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Old 04-05-2007, 01:52 PM   #232
DonMagee
Location: Indiana
Join Date: May 2006
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Re: Ki-Aikido or Taiji - effectiveness in developing Qi?

Quote:
Mike Sigman wrote: View Post
Yeah, but regardless, it's a matter of the old "come to my dojo, play by my rules, and I'll win" scenario. The "developing Qi" discussion really has little to do with the "play by my rules" scenario. It's more of a discussion of basic principles that should be useful to anyone as a base, *before* the idea of rules or styles comes in. More like a training method. If someone has a training method that adds to fighting or strength, regardless of the type of fighting, then it's worthwhile. Notice how after the Gracie Revolution things have kept evolving. People are learning how to punch very hard from boxers. New holds have come in from other styles. And so on. It's all about basics, not about whose style is king. Shooting and taking down was "unbeatable" a couple of years back.... remember how that's changed? Everything in the West is simply evolving and we need to keep that in mind while we discuss these topics on basics. Yeah, but you're attempting to keep your balance. That would be all anyone should need. Sure. Of course that's fairly artificial if you think about "folding" and kicks and a few other things. I love to step on top of feet and move somebody off balance. Oops. Sorry, ref. Great idea. However, if someone can manipulate jin directions, as I'm convinced Dan can do because he's said the right things and none of the wrong things, then being upright is going to be meaningless if you can't do it, too.

So the way to straighten out the topic so that it applies to Ki-Aikido, Taiji, Judo, etc., is to simply relate what you can do to the basic topic. How, for instance, can you respond to someone like Dan who can manipulate the jin/kokyu that is used in Aikido and other arts?

Regards,

Mike Sigman
Two things.

1) I think you are misinterpreting me. My whole judo thing really is just a statement that not being throw in a judo match is not a good example of internal strength because it's very easy to do if you are not playing within the rules of judo. Now if you can win judo matches and not be thrown, that is impressive. My martial art training increasingly is becoming more about winning competition because I find it so much fun to compete. I don't' care about being un-movable, unthrowable, etc. I care about wining the match. My secondary emphasis is on how I can apply what I've learned to the real world. So my interest is purely "Is this training more efficient then what I am currently doing to help me win my matches?"

2) I have no one around here to test or try and see if this is worthwhile. No one around here claims the kind of skill spoke of in this thread, and this thread also claims aikido ki is not like these skills. Therefor my aikido instructor does not fit the bill. Even if he did I know he would not spar with me. He is not interested in that. The people I do know who claim to have developed some skill, or that can demonstrate basic ki tests are unable to maintain that skill while sparing. However they are not black belts in their arts, but they do have years more training then I and typically are a lot larger then I. If I were to use them as proof of concept, I would have to say it is not a good use of my time. Of course the rebuttals is they do not have the proper training methods posters claim in these threads.

So what can I do on my own to see the usefulness of these skills in helping me complete my goals. My martial art goals are as follows.

1) Prevent weight gain. I need to burn calories so I do not become diabetic. Currently I run and do body weight and some weight exercises, usually related to actual movements I use in bjj and judo (such as uchi-komi with resistance bands, shoots with resistance bands, solo Uchi-komi with hand weights, pushups, lunges, crunches, dive bombs, pull ups, hanging from a gi jacket, heavy bag work with weighted gloves, etc)
2) Win more competitions. I love competition and I want to improve the level I can compete at. This means I need to gain more skill in actually controlling another human being. This includes judo, bjj, and mma. Currently I train on Mondays, wedsdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Usually from 6pm to 8 or 9pm, sometimes longer. Typically I train bjj for 2 hours and judo for 1 hour, sometimes it's just bjj, sometimes we work striking (rare now that I'm focusing on improving my grappling and plan to get back into striking this winter). Usually training is warmups with running, jumping, rolls, breakfalls, pushups, dive bombs, crunches, positional sparing, open sparing, and of course lots of drills with varying levels of resistance. Most of my time is spent positional sparing or open sparing. I have been adding a lot more drills lately to try to clean up my technique.
3) Self defense. This is the thing I care least about. Usually my training for this keeping an eye out for unsafe things in sparing and trying to avoid them as much as possible. So I stay away from turtling up, I watch my head position in the guard, mount, back, etc, and I talk to my instructor about how to do things with no gi and make sure I do no gi sparing at least once a week. This includes throws and well as grappling.

Unrelated to all these goals, I occasionally go to aikido class to hang out with my friends and try to think outside the box for a bit.

So how would we change this training to allow the development of internal skills without weakening my goals? Is it possible? Can I do it without a skilled trainer?

My current thoughts are that the application of internal skills is cool, but its not something I should spend any time on.

Last edited by DonMagee : 04-05-2007 at 01:58 PM.

- Don
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein
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