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Old 03-25-2007, 02:11 PM   #25
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
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Re: The Point of Aikido

Quote:
George S. Ledyard wrote: View Post
My article was merely trying to point out that we need to stop apologizing for what Aikido lacks. Some of what it lacks, we need to get put back in , no question, but some of what it lacks, it lacks on purpose.
I'm pretty mechanical (thinking) about this. The ki and kokyu stuff is a given... it belongs in Aikido, just as it belongs in almost all Asian martial arts (the ones that haven't become diluted). The philosophy, violence, ability to "kick butt", and all that other stuff.... I couldn't care less how people choose to do their particular brand of Aikido. But without kokyu/ki powers it is not Aikido, regardless of whether they can kick butt or whether they're doing a love-fest and calling it Aikido.

These skills are the whole essence of Aikido, Taiji, Karate, ju-jitsu, and so on. If someone doesn't have those skills in their Aikido, they don't have to apologize to anyone, but they need to get to work.

If someone does Aikido with those skills, but they don't want to fight or they form some other philosophy, I wouldn't have the vaguest quarrel, as long as they have demonstrable ki/kokyu skills. If they have those core skills their Aikido skills, techniques, etc., are compleat; anything else is their business.

My 2 cents.

Mike
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