Poll: How good are you at aikido?

AikiWeb Poll for the week of July 17, 2005:

How good are you at aikido?

• I don't do aikido
• Perfectly good
• Exceptionally good
• Very good
• Good
• Somewhat good
• Not very good
• Not at all good
  

Here are the current results.

AikiWeb System wrote: AikiWeb Poll for the week of July 17, 2005: How good are you at aikido? I don't do aikido Perfectly good Exceptionally good Very good Good Somewhat good Not very good Not at all good Here are the current results.

That is a very strange poll

Compared to what. The only objective measures I can imagine are O'sensei or the current doshu. Unfortunately I haven't seen both of them. Well I know my aikido is very poor compared to them.

And some days, I am on the mat and I think: Wow the techniques work all fiine.
And the next day even the easiest techniques do not work at all with my 250 lbs aikido follows with strong Judo experience.

Well, i think, my aikido is pretty good for my grade. But can a 4th kyu ever talk about his aikido being good?

Regards Dirk

Wonderful question ! had a great laugh answering it. It reminded me of a quote I saw somewhere on the net

"My aikido sucks, but each day I suck to a higher level"

then I thought about what sucking was all about ...............differential air pressures.. and like high to low and movement of air masses and and controlling of center and then I thought I'd better either go back to bed or make coffee since it's a beautiful Sunday morning and the family are all still asleep with their Harry Potter hangovers...................................... or was being good at Aikido the beer I sucked back at the last seminar or the friends that are all part of the Aikido experience ...............and then it came to me ....

"Aikido simply feels good to me"!!!

Cheers say no more

I was trying too hard to get my technique "right," and Sensei yelled, "They all suck! So you can stop worrying!" I think it would be hard to be "perfectly good" at anything. Whatever level you're at, there's always more to learn.

Better than all of you

- 6 th Kyu; first decade; wow, how do they roll so efortless, light...etc
- 6.th Kyu second decade; I can fall almost perfect , I can protect myself against many attacks, but what if they strike directly or have a knife
- 5.th Kyu: I deserve more than a yellow belt, look at him/her; they have a brown belt but can even not high-fall!!; except these guys, they are OK
- 4.th Kyu: I want to have more, always the same techniques, I want to learn more than shomen uchi ikkyo-nikkyo etc...I want to perform Jiu Waza
- 3. th Kyu: Well, I have a green belt, but blue looks cooler...ouch, the techniques hurt, when will the training finish, I hope that I will be able to see the end of the day, Why can I not apply the technique ??? It is not working - but it was working, or was it not
- 2.th Kyu; aikido is not applying techniques, belt-color is not important, I don't care much about that, O Sensei said that;"...."...O Sensei made once......I should move, I should not stand like to be frozen, why do I try to block or move back, what if the guy is an other MA
- 1.st Kyu; I love aikido because I love aikido, I can not apply the technique, OK just step to side - that works too

result: I am better than yesterday, worse than the day before

I voted "Perfectly good" because my Aikido is perfectly good as today is the longest time I have practiced it.

One of the reasons that I like Shodokan so much is that it allows me to developed my own understanding of techniques. I can apply the kata into whatever form works for me.

Easier to answer for me:

when my hip stops coming out of joint. And i really do suck!

imagine a martial artist with a trick hip..............hahahahaha, yes it is just that funny to watch, sometimes painful though.

when i can do randori against very skilled people and never get stiff,
even if i get clobbered.

then my aikido will be 'perfectly good'

I didn't find the answer: "Aikido is a personnal path for spirit growth, not a competition".
Maybe I missed something, I think I'll go on the mat and train more, don't you?

Where's the "Good enough to be invited back tomorrow" option? Or the "People are still willing to train with me" option?

I agree with Yann. My Aikido is as good as it can be today, but I don't think I'll be voting because it could always be better.

I'd like to say "as good as it can be today" but Robert Mustard Sensei used to tell us to give everything we had in every class because training time was so limited but so valuable...

...there was one class I didn't give it my all...so I could be better than I am today if I hadn't screwed that up

A more serious answer might be that my Aikido accurately represents the training and instruction I have had over the course of my "Aikido Career"...

--Michael

PS...Please don't tell Robert Sensei about that one class!

Well guys its like this.

I'm beyond good. In fact I'm so far beyond good that if Ueshiba M. ever came back to life its me he'ld try to copy. I'm so good - the toughest of the tough begin to quiver within 10 feet of me. We wont even mention what happens to mere mortals. I'm so good I don't even have to worry about Ki.

Hear me and be awed.

Peter Rehse wrote: Hear me and be awed.

I am appropriately awed.

Really.

No...I mean it.

Look...if you don't think I mean it why don't you come over here and do something about it. Grab my wrist!

Schmuk

Did I mention that I am appropriately awed

--Michael

Well Michael;

Since you are a mere mortal just take the train a little closer to Himeji. I figure 30 minutes on a Shinkaisoku should do it. Call me from your cell phone when you get there.

Peter Rehse wrote: Well Michael; Since you are a mere mortal just take the train a little closer to Himeji. I figure 30 minutes on a Shinkaisoku should do it. Call me from your cell phone when you get there.

You're just saying that because you are in Hokkaido right now and feel safe. Remember there is no place you can hide...

But I actually don't want to challenge you...I am in too much awe to contemplate the idea.

Really.

No...I mean it.

Look...if you don't think I mean it why don't you come over here and do something about it.

Schmuk

Did I mention that I am appropriately awed

--Michael...feeling like he's been here before

Peter Rehse wrote: ...the toughest of the tough begin to quiver within 10 feet of me.

That's just the smell doing that

Bronson

Hmmmmmm.

I'll bet you folks tell you're wives and girlfriends that their hair looks crappy when they ask, don't you?

I didn't vote since there was no "I am the Aikido GOD who taught P.Rehse and Ueshiba M. everything they know" option.

Really I am.

Seriously.

Though when they get to my level their Ki will be so strong it will act like an ICBM - stopping attackers from beyond visual range, not just 10 feet.

Hmm I wonder if that is why class is so empty these days.?

I remember one day while teaching Ueshiba M. It was after the war I think, he came to me and said "I can dodge bullets" and I looked to him and said "Big deal, if you ever get as good as I am - You won't have to."

Unknown to me at the time, someone overheard that conversation and lo and behold it ended up as a corny line in the movie "The Matrix." Can you believe the audacity?

(And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.)
LC

I voted Not very good because at this moment, I still cannot defeat my sensei and adjutant sensei in Mortal Combat. But I will try and try and try.

Boon.

Xu Wenfung wrote: I voted Not very good because at this moment, I still cannot defeat my sensei and adjutant sensei in Mortal Combat. But I will try and try and try. Boon.

Boon, you are practicing Mortal Combat? Great!

I am just a little bit confused about "I will Try and try and try".

I always thought in Mortal Combat, if you once tried unsuccessfully, you do not have a second chance. That is why it is called Mortal.

And secondly, why do you always try to kill youe sensei and your adjutant sensei? It must be a nasty dojo, if you get such great anger.

You should better learn some more peaceful style of Aikido.

Cheers Dirk

Dirk,

Just checking, you'd realised that my post was written with a tinge of humour, yes?

Boon.

Boon, Peter, Larry - desist! This is budo! There is no humour in budo, only the dreary wait until your duty to the dojo is relieved in the blinding flash of glorious transcendence when your sensei kills you for spilling his cuppa!

Face it guy's, you'll never be as cool as me.

Ian,

Your dojo is weird.... *grins evilly*

Well, we are ki-aikido after all (I think that one of the reasons for the "no-touch" throws is it's hard to do technique in a straight-jacket...)