Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Many Students

Tonight I had 6 students! It was great. I was able to observe and give advice with my most senior student directing the other 5. The only problem I've run into is a guy who's shown up from the Hapkido class. It's not really a problem, just different ideas about confrontations. He's constantly questioning how things in Aikido could work with someone striking you. I pointed out that we start from outside Mai and are in almost constant motion whereas in Hapkido (from what I've seen) they start in a fighting stance almost elbow-width apart and root their feet instead of moving their bodies. I love questions, but don't like repeating myself every class on the same thing. It just reinforces my idea that every martial artist has a root martial art and everything else they learn, they may really like, but it only serves to supplement the main one.

2 comments:

Patrick Parker said...

Great class! I repeat, You're taking over the world.

I agree that everyone has a martial art that they jive with and they tend to interpret everything else they learn based on that core of knowledge

Patrick Parker said...

But then again, sometimes the only filter that you have to view another martial art is whatever first/only one martial art you've had significant experence with.

for example. I started in TKD, and for a good while, figured everything was some minimal variation on that art. I mean, come on, how much different could you get from the stuff I already knew when I'd been practising for a year and a half? It wasn't till later that I experimented with karate, judo, aikido, jujitsu, tangsoodo, jodo, etc... and came to the conclusion that the core of my knowledge, the art that I jive most with, is aikido.