Way-agnostic wayfarer

Oh you reached a peak? Here's one that is taller than the one you are standing on.

It's been some time since my last entry. Life has a way of throwing wrenches in your machinations. Ideas come and go. Time passes. I do not actively practice Aikido at this time, nor am I affiliated with any group that does. It is however improbable that seventeen years of earnest effort and aspiration would go up in smoke over night, right? I had made progress and opened new avenues of exploration. Pursuing some of these gave me new ambitions and goals and it became evident that fulfilling these would require new methods. Changing the methods changes everything. I am solely doing solo training now. With every insight, I have gained more questions than answers and have multiplied and exacerbated my insecurities. But, one certainty I have gained beyond any doubt: partner training, be it forms or free sparring in setup, is detrimental to long-term transformation for the same reason it is irreplaceable in "burning in" of forms and patterns. Time and again traditional martial artists entering fights in sports or other venues have resorted to, or regressed into if you will, plain kickboxing with messy grappling to boot. Now there is a sound line of reasoning that says a human can only punch, kick and twist limbs in so many ways, and that holds true. The issue I see is not with modern MMA buffs believing the commonly shared basics are the most efficient way to move martially. The issue I see is with TMA folks reducing their arts to flamboyant, less efficient versions of MMA. Looking at their arts through kinesiological prisms crafted for observing movements of arts that are literally fundamentally different. "Sciencifying" of the old. In actuality, doing a disservice to centuries of research and multitudes of original paths by assimilating them Borg-like into modern sport science. (There is the other group of TMArtists that believe in their martial superiority while being unaware their knowledge is limited and cut off from its source long ago. These make for entertaining Youtube content when they test their skill.) Yes, the human body has a finite number of movements it can execute. Yes, it's all governed by the same laws of physics. BUT, that finite number FAR exceeds what is commonly accepted AND the very inception and manner of execution of even a common, shared movement among arts can differ radically, while appearing the same to outside observation. Any internal martial artist that touched a sufficiently advanced teacher knows this. What you and the observers have seen was not what you felt... ? I am emphatically not saying we should forego physics - that's impossible in practice even for those that go full woo woo. What I'm saying is, there is a point in internal martial arts study where you either need to go part time physicist - part time martial artist in order to make sense of things; or take the white coat off and approach understanding through direct experience. I am not sufficiently advanced in any of these fields to say with confidence which way is better or that there are even only these ways to choose from. I will ask, however, how many physicists do you know of who are also accomplished martial artists? Or neuroscientists? Most of us humans are too stupid for multi-disciplinary studies. That's why these are scarce. One of the most infuriating types of comments I can read online come from well-educated types who couldn't twist open a pickle jar that's even a little burnt-in. Louis CK said a fifty-year old garbage man is wiser than a twenty-five-year old college educated man, meaning a little experience goes a long way. So back to why I'm exclusively going solo in my practice. Partner forms or sparring helps ingrain patterns. I am re-patterning. Re-writing. I feel strongly against firing up Windows while my BIOS is flashing. When I make a movement better, or succeed in a new movement, I need time to process it. I need to practice it more, make it my own and re-mold to make myself its. Testing myself in a partner setting is a powerful tool, but one I feel can do at least as much damage in the learning phase as it can help. When to use it? When to push hands, take ukemi, knuckle-up? Well, I don't know. When you feel you need it? When you desire some? Taking the social aspect out of your training, even hypothetically, may help you with finding some answers. I am responsible only for my own development. Make your own mistakes! Ha.