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Jason Casteel wrote:
IMO, it's just like anything else in martial arts. There's a difference in doing things and doing them right. I mean he did that stuff. O'sensei did some of it as well, which is where he got a lot of it.
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Not according to him. He has said in several interviews that Ueshiba did not teach. If I am not mistaken he meant this to be inclusive of his peers as well, not just himself. I believe he stated
"The only we got from Ueshiba was, to relax."
He got his ki ideas from
"Outside the art."
Getting it outside the art is what some of contemporary senior teachers are doing right now, and all but ignoring the most senior Japanese staff in doing so.
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It seemed to be part of his routine. Some aspects of it also exist in people like Sagawa's tanren. I don't think it's going to make you an IS superstar or anything, but stronger aikido, definitely.
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You're not going to have much to stand on comparing Tohei's approach to Sagawa's-nor their comparative power. Sagawa was a an I.S. superstar of a sort, but we really don't know what other I.S. "stars" he might have played with to be considered a "superstar" do we? I've a feeling people like Wang Chu Shin would have landed Sagawa on his butt in a hurry.
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Doing it for 15 minutes before class a few times a week isn't going to do much. We don't really have much insight into Tohei's personal training routine, but it's probably safe to say that he did a good bit of training off the mats.
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Agreed. Doing any of this as just a warm up before class is all but a waste of time. Of course many people are going to take the information being offered and do that very thing anyway. In a few years we will be right back here with people saying the same things "Aiki doesn't really work. I felt....." and they will proceed to talk about those very same people. More poor representatives of their own casual efforts...and so it goes.
Hopefully, there will be enough hard workers out there to occasionally set the record straight for any doubters by actually being able to deliver and "keep it real" under more stressful freestyle testing.
Dan