Is this the fellow you described as an out-of-practice shodan teaching a summer recreation class 40 years ago? You had one summer of instruction, followed by books?
One of them.
Yep.
After the summer class, maybe three to five times a year Iād accompany him when heād visit and train with the godan who learned karate in Japan, but primarily I was practicing and learning on my own from printed materials the majority of the time.
I did this until the brown/black belt level.
I feel that I could have accomplished pretty close to the same level with the online material and AI available today.
Itād be an incredibly interesting experiment, donāt you think, to see how far and well AI and online resources could take someone without human interaction and feedback?
Literally, I have never seen an aikido school or teacher or practitioner claim that aikido teaches you great striking skills. I have never seen that deception perpetrated.
Neither have I.
The sad part is that the instructors donāt even know that they donāt know how bad their techniques are and that theyāre probably doing a disservice by teaching them.
You described your aikido experience as less than a year, of which only 6-9 months were with any level of commitment. The sensei may have been great. Your experience with it was too brief to have been meaningful.
My training was extensive enough that I knew that I couldnāt use it to realistically defend myself on the street.
It was great fun though.
Probably the most fun I ever had in a martial arts style.
I get your frustration. Quality instruction isnāt available to everyone. Thatās life, and it aināt fair. If you want to turn to books, video, and Ai for guidance, that is your choice. I honestly feel your time and efforts would be better spent doing general fitness like running, swimming, cycling, strength training, etc., than what you will get from such resources.
Itās not so much a learning curve, but more the camaraderie and maintaining motivation when in a class vs doing it alone.
If thereās one thing that would prevent someone from learning a martial art from AI and online resources, thatās it: the lack of human interaction and feedback rather than the material.
Iām not sure someone could commit to a year of pure AI instruction.
My real beef is when people come into the forums belittling various arts, especially when they have had little or no experience of quality in those methods. New People come into here all the time, making those claims as if we have never heard such opinions before. You can dislike aikido or taiji or whatever else, for whatever reasons you want. Nobody says you have to like them or do them. That is your choice and you are free to make it. But coming on here and trash talking them is tedious and nonsense and we have all heard it many times before. That is when Iām going to tell you that you are full of s h i t and you need to grow up.
Didnāt mean to offend anyone and I think that I said as much in my original statement about disparaging Aikido.
But, sometimes you have to keep it real.
If you cannot step back emotionally and take a reasonable, rational, emotionally disconnected, realistic look at a martial art, wellā¦Iām probably not the one who needs to grow up.
