Quote:
Jean de Rochefort wrote:
I found a wealth of knowledge practing warm-ups by myself without any help from anyone else. Basic techniques also helped me a great deal.
I didn't have all this drama surrounding figuring out how to do this stuff. I just did it. I experimented in the dojo and out. If I lined up with someone who would not let me play around, I avoided lining up with them next time.
My experience was that solo-training in this respect was a major, major component of figuring it all out. In all, there were only three or four corrections/demonstrations that helped me outside of solo-training...(and then there was the 100's of corrections I seemed to receive that were hindrances...)
As far as hunting down "secrets" from others, I don't think most people pass them out that easy. Think of it like this. Are you quicker to pass a $1 or $100 bill to someone you hardly know? Look out for hucksters desperate for ego gratification.
If you follow arrogance, you'll become arrogant. Hard work tempers humility which is very hard to attain/maintain in any form. For me, the system of kata both showed me the techniques while keeping me somewhat grounded.
Be cautious of shortcuts.
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A couple other “words of caution” might be to recognize pitfalls working on your own. There are times when you could spend years going down a wrong road pursuing things internally that are dead ends. I know I did and I know several others who have as well. It can be on the one hand; a slippery slope, on the other, a slow boat to China with a compass off by one degree.
Cautions about secrets from others is good advice as well. Particularly when it involves money or some sort of advertising or aggrandizing of the central teacher. The few guys meeting here and there from aikiweb and ebudo have been doing so with no money and with little fan fair. But then you have the added fear of wasting time by following someone who doesn't know what they are doing either. I dunno I think I've seen more ego and wierdness from teachers who really don't have much skill. Most folks with real skills are rather chilled. Teachers I've met who really don't know the things we have been discussing here are honest about it and ask to learn. Again there is no ego or embarrasment.
So one may consider –in the balance- the arrogance or ignorance of teachers who have essentially not done a good job of teaching anyone the “real” secrets of aikido. and yet they still teach. And ask just why that is?
Kata can keep you grounded? Hmmm.. Actually I think it’s more wrought with a danger of hubris then grappling, Grapplers can have a healthy confident air about them. But its typically an earned confidence.
And last as far as arrogance goes.
Were one to be considering arrogance- one might ask themselves how arrogant it is to think they are able to rediscover what it has taken generations to put together. Or just how slow and really sad to spend so much time reinventing a wheel.
Fools tend to rush in
Where angels fear to tread.
I’d still try to find a teacher
Time to go have dinner by the falls..........
What a beautiful place