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Old 12-08-2012, 08:17 PM   #29
Cady Goldfield
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,035
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Re: aiki, aikido, tomato, tomahto

Quote:
Jason Casteel wrote: View Post
When I read the OP and some of the follow-ups, the impression I got was that there was frustration with almost cult-like enthusiasm the people who are doing the IP training have for it and their willingness to beat you over the head with their opinions until you almost want to puke, without ever offering anything more than IHTBF. I get it, I really do. It's tiring to be told you're wrong and sometimes not just be told it, but to be beaten about the head and shoulders by it and not really be given anything in return other than "IHTBF" or "go see people". Especially when that sort of conversation is what dominates around here these days. All I can say is that it's probably just as frustrating to some of us who are doing the IP training to read those posts and never see anyone really attempt elucidate what they themselves are doing. Training is always going to be more important than talking, always, but talking and finding ways to verbalize what you're doing and how you're doing it is a pretty important part to actually understanding what you're doing..IMO.
Considering the wealth of scholarship dwelling on AikiWeb alone -- Ellis Amdur, Dan Harden, Chris Li, Peter Goldsbury, just to name a tiny fraction --there is enough historical and tangible, physical evidence in place to be very certain that the methods for the unusual power that drove the skills demonstrated by S. Takeda, Y. Sagawa, K. Horikawa and M. Ueshiba are still very much alive and being practiced by contemporary martial artists, including some who post on and read AikiWeb. Again and again, the evidence, including invidivuals actually duplicating Ueshiba's internal skills and having them confirmed by PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY TRAINED WITH AND FELT UESHIBA, have been reported here, but summarily dismissed by some who seem to prefer that a mystery remain a mystery (even when the mystery has long since been solved)... to keep the mystique in their practice.

Be that as it may...

There are some good reasons why no one is trying to elucidate what they are doing, a key one being that when it was done in the past (and there has been some very detailed information provided, at length, on various forums over the years), the generosity was abused in very brazen ways. Once burned, twice shy. Or make that "many times burned, finally shy." Additionally, those who are training it regularly and deeply under others' tutelage, are not in a position, ethically, to give out what in some cases is proprietary information -- particularly involving personalized training methods; it's up to those from whom they are learning to initiate such discussions.

It's not that folks are all secret-y to be coy; there just isn't anything positive to be gained from openly handing out details that can be misunderstood, misused, abused, exploited or falsely claimed by others. Who knows who-all is reading these forums? The 'net is the best way to "share" information with a billion of your closest strangers...

So, I suspect that there will continue to be posts exhorting others to just go and feel it, meet the people. There are many private conversations, on private discussion boards, going on as a result, and you will not find very much offered in public Internet venues. I doubt much will change unless and until IP and aiki become more mainstream and thus more in the public domain and less proprietary so that it is discussed as openly and freely as conventional athletics. That could be a while, but it could happen.

Last edited by Cady Goldfield : 12-08-2012 at 08:27 PM.
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