Stray dogs and the aikido neighborhood.

I'm pretty damned open minded. (damned as a qualifier for open minded is a great literary touch, don't you think)  It doesnt come out in what I say, it comes out in what I do and who I go visit.   The last few months I have been in the room and absorbed ideas from a dozen or so OKC players, J.W. Bode, the Himes, and Russell Waddell.  Eric Pearson is coming to town and I can't wait.  I've watched hundreds of hours of Nick Lowry and his guys.  I've watched every thing that I can get for free on Tomiki Aikido.  I've flirted with the idea of joining the Aikikai, and didn't because I missed getting a hand shoved in my face all the time. 

 There are a lot of times I get a lot of Amen, brothers, and there are time's I get a lot of direct "you dont know what you are fu*king talking about."   I learn more from the latter.  The truth is if you show me something cool that makes me laugh, or say holy shit., then you basically started feeding a stray dog.  I'll tend to stay around, wander off  for a few days when a bitch is in heat somewhere, and then wander back. 

But stray dogs are stray dogs.  And you have to realize that I am a stray dog.  That I may lay on your front porch for weeks, and then be gone.  I may bare my teeth every once and awhile at another dog or when somebody steps on my tail, but if I bite I get kicked off the porch and shot in the ass.  Buckshot in the ass tends to impede your wandering ability.

I tend to get the whole neighborhood putting buckshot in my ass over randori for some reason.  


There are times that I may put forth the idea that I have a boner for Nariyama Demonstration /rip an arm off of a college kid Aikido, and competitive Randori. While the notion of ripping an arm off of a college kid appeals to me, That's just another porch to lay on, another bitch in heat.  The other day, Russell showed us some of his ideas, and it made me wag my tail and want to lay on his front porch.  There was a lot of things that Russell was telling me that made me look at my Nariyama Book.  And I'll be damned If Nariyama had some of the same ideas.  It's funny because Russell says he doesn't believe in throwing people down no more.  That he'll catch em.  And Nariyama will throw your ass into the parking lot.  But it takes a stray dog to connect the dots.  

I alluded to the fact that folks shouldn't have a problem with the Japanese Toshu Randori that Sato Sensei is putting out there.  Because all this slow moving practice that we do should prepare us to get on a plane to Tokyo put on our big boy Gi and show those cats how its done.  Shouldnt even hesitate, right?   No sweat. 

Or you could simply not give a shit and do whatever the hell makes you happy.  If something I say fires you up, it's because you had the charcoal already soaked with lighter fluid over something else that doesnt have to do with me. Don't get pissed at me because I struck a match at a barbeque.   If you get pissed about what I say, then all that means is that I accidentally shit on some intellectual/philosophical lawn of yours. But whether I purposefully or accidently shit on your lawn, there is still shit on your lawn. And for that I apologize. But as a stray dog, I'm going to have to shit on somebodies lawn.  Because that's the fundamental nature of stray dogs.  

My simple reason for doing aikido the way I do is because my attitude is better, I lost 40 pounds, I can take two dumps a day, lay on the floor and go to sleep,  and I dont get sick like I used too. I like to write about it, but I like to write about anything.  It doesnt have anything to do with ki, or harmony, or winning, or defending myself against a gang of hoodie wearing criminals. I find most folks instructions about what to do in a fight laughable, because its like virgins telling someone how to have sex. They always name drop someone who suppossedly got into a fight somewhere.  If somebody starts talking self defense I can ask them how many times they actually defended themselves.  If its more than once, I figure that they are a liar or a colossal asshole and I don't want to associate with either type.   

I dont get into those types of conversations.  I'm not an expert on violence.
 Just front porches and bitches. 

 There are pluses and minuses of both the fast and slow  They both are front porches for me to lay on, they both have the ability  to go into heat and get me wandering.  But neither one of them are my lawn, so I aint going to get pissed if you shit all over the slow lawn or the fast lawn.  You had to take a shit somewhere.  My advice is don't shit on the same lawn too much or you get some buckshot in your ass.   

What we do is motor skill driven. You can call it slow. But it's Motor skill driven.   It's like me playing catch with my kid.  It starts out with him cradling his arms in front,  I toss a catchable underhanded  nerf ball from a short distance and he catches it most of the time.  He doesnt catch it when he stiffens his arms, it just bounces off.  He catches it when he relaxes his arms.  After a while he gets so good he gets bored and then its time to introduce something tougher. When people dont show up for class its because its not challenging enough, or too challenging.  There is a fine line on this approach.  As long as you keep stretching it then you should be fine. 

The tactical approach is that you play the game first within the developmental limitations of the player. You modify the game for safety, and let them go as fast as they want, look for positives, and look for things that need to be technically improved.  Then do the slow down technical practice for a awhile, then you return to the tactical game.  This happens to be the approach that sets Tomiki Aikido apart from the rest, at least by this stray dogs estimation.  People need to know for themselves what their problems are.  Try to correct a problem that someone doesnt believe exists and you are wasting your time.  

The Motor skill driven approach tends to appeal to the more patient, thoughtful student, who has a lot of trust in what he is being taught.  The tactical approach is for the more impulsive student, who just wants to play, and when play gets frustrating, they are more open to technical instruction with the provision that it doesnt take to damn long and they are returned to play.  When play improves then they start buying into instruction and the teacher.  

I dont take knowledge as territory to be defended. I change moods and opinions like underwear.  As a stay dog, ideas and methodologies are just porches and bitches.  Once I start defending territory my porches and bitches decrease.  I just have one porch and no bitches because I'm trapped by a fence of my own making.  I bought into one way of doing things, and guard it like a chow bowl.   I won't just bare my teeth, I'll bite and I may just bite the hand that feeds me and get some buckshot in the ass.  A stray dog no more, I'll just wonder around town until the dog catcher nabs me.  No more porches, no more bitches.

 Sorry about the shit on your lawn, too.