Hi Taro,
I'm trying to use my poor english to write something usefull for you.
Quote:
You wrote:
1. In your experience, how does Yoshinkan differ from Aikikai?
1. In your experience, how does Yoshinkan differ from Aikikai?
2. What exactly is meant by "hard/soft" style? I still have no clue. More atemi's? Less circular and more linear movements? Quicker paced practice? More aggressive attack simulations? Starched gi's?
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I don't have many experiences with Aikikai. What I've seen so far, was good, flowing soft Aikido with almost no atemi and with strong co-operation of uke. It looked very nice but there was a lack of "martiality" (I guess you know what I mean).
For Aikikai guys, please don't get me wrong, I've seen only several training lessons in two local clubs, I know that there exists many styles in Aikikai from soft to hard. And soft styles have their own place on the planet Aikido, I respect them, but my choice is different.
Yoshinkan was based on O'sensei's pre-war teaching. At this time the techniques were stronger, very close to Daito ryu. Gozo Shioda (the founder of Yoshinkan), wanted to preserve martial aspect of Aikido when he founded his own style. As a result, Yoshinkan is harder than many other styles in general.
Practise is focused on good posture (different one than posture in Aikikai), hips movement, movements are more linear, and atemi is often used.
The "basic development tool" is Kihon Dosa. This is a set of movements (maybe this is, what you considered as Kata) - Tai no henko ichi & ni, Hiriko no yosei ichi & ni, Shumatsu dosa ichi & ni ( ichi means Irimi, ni means Ura), which helps you to build solid basis for your techniques. You can find theese kihon dosa movements in every (Yoshinkan) Aikido techniques. (I practise it every day and find it very helpfull, and I believe , it have a bearing on training in every stage your aikido life).
Kihon waza may looks like kata, the techniques are practised in very strict manner (of course on dan level it looks different).
Also Yoshinkan terminology differs from Aikikai. There are used older names in Yoshinkan - for example ikkyo = ikkajo, nikyo=nikajo and so on.
What is advantage towards Aikikai (especially if you will move very often), that the practise is the same (or very similar) in every Yoshinkan dojo (no matter if it is in USA or Europe or elsewhere).
That's probably all, what my language skills alows me to write. Finally, try to get Gozo Shioda's books - Dynamic Aikido and Total Aikido, also Yoshinkan trainig manual (available on
www.aikidojournal.com) is good resource for your research. Also try to see some Yoshinkan videos, especially ones with Gozo Shioda senseis. Some short mpeg clips you can find on
http://www.yoshinkan.com.
Hope it helps,
Best regards
Paja