication of the person teaching. This no slight on the person teaching... if one is a sandan or yondan one can do an admirable job teaching folks the basics but how could one possibly take ones students up to a level which one hasn't yet reached oneself? This is just common sense.
The issue becomes lack of awareness of what the highest levels of Aikido even represent.with that.
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My apologies to George Ledyard. He had already answered my questions in that previous post
. In fact, it was probably his answer that popped the question into my mind (I often come up with my best questions that way
).
As someone who, for so many reasons, will never be a shihan, I guess that I'm kind of fascinated with the idea of someone, today, devoting himself or herself to becoming one. I wonder if O Sensei's uchideshi dreamed of becoming the next O Sensei. When O Sensei sent a student abroad to teach, did other students think, "I hope that he picks me next?" And when they did leave the nest, did their separation from O Sensei hold them back, or was the separation overcome by the opportunity to develop their own aikido?
Dan