Thread: The Way of Aiki
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:17 PM   #67
Cliff Judge
Location: Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,276
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Re: The Way of Aiki

Quote:
Jon Reading wrote: View Post
My point about modern aikido is directed at the concept of generalized education. The curriculum should be directed at educating the largest number of practitioners to a level where they can see/touch/do aiki in their career. I think there is criticism modern aikido can no longer satisfy that goal. If this is the case, aikido will need to change its curriculum to target a smaller, more capable, demographic of practitioners or introduce elements that are better at producing aiki. Or both. I think regardless of what you think is aiki, we need to assess whether aikido curriculum is accomplishing its goal of education.
Here's what I think is a problem with a general re-engineering of Aikido to have more This Stuff in it. How are you going to get people to sign the registration forms and put their checks in the box every month? We can't even define what we are talking about here; it is complicated and difficult to train it, it is just as hard to describe what it is. People are still talking around the actual training methodologies on this forum. If you want to change Aikido to have This Stuff there needs to be writing about it, pictures, videos, all of that.

Aikido doesn't need all that hassle - people hear about how it has a great philosophy, it has a meditative aspect to it, it is about resolving conflict constructively, and that's what attracts people. People come and watch class and they see people performing these circular movements, being centered, leading and connecting, and they go, that's great!
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