| Most times arts don't fit together. You take the circular | | | | had been. Lower black belts kept their distance, but he |
| hands of kenpo and try to put them atop the linear | | | | wanted to learn, and that was the mark of a higher |
| stances of shotokan, and you are going to get an | | | | level belt. |
| uncoordinated mish mash. Or, the jabs of boxing might | | | | So I explained about locking down the stance, and we |
| fit with wing chun, but the round house power punches | | | | looked at that in conjunction with aikido techniques, and |
| don't fit at all. | | | | how things could have been different. Nothing was |
| And, of course, there are exceptions to the rule. You | | | | working though, until I asked him if he had ever heard |
| can put aikido together with pa kua chang, but it is | | | | of sticky hands. He hadn't, and when I showed it to him |
| going to take logic and discipline to categorize individual | | | | the lights began to go on. |
| techniques. And, this leaves the developer with a | | | | Wing Chun, you see, doesn't lock the stances down, |
| problem of how do you teach the beast without | | | | and we spent hours figuring out how to get the feet to |
| confusing. | | | | go fast enough to keep up with the aikido centrifugal |
| That all said, one day I was in an Aikido class, I was a | | | | action. Slowly, we figured out how the feet were |
| beginner in Aikido, though I had seven years of kenpo | | | | supposed to cross or circle with the slip of the hand. |
| and karate and a dabble of wing chun. So they asked | | | | We began to go into advanced techniques, Paul |
| me to partake in randori. which is the multiman | | | | excited because of the lights going on, myself grinning, |
| freestyle specific to aikido. And, it was a tragedy. | | | | because I was getting a lesson in Aikido that the other |
| I didn't want to give them my punches, karate had | | | | fellows in the school, the lower black belts, would have |
| taught me to lock down and become immoveable, and | | | | died for. |
| the result was that nobody could throw me, and the | | | | It takes an extreme common sense to put arts |
| give and take of the randori exercise broke down. I | | | | together, and very few people are successful at the |
| blame no one, it was mixing apples and peaches, and | | | | endeavor. I succeeded wildly, and this because I |
| one could argue they should have been able to make | | | | always seem to run into people that are willing to |
| their art work, but I should have been able to work | | | | share what they learn. If you think you know it all, if |
| with them. Interestingly, it was what happened after | | | | you're proud, if you think you are better than other |
| that that became interesting. | | | | students, then you will never open your mind and be |
| One of the higher ranked black belts, name of Paul, | | | | able to absorb all the wonderful truth that flows so |
| came up to me and wondered where the breakdown | | | | freely on this plane of existence. |