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Old 08-21-2006, 05:11 PM   #22
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
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Re: conditioning routines

Quote:
Kevin Wilbanks wrote:
Sorry, I just don't buy it. I just don't believe that you've developed some kind of magic conditioning system that surpasses what has been developed by all the Olympic and professional level athletes and trainers over the last 50 years.
I don't think Rob has made any claims to have "developed" anything. All I can see from his posts is that he uses some variant of a physical training system that is thousands of years and which took a long time to develop (much longer than 50 years) and which was so effective it became famous. In fact, it's a system that Ueshiba mentions quite a bit. What you're saying is more along the lines that you don't know what this system is and most western kinesiologists don't either. On top of that, you're saying that you don't use it in your Aikido, suggesting that you do Aikido without the cornerstone that Ueshiba, Tohei, Abe, et al used.
Quote:
Can you point to anyone who uses your magic methods that has beaten anyone at any competitive level in anything? It seems like there must be some sport or other you could adapt it to, and when you did, if it blows away decades of collective effort by all the world's best athletes and trainers as you claim, there is a fortune waiting for you out there.
Since it was famous as a secret training method for centuries and was used in combat (the main reason it was kept secret), the idea that it hasn't "beaten anyone at any competitive level" is pretty interesting. It's beaten a lot of people over the centuries. Has someone really skilled in it entered some decade-old, limited-trend sport interest in the West? No. It would be nice to watch, but because it hasn't happen on the TV doesn't logically imply it doesn't exist, AFAIK.
Quote:
Seriously though, athletic performance is athletic performance. Aikido only differs from basketball, tennis, football, wrestling, etc... in that same way that any two athletic activities differ. It's clear to me from the things you've said that you haven't studied current science and methods of professional level athletic training near thoroughly enough to be dismissive of them. If you had a kinesiology degree and a decade of professional athletic training experience maybe... even then I'd see evidence of it in your writing, and you'd be able to articulate your objections to conventional methods much better. For instance, your attempted counterexample citing wrestler and bjjers demonstrates again that you don't even understand the basic concept of skill or any of the neurology and physiology behind it, why and how it differs from strength and power, and how they interact, etc... Your exhortation to broaden my horizons is high irony.
Actually, I think Rob is simply saying there may be something out there that you don't know about, since he didn't know about it before Akuzawa started showing it to him. Me too... I didn't know about it. The physiology and kinesiology teachers at CU med school didn't know about it, either.... but they didn't reject it out of hand just because of that. They kept an open mind. Maybe you should get some sort of workshop with Rob and Akuzawa going so you can either say "See, I told ya" or "Hey, that's pretty interesting".

Mike Sigman
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