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Old 01-31-2010, 08:00 AM   #84
JO
Dojo: Aikikai de l'Université Laval
Location: Sainte-Catherine-de-la-J.-C., Québec
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 292
Canada
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Re: Kokyu development for Aiki in Aikido

Hi Ignatius,

For the first part of my post that you quote, I read you better than I let on. That was sarcastic, more than was called for I guess. I'm just too much of a scientist, biologist working in the field of environmental sciences to be precise, by temperament and training to let things like that pass. I don't have much training at all in anatomy or physiology, so I tend to not pronounce myself on such topics.

As for the second part, I was writing in earnest. I decided, or discovered, several years ago, before I had ever heard of the terms Internal Training or Internal Strength, that kokyu-ho was the single most important exercise in Aikido and that everything else kind of hinged on it. From this, and under some influence of the things I've read in this thread I'll admit, I do some solo exercises at home on days I don't have aikido classes. I do breathing, stretching and warm up exercises I learned in aikido and do not claim, because of I don't have the required knowledge to do so, that what I do has any real link to the IT exercises and Internal Skills that get discussed here. But I feel they do help in the standard aikido skills of working from your center and staying relaxed that were at the heart of Dirk's questions.

Then in your post you specifically mention funegoki undo and bokken suburi, which are the two exercises that I spend the most time on in my own personal solo aikido training. So I repeat. I am intrigued by the IS/IT dicussions here and would be very curious to meet those who claim such skills so that I could feel for myself how it relates to what I have learned in traditional aikido training.

Jonathan Olson
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