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Old 01-26-2007, 08:04 PM   #260
Erick Mead
 
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Dojo: Big Green Drum (W. Florida Aikikai)
Location: West Florida
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,619
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Re: Baseline skillset

Quote:
Ignatius Teo wrote:
Can I suggest the entire rationale for this thread is because there is too much focus on the FORM and next to none on the SUBSTANCE.
Semantics, and a useful but ultimately false dichotomy, as I have discussed. Form and substance play equal parts in the strength of structure, but form predominates when it comes to stability, both static and dynamic. Aikido is not about breaking substance, but disrupting form.
Quote:
Ignatius Teo wrote:
Wasn't it Terry Dobson who wrote: "The form of aikido is the enemy of aikido"?
Well, he was right, if you obsess only on the waza just as received (assuming one has at least learned it as received). If the form of interaction is established, and the sense of connection is sound, then spontaneous movement becomes possible. As Saotome said, any ikkyo is correct as long as it it is a spontaneous response to the moment of contact.

What do YOU mean by the "substance" so as to separate it from the form. I have made a case that it is not really separate, except in our various limited perspectives. The form is the means to extend the same substance to the actions of my partner as well as my own, to join them and bring his actions within my sphere of control.

I can do tekubi furi all day long and I am feeling the "substance" of kokyu, but it is not connected to anything but me. It is like an engine without an transmission, it needs appropriate linkage to engage that power. Form of movement gives that connection to my opponent -- the same essential form as the "substance" but never a fixed movement.

Cordially,

Erick Mead
一隻狗可久里馬房但他也不是馬的.
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