soft style?

Louis R Joseph (aikilouis) wrote: France is first in number of practitioners (roughly 60000), before Japan and the USA.

Curious -- where did you get the above statistic?

-- Jun

I read it in a local club site. It was almost confirmed (1st rank in the world, but 55000 instead of 60000) in the official site of Tamura Sensei's federation : http://www.ffab-aikido.fr/FFAB.htm

With respect to all it is silly to label a whole countrys style of Aikido. There is simply no such thing, each dojo is different and even within dojos you will find hard and soft.

Furthermore I'm surprised and disappointed that "soft" Aikido seems to equate in many peoples minds with weak Aikido. the whole point of Aikido, IMHO, is to blend with ukes energy, not stop it. When this is done successfully, which relies on much training in many areas and the intention to win without fighting, then techniques become soft but highly effective. Even atemi can be delivered in a soft way and be very powerful, what the Chinese Boxing schools call "heavy hand", as long as focus and timing and relaxation are present. As difficult as it is Aikido should work on the old martial arts equation, "if my enemy brings 7 then I bring 3, if my enemy brings 9 then I bring 1". In other words the more powerful the attack the less force is needed to respond (substitute uke for enemy to make this sound more Aikido-like, but the principle stands).

These kinds of threads always seem to carry an undertone of criticism towards Aikido if it appears to be too soft, but softness is not the measure, effectiveness is.

I am reminded of one Shihans response to the question, "Does Aikido work?" "Mine does, but I dont know about yours".

Over on Aikijournal.com there is a discussion about what makes an Aikido technique Aikido, very important. It most certainly is not the outer look of it, but the number of correctly applied inner principles which the casual observer might not be able to see, but should certainly be able to feel.

regards, Alec

I certanly didnt start this thread to critize french aikido. I do the french style myself and just wanted to know if the style I am doing has got a negative image of any kind.

Hello peter,

What matters is not if the style you are doing has a negative image of any kind, but whether or not you are learning effective Aikido. I don't know how long you have practised but for a relative beginner it is sometimes good to train in a few other dojos from time to time to get a feel for what people are calling Aikido, and don't just watch, take part. Please remember as well that we no longer live in the age of challenges, at least not in the Aikido community, so everyone can have an opinion about their style or someone elses without ever having to "put their money where their mouth is" so to speak. Do not concern yourself with other people badmouthing any other Aikido or any martial art for that matter. Such people are not practising the fundamental respect underlying all Budo.

regards, Alec

Soft is hard and hard is soft. Its two side of the same coin. It doesnt matter. When you start to differentiate you are only seeing one side of the coin.

Louis R Joseph (aikilouis) wrote: France is first in number of practitioners (roughly 60000), before Japan and the USA. The top instructors are Tamura Sensei (8 dan), Christian Tissier and Gerard Blaize (both 7 dan). Aikido in France started in the 50's, with the coming of Mochizuki Sensei, and all the main 'tendancies' of Aikido are represented there.

Shodokan is only just represented in France, as far as I know there is just one instructor in the whole country. (But what an instructor, Satoru Tsuchiya, 5th dan, wonderful aikido, excellent teacher, lovely guy.)

Sean

x

The man is legendary. There's a story about him trying to prove to Nariyama that Aikido doesn't work (the proverbial on the street encounter).

Sean Orchard (deepsoup) wrote: Shodokan is only just represented in France, as far as I know there is just one instructor in the whole country. (But what an instructor, Satoru Tsuchiya, 5th dan, wonderful aikido, excellent teacher, lovely guy.)

By the way that's a Shodokan 5th Dan - he'ld be carrying much higher in other organizations.

Re: Dancing

To paraphrase George Leonard Sensei fron his book "The Ultimate Athlete" ,



"the ultimate athlete dances but is not necessarily a dancer"

Peter Klein wrote: just wanted to know if the style I am doing has got a negative image of any kind.

In some people's minds, well yes. Ask Szcepan (he's here at Aikiweb also, isn't he?)...

Now, I am not stricly speaking doing Tissier style. So if the Tissier students out there do not like what I am saying, please voice your objections.

What you should understand with this type of practise is that when tori does technique, uke's task is to find advantageous positions from which you could make another good and strong attack - not mainly to resist the technique. Depending on the dojo people will resist on various levels or not but from a "the technique should work no matter what"-perspective, this way of leading uke to more or less change places with you before starting the katatedori ikkyo makes no sense. Perfectly no sense at all. It is kata - a set form for practise. If the other person does not do his part of the kata, how can you practise yours?

The "if you can do the technique no matter how much I resist, then you do it well"-school is another paradigm, I think. In my mind, both have their set of values and another set of dangers. Each style, each pedagogic method have their own "habits" which students risk adapting.

It is difficult to practise form belonging to one paradigm for a person whose mind is in another. That's why you'll have some people's rants all over the place.