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Old 05-02-2010, 06:19 PM   #37
John Brockington
Dojo: Retsushinkan/Birmingham, AL
Location: Birmingham, AL
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 65
United_States
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Re: How do you take a step in Aikido?

David-

I agree completely, although I would suggest expanding the description of dantien/center/how to take a step in aikido to include not just medical terms but also terms which do not require medical training or background. This is exactly what I am saying we need to do in aikido.

The problem is finding people who want to try to do just this in aikido. The majority of this type of discussion has been relegated to the part of Aikiweb entitled "Non-aikido martial traditions." It would seem that some (many? certain?) people in aikido do not want this type of discussion, and are much happier or more comfortable with the vague or metaphysical or philosophical or whatever responses that we see in some of the other posters in your thread. Perhaps it is time to begin a serious solicitation for this type of discussion on Aikiweb, in the main forums and not in some dark and dusty corner.

You see, David, none of us doing IS have all the answers. And I am certainly, enquivocably, self-admittedly, not an expert in this. But many of us feel that to have any meaningful discussion, like what you are asking for, we have to go to Mike's forum or just discuss amongst ourselves. And make no mistake, this is EXACTLY the sort of thing that Mike has been pushing us for for years. This will have to be a revolution in the aikido world, of sorts, and a famous historian (I think it was Crane Brinton in his Anatomy of a Revolution- forgive me if I'm way off, I read that a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away) once said that in all the major revolutions, 1/3 of the population is lost. Hope that's not true, but maybe those lost will come back again in this one.

John
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