Aikido from time to time decrease in quality ?

[Rodrigo]

I was wondering, if as time goes by, aikido senseis' quality will decrease, I don't say nowadays cause we still have many direct students from O'Sensei, like Isoyama and others, but, 10 years from now, is it possible that we will never be at the same quality level as O'Sensei times ??
It will depend on the Senseis, if they really wanna all of it, they will be great, but even so, maybe they will not have the quality of their senseis...
Because, trainning with O'Sensei was a very rare opportunity, so what I mean is, for example, Sensei Saito, he was one of the best, because he trainned with O'Sensei, but, his students, maybe there are no one that has all the skills Saito had, and never will have...
That was the magic, trainning with the best, you probably will never have all the skills, all the secrets your sensei has, and this as time goes by, wouldn't be a bad thing ???
Is it possible that in the future, aikido will have "regular" senseis and not "outstanding" senseis ???
I hope not...

 

[tora]

I hope you're wrong and the true masters will never vanish.

 

[Littledragon]

I was wondering, if as time goes by, aikido senseis' quality will decrease, I don't say nowadays cause we still have many direct students from O'Sensei, like Isoyama and others, but, 10 years from now, is it possible that we will never be at the same quality level as O'Sensei times ??
It will depend on the Senseis, if they really wanna all of it, they will be great, but even so, maybe they will not have the quality of their senseis...
Because, trainning with O'Sensei was a very rare opportunity, so what I mean is, for example, Sensei Saito, he was one of the best, because he trainned with O'Sensei, but, his students, maybe there are no one that has all the skills Saito had, and never will have...
That was the magic, trainning with the best, you probably will never have all the skills, all the secrets your sensei has, and this as time goes by, wouldn't be a bad thing ???
Is it possible that in the future, aikido will have "regular" senseis and not "outstanding" senseis ???
I hope not...

Never, generations to generations will just become more knowledgable about the art, but quality never.

;-)

 

[Aikilove]

I don't think we have to worrie about that. Just show up in the dojo and train hard and some of us will turn out to be great aikidoka, and even fewer will turn out to be great teachers but as long as we train aikido there will be great aikidoka out there.

/J

 

[tora]

The main aspect is to maintain the base of Aikido the way it was introduced by O-Sensei.

 

[Amos Stevens]

AS long as there are true Senseis out there willing to train for the purpose of teaching & not for money-then Aikido will continue to live

 

[Mama San]

AS long as there are true Senseis out there willing to train for the purpose of teaching & not for money-then Aikido will continue to live

Amen to that, Amos!!
God bless,
Mama san

 

[aikijones]

Will Aikido sensei's quality decrease due to time.

Rodrigo,

Hello and good question, one I think we all ask ourself from time to time.

I do not think quality of a sensei who teaches budo, not a "Mc Dojo" will decrease due to a time factor.​

Example: The teachers who taught O'Sensei had to kill people in order to prove their dojo was a place to study true Martial Arts. Meanwhile O'sensei did not need to kill anyone in order to establish Aikido. Given this factor, did O'sensei's martial arts decrease? I think not due to the fact that we have Aikido. So what I'm saying is quality does not change, only it becomes different.​

As far as "quality level," if you watch Japan K1 or the Olympic Games, I think you will see O'sensei's philosophy already working at it's highest form. "Aikido is for the human race."​

Reguards to training. When you study anything you must keep it a daily excersice to improve oneself. Once this is attainable, you are on the same plain as O'sensei.​

 

[SAS Guardian Angel]

It will go on

No problem, just like secretariat (greatest derby horse that ever lived) there will always be from generation to generation outstanding families (gracies in jujitsu for example) outstanding masters and outstanding people it doesnt matter who taught you but what you learned of it.

Example believe it or not Bruce Lee was NOT a good teacher, he was impatient with his students progress at first and very picky about who joined and until he realized not every one was gifted like him and he would have to lighten up his demands on people he could not have success luckily he was wise enough to realize the magic of assigning instructors while he went on to make movies and got very good results.

There wil always be fine example of sincere dedication Philip Rhee and Simon Rhee (Best of the best series) really are they placed well at the olympics in the 80s, Jackie Chan is legendary with Kung Fu and Sammo WC and KF same
there will always be a shining star in the sea of also rans who do it for profit you will know if youre at the right school if they say "can I help you what are your goals ?" instead of " we take credit cards"

Bad asters tell you what they did..good ones have students to show you what they are..makoto (heart) did your prospective master stay on the phone while talking to you (one did that to me and I marked her off my list real quick) an did they keep you waiting 20 miinutes and not apologize exit then too. talk to some one else when youre there for a private meeting? bad sign . talk to you about what classes they have at their convenience not yours , run dont walk.

Finally tis is my son hes a purple belt hes teaching today..exit is the way, tell them up front you prefer a black belt or better..if they cant do it..find a master who will, long as good student are looking there will be great masters to find..
Hope you find yours I did...very happy!

 

[iblade]

I believe that it is only a martial art's destiny to face the evolutions of time. Let me explain myself... You see, whenever a "path" is discovered, such as aikido, it is only natural that the will of passing it down exists... But unfortunately, while the "path" seems to have found something which can truly be called "eternal" in this world, people who transmit it are not eternal... So this is why it is up to each and every one of us to do our best to keep it and transmit it... There is no such thing as "quality" of aikido, I believe however that one can speak of quality of practice in aikido and quality of transmission. Do you truly believe that aikido can be measured? Or that one can speak of quality of a sensei...? I think it is very personal.

What you may try to say is that because our senseis will disappear someday, and because Osensei is gone, we will never get a "pure" aikido again, right? I don't think so, for one who has truly experienced aikido, I mean, the experience of aikido is to me, the feeling you get when your ki is in harmony with that of your partner, well, for such a person, I think he has experienced true aikido... It is only up to him to practice again and again, to master this ability. Theoretically it is something that can be done alone (or else how would Osensei have created aikido?), yet your sensei is here to guide you on this path. Ranks are only here to show your advancement on this path.

So this leads me to ask what did you mean by sensei's quality?
If it is the quality of practice, then no one will ever know, since it is very personal. I mean, your aikido ability is just equal to what you put into it. Do you think that there are people naturally gifted in aikido? I don't think so, otherwise aikido wouldn't be universal...
If it is the quality of transmission, it is once again very personal. I was told once that instructors of the Hombu dojo were very strict and thus, weren't very good teacher. However, Hombu dojo is considered as the best place in the world to learb aikido. This is a paradox. So this leads me to the conclusion, that the quality of a sensei, in terms of transmission methods varies from one individual to another, and mostly from one student to another.

Once again, everything is up to us.