You have got to be kidding… This site right here is about as Bona Fide when it comes to IMAs as Pope Ratzinger is a force of good in the world.
If you want to get top-notch, no-bullcrap (mostly) information on the physical why’s and how’s of IMA practice, Aikiweb is the place to go. Anything with Mike Sigman, Rob John, Dan Harden, Rupert Atkinson, Timothy Walters Kleinert, Mark Murray, Hunter Lonsberry et al. in it, will likely present a few good nuggets of useful info. Such knowledge very rarely pops up here, and when it finally does, it ALWAYS gets drowned out by the collective board’s random buzz on things….its the rule around here. I distinctly remember the ridiculous reactions Bodywork’s, Upyu’s, Moling’s and Tadzio’s posts used to get (not saying all of those people are the bulls’ balls or anything, just that based on their postings, they undoubtedly understand the fundamentals of the subject).
Hell, Mike Sigman was quickly booted off the board back in the day because he was here for info and not for the fun of it.
That shouldn’t happen on an IMA board. The members should be able to recognize how the physical reality of IMA is/was reflected in the aforementioned people’s commentaries immediately. Why is this not the case? It must be because so few people really have bona fide IMA skills in the first place.
I’ve trained with three big name teachers here in China and the situation is not different over here.
Even with the big name teachers it’s the same, the same. Few students seem to get it. There are a lot of reasons for that, not least which has to do with the fact that so few realize that IMAs present a radically different way of using the body in the first place.
In short, this board has never had a large share of genuinely knowledgeable people and when it has had’em it chased them off with torch an' pitchforks...as a rule.
Rumsoaked fist is mostly for the fun of - well fun - and the fun of… drama
