From Aikido Journal Issue 107
An Interview with Tohei
Quote:
Tohei wrote:
Also, having been away from Judo for nearly two years, by the time I got second dan, everybody else was already fourth or fifth dan. Even many of the third dans had progressed so far ahead of me that they could throw me all over the place. That wasn't very interesting and it wasn't much fun, either.
Hoping to strengthen myself, I went home and started kicking pillars around the house. After doing that a couple of thousand times a day, though, the walls started to come down. My elder sister wasn't very pleased about that and made me go outside in the garden instead. After a few weeks I got so I could move my feet with the same agility and dexterity as my hands. I went back to the dojo and was able to throw everybody.
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This was all before he met Ueshiba. So, he talks about one kind of strength and his conditioning of it. Of course, it didn't get him anywhere with Ueshiba. Read the article to find out how amazed he was on his first meeting.