Well, I can only talk about myself. I've learned a ton in the last few years from various sources and I'm just trying to figure out how to proper incorporate it into what I do. Yeah, snippets have begun to show up a bit in what I do when I teach my own classes, but otherwise, I'm just working on myself right now. As always there is the statement that Kobayashi-sensei was well known to utter on occasion -- do what I tell you to do and *not* what *you* *think* you see me doing. I hear it all the time from our Chief Instructor who studied directly with Kobayashi-sensei for decades now. And in the last few years that has taken on new meaning for me.
Most are content with the appearance. Or are content with what they think is happening because that is comfortable, familiar, and self-reinforcing. Lately I've been rebuilding a lot of what I thought I knew. Every time in my progress when I start to feel comfortable that usually means I'm missing something important. So it becomes important to go out, play, mix it up, and learn somethin' new. Let the karma run over my dogma kinda deal..
Time with Mike helped me along that way recently although it turns out I was in the midst of a major physical problem that I didn't realize was severely impairing my ability to practice. Same is true of times I've seen Toby. Heck, the Aikiweb seminar with Toby, Aaron Clark and George Ledyard expanded my vision and blew up my self-image enough as it was... And now that I'm starting to feel relatively human again it's time to push things even more.
I guess my point is... Get out there, open your mind, and experiment/experience this stuff from a variety of sources. Eventually someone does something that makes you go "oh...". Or maybe not -- maybe you've had it all along.
Anyway, just trying to muddle along avoiding the convenient
complete rejection on one side and the blind hero worship on the other.