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Old 01-15-2012, 07:57 AM   #8
gregstec
Dojo: Aiki Kurabu
Location: Elizabethtown, PA
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,110
United_States
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Re: What Distinguishes Aikido from Daito Ryu?

IMO, I see Aikido as just another offshoot of DR - the various organizations under the Aikido and DR umbrellas all have the same roots; they just have been taken in different directions with different aspects being focused on.

If given the freedom to do so, everyone that teaches will always impart and focus on their own particular view of everything, and this is true regardless of the size of a group. In the DR camp you have groups that focus on the hard to soft, like Kondo's mainline group's hard style to Okamoto's soft style - same thing with the Aikido organizations, you got Shioda's stuff at one extreme and Tohie's ki stuff at the other.

I have trained with various Aikido groups over the years (Ki Society, Iwama, AAA, ASU, etc) and I currently lead a small DR study group under the guidance of Howard Popkin where the DR stuff we focus on is the high level aiki stuff that evens makes some of Tohei's stuff appear hard (caveat: I am by no means an expert in any of this, but I have experienced the differences)

Bottom line is that I do not think you can categorically state that Aikido is more benevolent than DR - It all depends on one's application of the concepts and principles of the art. And as Chris stated, projections can very easily be changed to a drop with a very minor adjustment, and could also be more devastating; as in projecting someone off a roof or into the path of a bus - your choice based on the reality of the situation.

Greg
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