TDWoj:
“Okay, then, I've got a question. If you are working with a partner - uke - to perform aikido, what use is it as a defensive martial art? Since, I'm thinking, out on the street if a bad guy is trying to harm me, he sure as heck isn't going to be my "partner" and just let me throw him out of the way.”
“I do not think if I were a student of Aikido that I'd really enjoy being taught by Steven. He seems to like the slice-and-dice-the-student method of getting his ideas across.”
I think you answered your own question. It makes no since not to cooperate as if you try to do Aikido without cooperation you just don’t get anywhere. Because there are two scenarios:
1) You don’t know/understand Aikido and because the other won’t work with you are incapable of learning anything because you simple fail.
2) You have some understanding and you go to do a technique and your partner/opponent resists. Lets continue to assume you have some understanding. You either A) force the technique there by hurting your partner because he didn’t understand his own limits and you can no longer pactice with him or you B) ease up and fail at the execution of the technique because it wasn’t worth your partners health.
It will always boil down to some one is either better or more capable and if you want to increase the other’s abilities you have to work with them to get them there.
To that end that is why Aikido is performed as it is, and I would also I Seagal Sensei is a great teacher to learn under because he doesn’t smash those who aren’t at the level to deal with it.
To Mister daito-ryu fighter:
Now it’s your turn.
It is obvious to me from what you named this thread, and from your statements that you are trying to get a flame war going. I find it interesting that you claim 28 years of martial art experience, and with some of the ‘best’, and yet you make the assertions you do.
Let’s clear some stuff up: Aikido<>Daito Ryu
That is, Aikido and Daito Ryu are not the same thing!
Steven Seagal calls his Aikido, Aikido, not Daito Ryu and I’m sure that’s for a good reason and that is good enough for me. And seeing as he has a 7th Dan from the 2nd Doshu, himself, obviously at least someone *we know* knows what he’s talking about agrees!
O’sensei did study Daito Ryu under Takeda, however Takeda was not his only influence, either Martially of spiritually, farther more I wouldn’t even go so far as to say he was his greatest influence.
I must say, I’m a little bit confused as to what you “think” Aiki is. From what I have read you say, it seem to me you believe Aiki is the same a Kasushi (the art of unbalancing your opponent.) Even regular run of the mill Jujitsu has Kasushi in it. However that is not what Aiki is. If you read any of O’sensei teachings he believe it is Nage’s roll to return the balance to Uke, or to complete Uke’s center, not to remove it. Doubt anyone who doesn’t have at least a legitimate Shodan is going to comprehend the thought. Though I won’t say that, in and of it’s self, is what Aiki is all about. If you would ask O’Sensei what it means to study Aiki I believe he’d tell you that the study of Aiki is the study of the way the Universe does things and that to be a Master of Aikido would mean to be the center of the Universe and to hold its workings in the palm of your hand.
Farther more your statement show a utter lack of understanding of language in general. Japanese specifically is highly context driven. Aiki like many words can mean many things depending on the context. Aiki simply means soft energy or harmonious energy or harmonious intent… however in use it is much more than that. It certainly can be used as the outline for an outlook on life if that is how one wishes to view it. It can also be an application of a technique or the principle a specific technique rest upon.
Though it is true that Daito Ryu, of all the forms of Aikijitsu, and certainly the most well known of them, has made major contributions to the concept of aiki. However it is not true to believe that the evolution of the understanding of Aiki ended with Daito Ryu.
O’Sensei had a complete transmission of the Daito Ryu system and yet still felt like there was something else for him to explore. This is quite evident just by what O’Sensei chose to name his art, “Aikido” or “the way of Aiki,” Daito Ryu doesn’t claim this. Aikido at its core is ALL about aiki. Aiki for Aikido is not just simply a principle; one of many, that one might “choose” to employ to accomplish a given technique. Aiki for Daito Ryu ‘is only part’ of the whole, where as Aiki for Aikido ‘is the whole’ and everything else in the system is used to demonstrate that. You see you don’t understand this simply because you look at Aikido as a system, and because of this you disagree with Aikido’s non-systematic approach, but that does not mean that it is not Aiki or illegitimate. Aikido’s technique is not the end all be all of Aikido, as technique is to Daito Ryu. Technique in Aikido is only an attempt to point the practitioner to the bigger picture of what Aikido is. O’Sensei said that Aikido is not only practiced in the Dojo, but is practiced from the moment the Aikidoka raises to great the sun till the moment he lays he’s head down to go to sleep. Aikido is just as much a philosophy as it is a martial art, and that does not make it a sport or ineffective as a form of self-defense, only more elusive. O’Sensei said that Aikido was a method by which to reconcile the world, I would say that is pretty effect self-defense!
You need to go watch video of O’Sensei and then, if you have a mind open to truth, you’ll understand that O’Sensei was a man who knew what true power was; a power that flowed from being at peace with everything and conflicting with nothing.
Take care and practice hard, think harder, and talk less
PS – Aikilove, you seem to have a very solid understanding of what you’re talking about. I was going to say many of the things you yourself did, but you beat me to ‘em!