Before I began my study of Tai Chi, as a beginning student of Aikido twelve or fifteen years ago--out of respect for truly long term practitioners I will not say, many--I read in some book or magazine that the student will start out soft and become hard before becoming soft again. I don’t remember who said it, but I received it with the same unquestioning authority I received everything I read in those days. And it has proven true. In my case the initial softness was a focus on the psycho-spiritual aspects of the art; the following hardness, an obsession with martial efficacy and competition; now, I am curious to explore the meeting point of both ideas, although I would substitute “technical proficiency” for “martial efficacy.” I think, in today’s world of archaic and advanced weaponry, arguments of efficacy are anachronistic and, at any rate, as impossible to determine as the future. Of course as a way of keeping practice focused this sort of analysis has its benefits. It might, to some practitioners, even be crucial. The quality of our technical proficiency within our art form is the guidepost to our personal growth. In this view, it really doesn’t matter how the different arts stack up against each other and one is not superior over the other. As beings with a half-animal nature these questions about our arts are admittedly impossible not to ask, but in my experience an obsession with these questions limits the experience of the real beauty of what we all do. As an experiment, I have decided to compete in the Mundials (BJJ world championships) as a black belt in three years. I have a little over a year of BJJ behind me. The time constraint to develop the necessary proficiency is moderately, if not totally, ridiculous--and I plan to win. My exploration is not about efficacy or dominance but about approaching an art, and life, from a sincerely internal place, from the truest place possible, and seeing where that will take me. I have started a blog, a travelogue of sorts to chronicle my pilgrimage. If you are interested please visit me at, <<snip>> . Edit: Link removed. MAP has a no advertising policy, please contact an Admin if you wish to discuss Advertising rates.
yes, you can. Your signature is automaticly added to every post you make, you edit it via the control panel. I wish you would have asked me. I dont have the time to notify every member of every tos breach and wait on them changing it, and then go back and check.
My link is now in my signature. Unfortunately, it does not update on previous posts. Thanks for trying to help.
Starts out soft becomes hard and then soft again? Sounds like an aiki mystic to me.How about starts out hard then becomes flexible NEVER soft. Think of a japanese sword flexible backbone and hard cutting edge. That is what you should aim for. regards koyo
Meh... what's "internal" about your groundfighting? Your organs continue to function while you fight? Just using good body mechanics and relaxation isn't "internal"... it's just good MA. Oh, and this post was lame on EF a week ago... so I'm gonna say :ban: :saz: :ban: (I don't really wanna ban you, I just wanted to use these new smilies... )
