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Old 06-22-2008, 04:13 PM   #1
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Aikido™ and Aiki…do. Where are we at?

How many of the Aikidoka seminar attendees, or those who have gone beyond to regularly train internal skills- now possibly numbering somewhere in the low hundreds- have reconsidered their view of what aiki is and what they used to think it was in their aikido ™ V Aiki…do?

There was at one point in time, no end of contention, disbelief, and even anger discussing internals as aiki. The discussion were sent off to the NON aikido related wonderland. Something which I found as accurate as saying gravity is unrelated to the discusions of Physics.

I recently read this reply by Kevin Leavitt and it seems to address some of my recent thoughts regarding Aikido™ and Aiki…do.
Quote:
Kevin Leavitt wrote: View Post
What I thought was "internal" that is the whole blending, getting off the line, harmony, being at one with your opponent with "no mind" definition of internal was changed and how they (Mike, Ark, Dan) view "internal" is not that at all. It is a very definitive and measurable feel.
I found Kevins comments (an Aikidoka) echoing some of my own expressed here:
Quote:
Dan Harden wrote: View Post
Most aikido shown on all manner of videos and in demonstrations has nothing to do with aiki either. I guess you have to consider just how many folks it takes -all walking in the wrong direction- to validate that choice and make thence make the wrong direction seem right. In that sense I would say there is a great divide between "Aikido" (tm) and Aiki...do. They are not the same.

The good news is you may be able to find Aiki...do, in "Aikido"(tm) but you're probably going to have to look around for quite a while, since most everyone in Aikido(tm) is convinced they are doing Aiki...do - when all along they are just doing aikido (tm) movement. Thus, my point about percentages and direction of travel.

There is a very common and completely mistaken view that turning your whole body to move someone out from their center is aiki. Or leading a cooperative uke out off their feet by having to move yourself all over the place is aiki. This sort of blending-‘called" aiki-has nothing to do with aiki. Its jujutsu, low level jujutsu. So many have done it, for so long, that everyone now thinks it's true aiki. It falls in with the whole "giving in to get your way" idea. It is not needed, is wholly unnecessary, and a tremendous waste of energy. As I said, levering their arm against your hip as you pivot is just jujutsu-and not where you probably would want to be headed were you to feel real Aiki...do instead of Aikido(tm). IMV that type of movement is "full speed… in the wrong direction."

If your re-train your own body, you can arrive at a point where your grip or touch is very controlling to their center. Touching you, or making contact reveals their center with that contact. So much so, that you really don't need to move around to get their center under your control. It just is. You stand there and if they attack you- you take their body for a ride through their contact point. While I am not a fan of this either, (its' still all aiki games-maybe allot of fun but its games none-the-less) it is of a much higher order that what you are talking about.
I most certainly do not and have not ever considered Aikido™ as expressing aiki in any meaningful way, with much or most of what I have seen being either completely wrong in its approach, or just marginally in the right direction.
It reminds me of wondering how you set off from N.Y. trying to get to England and ended up in west Africa.
Time and distance.
All you need do, is give someone a compass just a few degrees off and have them set sail.

If Kevin, Mark, Rob, and others can now more or less say the same things I and others have been saying for years-where do others in Aikido ™ now stand on the issue?
Is the community which has been traveling in large numbers in the wrong direction still behind relegating these discussions to Non-Aikido Martial Traditions Discussions of all non-aikido-specific martial traditions
Or is it finally realizing- by the witness of an ever increasing number of ranked Aikido™ teachers- that this is and was in fact Aiki…do all along and just that many people in Aikido™ missed it.
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