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TommyK
12th March 2003, 01:06
Greetings,

I recently had the chance to view the well known "Rendezvous with Adventure" tape, featuring Aikido and O'Sensei. Aside from the fact that Tohei sensei mentions that O-sensei is 80 when he was only 75,(O'Sensei was born in 1883, and the video was 1958) I thought the video was especially good for its time.

I have heard that the segment featuring Tohei sensei in a 'catch as catch can' fight was horrible. I thought it did not do Aikido justice, but I don't think it was 'horrible'.

Any thoughts out there?

Regards,
TommyK

Jake McKee
21st March 2003, 18:25
Hi Tommy,

Apparantly, O sensei was saying he was 80 years old for quite a number of years. Did he himself lose track? I think he just wasn't interested in things like age...

Regarding the Tohei duel, I don't think it was horrible either. In fact, I think it is commendable that he was willing to take the challenge on camera. I for one haven't seen any other aikido sensei willing to take on a challenger. I would love to see it though!

When we watch aikido demos and randori (multi person attack) it looks so much more impressive than Tohei's duel... Why? Because in demos and randori, the attacker is committed. The reporter in this video was not a committed attacker. This kind of fighter is more difficult for an aikidoka to deal with. Also keep in mind that the challenger in this case was an overweight out of shape reporter. That made it even more important for Tohei to protect him and not hurt his attacker. Nonetheless, I've been on the receiving end of Tohei sensei's technique and I can vouch for the effectiveness.

I suppose some viewers were expecting to see some nice clean techniques. In aikido, we train kata style, but aikido in a real situation might look very different!

Best,

don
21st March 2003, 18:58
Originally posted by Jake McKee
The reporter in this video was not a committed attacker. This kind of fighter is more difficult for an aikidoka to deal with. Also keep in mind that the challenger in this case was an overweight out of shape reporter. That made it even more important for Tohei to protect him and not hurt his attacker.

I hear Tohei caught a lot of flack for this, but I tend to admire his restraint here, too. Osensei often emphasized how important ATEMI is to aikido and Tohei didn't pop the guy even once.

Joseph Svinth
25th March 2003, 03:53
I know nothing about the company, but these guys say they have the video: http://www.budovideos.com/moruesbiog3r.html