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Old 07-06-2012, 03:57 AM   #11
Mario Tobias
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 261
Philippines
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Re: A word on Time Trained and Ranking

How fast one gets to a proficient level at aikido has probably very low correlation with how hard or how long one has been training.

IMHO, attaining higher rank should be based on a person's increasing ability to understand, recognize and demonstrate the principles and concept of Aiki. The difficult thing is nobody really can describe to you what aiki really is. Training long and hard can only increase the chances of a person understanding aiki but doesn't guarantee it.

Some people are gifted that they recognize it in a few years, some people may be training for several decades and still not understand what it is. Only a highly trained person can recognize and say yes that's aiki or no that's pure muscle.

Another thing is that aiki is not only specific to aikido but in other martial arts as well imo. Other martial artists maybe strongly demonstrating some aiki principles in their art but don't know it. Even these people are deserving to be awarded dan ranking in aikido even though they're not practicing the art.

These are probably some of the reasons why belt doesn't matter because only you can recognize if you are being true to yourself that what you are actually doing is true aikido. Or even starting to recognize/understand aiki is totally beyond measure that it can't be justified by a mere belt color. All of us are white belts in aiki imho.

Last edited by Mario Tobias : 07-06-2012 at 04:09 AM.
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