To bow or not to bow

Ron Tisdale wrote: Oh man, now you've done it... Hmmm, weren't there a few (???) football players who came "out"? I think they were neither slight, nor effiminate...nor would I call them so to their face! Best, Ron

Ron:

You're not talking about manly men who play with balls are you?

Great to read your posts again! hope life is smoother these days!

Marc Abrams

Ditto (on the reading) and yes, somethings are up, others are down. Life goes on...

B,
R

To me, the big picture is that the bow serves as a non-verbal polite way of beginning and ending training (either as a whole class or during class with a partner). That asking for training and saying thank you for training is part of the fundamental etiquette of most martial arts.

It could be a bow, or a handshake, or a hand over the heart, or a bump of boxing gloves, but it's there. Because aikido comes from Japan and many of the folks who study the art are interested in more about Japan than just aikido, we bow. There is no reason that a group, if it has some problem with bowing, couldn't adopt another form of the ritual. I think the hand over the heart they do in Mecca is really elegant - they have replaced the bow with something that has the same meaning and doesn't conflict with their other beliefs. I think that's great. We've had a few Muslims in our dojo and none of them have minded bowing. If somebody ever does, I'll suggest that to them.

Even MMA fighters do it - they bump fists before the fight and then hug (even if they've just beaten the tar out of each other) after. The feeling is a little different, but even in the ring that little bit of tradition persists.

My $0.02 anyway....

Garth

Knowing there are many Aikido instructor/black belts in many area who can't/don't bow regardless the reason, i wonder what would you do if your sensei at your dojo don't bow to O sensei picture, while you actually don't mind to bow down. Will you bow to O sensei picture to show respect on the founder's teaching?

Anyway, if we don't bow, is there any other way to show that you respect o sensei and his teachings?

Is "using aikido in a good way" enough to show that we respect the founder and appreciate his decision of opening opportunity for non japanese to learn his precious art?

Or actually those bowing things are only unimportant, unessential, and flexible-to-be-modified japanese tradition?