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.

“Interrupt your opponent’s force before he generates it.”

“It makes no sense to train your solo forms in school with others. There are better way to train in school. Some CMA guys just don’t understand the difference between school work and homework.”

“If every training session you push yourself so hard that you hate to do it again than that will not be good. You should stop your training when you feel great and you still want to continue but you force yourself to stop. This way you always look forward to the next training section.”

“The opening that you can “see” may not be true opening. It’ could be a trap – raise guard to invite a kick, drop guard to invite a punch. The opening that you can “feel” will be the true opening. This is why one needs to build up bridge (making leg/arm contact) before futher commitment.”

“How do you expect a girl to go to bed with you if you never say ‘I love you’? You say ‘I love you.’ She says ‘I love you too’. Then you get to say ‘Good, let’s go to bed!’ That is using and then borrowing force. First, you give, then you take.”

“What’s my style? ……My style is the style that can beat the shit out of you!”

“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