SWORDDUELING.COM

Langka:

Stick vs unarmed:

The truth is that Ueshiba’s spiritual path is so utterly a product of his time and culture, any attempt to imitate his journey will make you a fool — and not even a “holy fool.” Perhaps you should eliminate the… preliminary steps. Ueshiba did not “follow” a path, he was thrown into each period of his life, passionate and desperate to be other than he was. He was driven rather than led. Rather than retrace his steps, should you not be similarly thrown? Should you not try to find what he pursued, rather than what he did? Could you not replicate those initial steps through a path that encompasses putting up drywall in small-towns in sub-Arctic Canada, tango lessons in Buenos Aires, and painting in a garret in Montparnasse?

Let us ratchet it back, then. Let us talk only about the technology of kokyu and ki…

Ellis Amdur’s Hidden In Plain Sight is a pretty good book.

This video gets at one of the sicker aspects of martial arts which I don’t hear discussed a lot:

“The things referred to in Internal Martial Arts as energies are really skills you develop from experience. If they are mastered you will be able to use them in fights. As soon as you touch your opponent you will be able to ride their movement and control their flow. Energy is a misnomer that leads the mind down labyrinthine Quagmires that some get lost in and never find the truth. Although the energetic stuff is real it is to be pursued after you can fight unless you are just studying the healing side of the arts…

The Tai Chi classics warn of “abandoning the near to chase the far” & “training hard to no avail even after years of painstaking practice”. “The slightest diversion from the true path takes one far off target”. Heed these statements above all else when training in IMA.
In other words don’t BS yourself and pay close attention to detail.”

– Sifu Rudy Ray Curry