View Single Post
Old 03-15-2011, 01:02 PM   #8
Janet Rosen
 
Janet Rosen's Avatar
Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
Offline
Re: Reflecting on a seminar, Ikeda Shihan at Aikido of Tamalpais

Quote:
Jonathan Wong wrote: View Post
Could you elaborate on the uncooperativeness? Were there any non-aikidoka being used as ukes?.....
I was wondering if folks would need time with an "internalist" like Mike or Dan, or with someone experienced in Ikeda's practices like George Ledyard, to really follow these seminars.
Thanks!
Good questions. Re the first: I don't know the name or affiliation of the uke in particular I was thinking of. He was a youngish very athletic and strong yudansha and I was watching him literally struggling to maintain balance and, once on the ground, clearly mustering his strength and flexibility to both muscle out of the control and to turn or roll out of the control as well as to be positioned to strike or kick. It was clearly not acting and his effort and his frustration were real.

Re the second: it is always hard to reply accurately as for each of us, depending on where we are at, will have a different level of "getting it." What I can say is, with my background in ki exercises and Tohei's four principles, had I NOT been doing the solo work so far and simply walked into this seminar not knowing what to expect, it probably would have been a huge AHA! moment, putting together those missing pieces. So in a sense, yes, I was "primed" but no - as
Cherie posted from perspective of a relative beginner - I think for the person with an aikido background, if they take what Ikeda Sensei is saying and doing seriously AND they have a dojo in which to continue practicing this way - including his specific instruction to do solo practice on moving the center during the day ("but not when driving! different focus of concentration, you'll have an accident!), rolling the ball up and down, back and forth, side to side, then moving to combining directions - they will follow the seminar just fine and take away valuable things to work on.

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
  Reply With Quote