Interpretations of Aikido( its a matter of knees and legs)

I wrote a few months back that Shodan Level is that you go back and you look at the Basics.  You ask questions all over again.  How do you do this, again?  All shodan means is that you can ask a more specific question about something than you could when you were a white belt.  Well,  I've showed up enough to nearly be a Nidan and I think I've asked enough questions to form an opinion or two about where I'm going with my Aikido.  And somewhere in the next year or so I'm going to stop training Dumbshit. 
   
Dumbshit is a highly subjective martial art concept where one guys way doing things just doesn't work for you.  We aren't talking about a matter of  curriculum or philosophy, or whether it would work against a judo player or a pack of hoodie wearing urban youths.  We are talking a matter of mentality and body type and level of fitness and conditioning.  

A short guy and tall guy aren't going to see the same concrete universe.  A short fat guy is a lot different than a a tall fat guy.  An upper middle class endocrinologist is going to have a different mentality about how to deal with conflict than a  poor guy who works on a loading dock.  A guy who is in a high state of fitness and conditioning is going to see a martial situation differently than a cerebral couch potato.   You either approach things with your head or your heart, but  never both.

A guy with good knees is going to see the world differently than someone with knee trouble. 

I started changing my mind about things when I started getting in better physical shape by doing things wrong.  I started doing the Tegatana kata wrong.  Repetively, and jumpy.   I like to lift my heels up and drop into steps.  I like to turn my foot outside or inside like Senta Yamada and the Yoshinkan Folks do.  I like to do the forward and backwards fencing steps like Tomiki.  They are maai regulating steps.  The diagonals, sidesteps,and turning steps are the same damn thing.  The only difference is a matter of time, space and tempo.  By tempo I mean how many attacks you are dealing with.  Either one guy swiping at you one, two or three times.  Or Two or three guys swiping at you once. 

Anyway,  my legs have gotten into pretty damn good shape, by doing the walking.  I added some seiza and some squatting and try to Shikko some.  I can always trip over a lego toy tomorrow, but right now my knees are in the best shape of my life and I'm over forty.  Aikido is about use it or lose it.  I used it, and it changed my view of aikido.  

I also like bullheaded Randori.   I mean I like controlled randori, but I want to feel like I did something afterward. 

Aikido is a weapon evasion mentality.  You are avoiding a sword or a stick or a knife, and your footwork reflects that.  The fact that most aikido attacks are based on a shomen uchi movement, yokomenuchi movement, or a tsuki movement.  Aikido also deals with someone attempting to arrest your range of movement so you can't attack.   Aikido means powerful legs.  The deep stances of Yoshinkan should have told you, the walking kata should have told you.  Suwari waza should have told you. 

When I watch Jack do Jodo his stances are very powerful, and they are deep enough to get whatever job is supposed to be done.  Yet when we do aikido we try to do as many Tim Conway steps as possible. The Tim Conway comes from judo where you dont want to let your feet get you in trouble. It also comes from a system of thinking that trys to work around knee problems.

I haven't  ever mentioned it in my blog because I don't want to speak of things that I don't know shit about.  But we get all of our notions from Karl Geis--Sensei.  The fact that I just used Sensei means that anything I say is from a place of respect.  There are a lot of folks that started out in his organization that are no longer there, but still teach his stuff, and still talk about the guy in a " he really knew his shit" way.  

But Karl Geis had bad knees, and his Aikido reflected that. I'm not saying it is bad aikido.  I'm saying its aikido as done by an Old guy with bad knees.  Here are two young fellas, doing aikido like someone who has limitations in the mobilty department. My simple question is: why? They dont have any mobility problems? 

Why learn a system that is based on a limitation that you don't have? 

I've got an Ass and an opinion like everyone else but I think a lot of problems stem from the misinterpreted intent of the Tomiki Stiff Arm.  We have all heard the words "slow down."  And we float around like these two guys thinking that's going to get us somewhere.   The stiff arm was the first SLOW DOWN.   It represented the end point of an extended attack.  A guy didnt have to worry about timing which timing means speed.  He just kept maai, extended it out and fit it into whatever technique.  

But when you add a cross arm offbalance to an already extended attack you reintroduce timing which means you have to get a guy to slow back down to learn the shit.  You are in a fact taking his extended arm which represents him being out of whack, pushing his arm back into whack, and trying to back out and renegotiate the guy back into a compromised position. Then you execute a technique.

A guy with stronger legs than the other guy doesnt have to renegotiate.  Put your hands in your center and tsugi ashi.  The legs do the work.  You can feel for footfalls, and chain if you want.  But that's just an exploration of something else.  Aikido is just a matter of legs and position.

The cross arm offbalance  is my interpretation of  Training Dumbshit.  I've been looking at the 17 done as kihon, and just can't do the crossarm thing anymore.  I would rather try the kihon mode, toshu randori, randori with a toy knife, koryu kata, or play around with the classic three attacks, shomen, yoko, or tsuki.  Moving around like I have bad knees when I dont is a waste of damn precious time.  Most aikido folks think that there goal is to do aikido movements and not break a sweat because they finally made it to that level.  If I ever stop breaking a sweat then I'm quitting.

Gozo Shioda didnt have bad knees.  Look at his evasions and his footwork.  Not much Tim Conway. His footwork looks small but its because his legs are powerful.  They were built by doing deepstance aikido.   His footwork is small because he can, not because he trained it.  The small lives in the big is not a technical thing.  Its a training thing.   Big movements make you strong. And when you get strong, the small stuff gets strong.

You cant get something for nothing.  And if you don't use it, you will lose it.  Or lose whatever you have left.