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Old 11-05-2013, 08:11 AM   #13
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,604
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Re: Taiji - some rather fine diagrams.

Quote:
Michael Varin wrote: View Post
Come on. You've been around long enough. You don't remember Mike Sigman's lines that were drawn over Tohei that wasn't actually Tohei, or Eric Mead's advanced engineering diagrams, or any of Chris Hein's representations of alignment? None of which had the artistic detail of the drawings that were the subject of this thread.

Really, I'm not requesting further discussion. Just wondering why it didn't occur.
Because in the very same way so many experienced people stopped posting due to comments by the barrage of comments by over-enthusiastic IP enthusiasts, now it seems it is impossible to have a discussion about some things without the over-enthusiastic non-IP enthusiasts grasping at straws sticking out of the very tired and worn out straw man.

I know quite a few folk, instructors themselves, high ranking, many quite well known who rarely post any longer. Because it's the same dynamic, just the other side of it. (And no, I'm not trying to use argument from authority, there are likely just as many if not more disgusted high quality/high ranking folk not posting for the exact opposite reason.) These are the people (from both sides generally) who get together and answer the questions on the mat because discussing it here is simply too painful when you have to deal with the arm chair occupying demands from way off in the cheap seats.

FWIW I had a long and very detailed discussion with a couple folk I train with on these drawings as I forwarded the website to them. Yes, they are lovely drawings and they do illustrate aspects of things some of us are working on. Do I have anything more to say about it here?

Nope.

I've been in the martial arts (with a few breaks) basically all my life starting from childhood. I'm over 50 now and I quite frankly have long lost the desire to placate the skepticism of others on an on-line forum. It is too difficult to have these discussions here. And I'll say I've *never* had a bad experience simply getting together with fellow martial artists including the sincere folk who doubt. It was great seeing William Hazen (sorry to drop your name, dude) at a recent seminar. We got to "hold hands" a few times in that seminar. Big, strong, powerful man that I would in no way want to tussle with. And to his immense credit you could damned near see the light bulb light up over his head. I gained tremendous respect for him that Saturday morning. A lifetime of training and he walks in to put it on the line and see what's going on. But I also sincerely doubt he feels he's wasted time, or that his training was a waste in any way, shape or form. I would guess his reaction was much like mine -- Cool, more stuff I can work on to get better. Which is what drives an awful lot of folk who get good at this stuff, neh? It ain't the confirmation, it ain't the "winning", it's about having more to explore, more nuance, more things to try...

Yeah, maybe it's not the "real thing" and maybe it's not "real that" or maybe it's not "this" but really "that". Don't give a damn about those things really. To me it's simply more good stuff that I find feeding in to most everything I have learned over these decades, including stuff that has nothing at all to do with Aikido. Just good martial practice.

No, not much discussion. Because if you do take the longer view looking back over the discussions, really, the discussion has been going on for a really long time. So please feel free to continue talking. Just understand that there are a whole lot of people who likely still just read along, get annoyed, think of posting then remind themselves of the Heinlein quote "Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." And before anyone gets their fundoshi in a knot, no, I'm not comparing anyone to pigs. Wonderful, intelligent creatures and their smoked bits are fantastic. They're just not big on singing. I get that.

So I guess I could have summarized this entire post thus... Damatte keikoshiro. Now to act on that very thing... EOM.

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