completely agree. kokyo dosa is for me a kneeling exercise and exactly as you say... an exercise in projection. not a real martial exercise. still, harder than it looks when you do it for the first time. you have to learn to be light and feel for the intent.
Yes, I have spent hours of time pretending to train in Ki Aikido just so I can consider it ineffective. I say 'mind screw' because I don't know how else to define, in his words: "dropping your one point (while in seiza, mind you) below your Uke's focus or one point (which was already at the ground) and just BAM". He describes everything with Ki, which can be an effective way of teaching beginners but for those who want to understand the mechanics and experiment, it has little value and comes across as a lack of knowledge. So the way he describes things, to the inexperienced, sounds a little bit... 'magical'. If he were the head instructor, I wouldn't train there but our Sensei is quite a bit more practical and understanding. :hat:
That fact that you can't define what you're talking about suggests you'renot fully aware of what you're talking about. Which is fine if thinking in this way helps you at your current stage in your training. But it does make your next statement quite puzzling. He's the thing. If you are a beginner, then you need a teacher who can break down their accumulated body of knowledge and experience into little bits that can be understood. You need a teacher who can communicate and express with clarity exactly what they are getting at. And even then it will take the student many years of study to fully understand the lesson. Opaque teaching methods do not encourage understanding. Their sole purpose is to obfuscate understanding. And frankly an over reliance on the term "Ki" does suggest a lack of understanding on the part of the teacher. It's a practice that has given Aikido and Ki Aikido a bad name in martial arts circles.
I honestly can't define what I'm talking about because I don't know the mechanics behind it or how it's done, except for the brief explanation provided on this topic. And I agree now, having given it much thought, that constantly using KI to explain everything definitely has something to do with the art being watered down. From what I've read, Tohei was one of the best and his style was pretty hard at the beginning yet from years of misunderstanding, it seems to be slowly degrading imo.
