Thread: The Leather Man
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Old 07-26-2007, 07:29 PM   #6
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
United_States
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Re: The Leather Man

Quote:
Dan Harden wrote: View Post
David
That was kind a' wierd man.
You don't know how I train.
I show people things at their level- not my own. I discuss my own training with only a few of my own people.
[snip]I'm glad you read about fascia and fascial sheeting. But in all honesty..Knowing about it won't get you anywhere. With the right kind of instruction I'll see ya in 5 years, maybe, juuuust maybe you'll have a little something. Without it, you'll be right back here ..talking...about fascia.
Personally, other then laying out a roadmap, I don't talk about it much at the beginning.
You know, this is the kind of horn-blowing crap that I find objectionable, Dan. You have never been able (and I say that with justification) to answer straightforward questions about skills, you've never given any direct and functional explanations of how to do things, your posts tend to be more self-brag about where you are and what you can do, and so forth. People I know who know you describe the fact that you have some jin skills but it's pretty muscular. Insofar as you knowing stuff that's 10-years down the road from someone about fascia and qi training, that's something you might need think about before you post it publicly... it's harder than you think and you can't just BS your way into expertise.

Again, bear in mind that I couldn't care less about your own claims about yourself, as long as you don't have a long-term negative effect on someone else. As someone noted on Aikido Journal, your posts look like advertisements for Dan Harden. What I object to... or perhaps it's more like "I feel it necessary to point out that you've never indicated anything in your posts that warrants the claims of multi-year expertise" (in fact, I hear that most of your stuff and revelations are pretty recent).... is that same caution I'd point out to any really searching people when someone talks more about themselves than the subject at hand. Give us some real facts and it'll change that part of the discussion.

The main point I object to is this idea that you're the solution to peoples' problems in an oblique put-down manner. David, regardless of my personal take on him, is still someone who is just as capable of learning things as you are. Talking to him like you're on some lordly level of accomplishment is simply over the top. You're a beginner. You're figuring some of this stuff out for yourself and you really didn't get that much from DR. Good for you. But keep the ego in check and see if perhaps you can make a valid discussion around what you substantively can express about the subject and how to do it.... not around what great skills you have in relation to people who are honestly just trying to get information.

If you have something substantive that you can say, either to assist people or to counter my inference that you don't really know much, why don't you do so? In principle, David is going in the right direction. Whether it's important that you need to insert your own great heights of accomplishment into the discussion is questionable. Tell us what David should really know, etc., what he should look for, information sources, how to start, etc. I.e., try to address the issue dispassionately and without so much noise about how full your cup is.

Regards,

Mike Sigman
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