Chris Fleming wrote:Hey I'm open to learning more and am not completely "set in my ways".
Still though, I have to look at it rationally. The masters of old were mostly farmers. They "strength trained" every day. And then they had to do their "internal" practice. If they weren't farmers and had a business, say a lumber business, we have to remember that life was different from modern times today. If you got a shipment of lumber to your shop to unload, there was no forklift to unload it. You are picking up that shit yourself. Life was different, and we live in luxury compared to back then. Look at Ueshiba. He would make over sized tools for himself just so he could have even MORE "resistance training" as he farmed. His sword work drills were all about building more strength. Yet his internal power was legendary and even a grab, much less a strike was said to be like getting struck by lightening. I don't think anyone is going to accuse him of being stiff and off balance either.
Using Ueshiba as a model is interesting in that he got his power from Daito ryu. The same style I trained in. Then he went off and invented Aikido. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to find anyone with any serious degree of power in that art today. In DR of those who got any serious level of internals all were known to experiment and train in any manner of solo training and paired resistance training to strengthen what they had. As for Ueshiba’s weapons work? It is the same thing, its all about structure not muscle building. I train in a Japanese Koryu with swords, spears, naginata etc. There is no training for “strength” with the weapons, or cutting with the hips and all the other bullshit you read about here and there. It is structure…period. It was the only way to wear armor, wield weapons, and keep moving, all day long.
Where I disagree with ya'll here about lifting is what is being trained WHILE lifting. I’m not training my muscles to contract and pump while lifting heavy objects, or working with cables, or training with iron digging bars. I’m training my body to maintain structure and contradictory forces AND NOT FLEX ANY ONE THING while under loads that are intended to break my connections. Flexing and muscle building doesn't have a freaking thing to do with it. Its not muscle building, its muscle preventing!!
That said, the mass gained can still be detrimental to the gain if you don’t know what you are doing and what to counter. I then stop for extended periods to fix the inherent damage. In the balance the internal connection training is the real power. The weight training is the mass I learn to move. And I would never train to gain much in the way of large mass, at a point it is a negative on the system. Held contradictory forces leads to better weight transfer and sustained equilibrium. One that most cannot break either in attack or defense. You move through people while maintaining that state and displace them. It is thee reason people try to throw you and can't, they're fighting a center they simply can't get a handle on and they get thrown. And when you choose to move or hit- it is with a much higher percentage of mass and they get slammed. Again if you don’t know how to grapple then ....er..good luck with using even a highly trained body against someone who does. They will own your ass. They may comment on how strong or tough you are, or how hard you hit, but they will own you none-the-less.
However, if you train these skills and also learn to fight-say in grappling? Good luck to anyone who tries to throw you or gets close enough to get hit by you. I break people. Most people don’t let me hit them more than once. It's not about technique, you can feel flexation and muscle firing in their bodies, they have slack and poor connection, which they make up for in flexation. Flexing is a first step in "getting" Kuzushi on anyone. But relaxation for many is a trap, as most guys have nothin when they relax. They're a bag o shit and you can blow right through em. A relaxed connection that has no inherent slack and maintains the mass spread over the entire surface in held equilibrium is extremely difficult to "have." Its like attacking a giant shock absorber, that is ever moving. You can't find the center, and when you load it, it can either dissapear on you or send that force flying back at ya with a vengence, in either a counter throw or a strike.
I don’t concern myself with convincing folks. Yaking is fun and sometimes interesting, but the proof is in the pudding. I’d rather just train myself, my guys and the visitors to my dojo, and occasionally go out and play with like minded researchers and keep growing. Life’s to short to argue over something like Budo.
Last edited by Bodywork on Sun Jun 08, 2008 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.