Thread: First Response
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Old 03-11-2007, 11:42 PM   #1
barry.clemons
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Confused First Response

Hello all; long time reader, very intermittent replier, first time poster.

Referencing this thread: http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11991

This is something that has been on my mind since I began researching Aikido as a MA many years before actually stepping foot into a dojo. I think I posted a response somewhere along the following, but now I'm rethinking my position.

If you spend countless hours training to counter a punch with a block and kick, my assumption is that, in an unfortunate but perfect world where you have to use your skills, your reaction to a punch will be a block and a kick.

If you spend countless hours training to evade a punch with tenkan and blend with that energy and momentum to perform some variation of let's say kotegaishi, my assumption is that, in an unfortunate yet perfect world where you have to use your skills, your reaction to a punch would be tenkan followed by kotegaishi.

Questions:
1. Does Aikido provide for you a means of conflict resolution, or conflict avoidance? Or do you even think about Aikido along those terms?

2. Would it make sense that a MA whose primary response is force opposition would condition that individual, on a larger scale, to meeting OTHER types of conflicts with force opposition? To partially quote Lynn Seiser's signature, "We don't rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training". Is this true in all things? Can an aggressive, force opposing MA create a more aggressive person? Subsequently, can a (seemingly) more passive, defensive posturing MA create a more passive personality when it comes to conflict?

I am interested in your thoughts. Negative comments are most certainly welcome.

Barry Clemons
"The virtuous man is self-sufficient and undisturbed; not a slave of circumstance or emotion" - Zeno
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