Shut Up, do it, wonder why. Rinse. Repeat. (Renshu Filters and Mind Splinters)

                                                             

                                                   When you hit Shodan you have a about five minutes or so of an ego pump and then, If you are like this hillbilly, you realize that you still don't know this shit very well at all.  All a shodan means it that you've taken the tour(of the system as handed down) and got a T-shirt(the black belt).   You start paying attention to your Sensei again on the basics, you reevaulate why something isn't  working for you, and you start connecting with other folks to look at things at different angles.   You study some history of your system to see how things initially started, where they started to diverge, and why.   

Tomiki Aikido is a Renshu(learn by repetition) school.  Renshu schools have to be technically spare. It may not feel your need for constant variety, but variety is an illusion.  Visit wal-mart sometime.

 The strength of a Renshu model lies in its perceived problems. I've done the walking kata so many times that sometimes I don't see any improvement in my Aikido.  When you are told repeatedly that all the principles of Aikido are in the Walking Kata, and that the walking Kata will improve your aikido and you don't make connections and improvement things start to bother you. Things that bother you and frustrate you tend to stick with you.  Rattle snakes tend to collect more rules of thumb, concepts, and principles than kitty cats.   Buzzing clouds of Mosquitos more than lightning bugs.  These things tend to cause mind splinters.  

Keiko is talk about it, explain it, justify it.   In a renshu art, the keiko is often student centered.  It's about 50% Eureka, I've found it, and 50% complaining about the mind splinters.  The instructor usually say's that's okay when its a Eureka, but you need to be aware of this, that, and the other. With the mind splinters they usually say, " maybe you should figure it out yourself, or shut up and practice."   The key is to not allow the talk to override the practice.

If you want to talk about an Art that has 25 movements, then that's your deal.  You are going to eventually run out of things to talk about.  If you practices an art that was based on the 10,000 movements of the Gods, then you might find plenty to talk about.  

When I was starting out,  there were people who would do two forward rolls, then critique mine while I knocked out 20 or so.  Some people think talking is going to get them there. 

There are times when you may get frustrated with your training and begin to doubt it. Doubt is another type of Mind Splinter.  A renshu trained Aikido dude looks at the heart and origins of his own system.  While I've visited an Aikikai affiliated dojo here lately, its really to understand what I see on Youtube, and I like to sweat.     I've seen a couple of things that connect to a koryu kata, and I saw something that helped me figure out what Tomiki is doing in his four Kote gaeshi's,  I'm not going to really see/integrate something unless my renshu training allows it. 

I've gotten more insight from watching Senta Yamada clips, looking at the jugohon kata, reading aikido: dialogue of movement. , and mail ordering this book: 

 

This is because they align more closely with my renshu training.  You are more likely to get a "why the hell do we not do it like Ohba,argument, than why don't we do it like Akikai, Yoshinkan, Daito ryu argument.   Someone may punch me in the nuts, but I think that the circular junanahon interpretations are a cave in to " the why don't we do it like Morty-ryu" does it".   I'm not saying it sucks, but as someone who actually goes to an Aikikai dojo on occasion to see what the neighbors are up to, thats what it reminds me of.  Someone taking thier renshu and attempting to Mortyize it.  . Like everything else in life I'm probably wrong.    

Anyway, Here is what I call renshu filtering its from the karate world.  Four katas all from the same source, the final products the result of what the founders of the styles renshu training allowed.  Who is doing it wrong?  Be my guest and tell those two 70 something year old Okinawans that they are doing it wrong.( Take your insurance card with you) That their versions have something missing.  Or maybe they picked up on movements that coincide with what their renshu and principles are telling them.  If they decided to go back and do it more Chinese(or Mortyize it) are they idiots?    

Here is our primary form of Renshu:  The walking Kata.   Yamada' s version is our version.  However, we  may do a couple of things different.   Was someone a dumbass and took bad notes? 

  

Here is a crazy movement that causes a mind splinter: a lot of people do it in a weird hand out of center chopping off the head action.   Nicks doesn't do that, but I think I may know why it got choppy.    I

Here's an interpretation based on my renshu filter:  The choppy swing is trying to replicate a set-up and completion of an iriminage movement.  Yon kata is basically an advanced study of the walking kata, somebody might of keyed in on that fact and changed it.  Then some jonny do it right made it into a Domiarigato Mr. Roboto routine.        

  

That bad thing about repetition is that you may be repeating ignorant ass movements.  Or a renshu dojo may be hiding a "Sensei with no clothes."  The shut up and do it is a great insulation for not knowing what the hell you are doing.  On the other hand, There is supposedly a major style of Karate whose founder didnt know karate.  He stopped a robbery and the newspaper identified him as an Okinawan Karate master.  He was beset with people who wanted to pay him money to learn from him.  Being a poor guy with nothing to lose, he went in the morning to take lessons from a real karate master and in the evening he simply taught what he learned in the morning.  He must have had a knack for teaching, because after a few years of Renshuing his students, his students, not him, brought legitimacy to his "Style" of Karate.