Originally Posted by
elder999
Of late, and more than once, Dan has said something to the effect of, "I don't do Daito Ryu; I do mixed martial arts.....
Hi Aaron,
That's very true. On the other hand, you'll notice that he's not posting on a forum for mixed martial arts. My complaint isn't really that he's claiming to do Daito Ryu now-- he very clearly makes no claim to be practicing/teaching Daito Ryu. However, there seems to be a suggestion somewhere in there that despite not currently practicing Daito Ryu he knows all that there is to know about it, and what he teaches/practices is based on his complete understanding of the principles of Daito Ryu. Leaving me to wonder how he is so certain that the internal principles that he knows are the principles of Daito Ryu.
Of course, maybe I'm reading things into Dan's posts that he doesn't intend for me to read into them, but I'm not the only person who has gotten that impression from his posts. Perhaps a little clarification on his part wouldn't be a bad idea?
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to condemn or criticize Dan; I've actually found many of his posts to be interesting and informative. I'm partly trying to articulate a complaint about his posts that I've heard both online and off-line from more than a few people and partly trying to show some of the questions his posts have raised with me when I have read them. I've got to say that I'd have a much better idea of how much credence to give his posts on the subject of Daito Ryu if I had a clearer idea of how much Daito Ryu he had practiced.
To backtrack slightly, there seems to be this idea that the "secret" of Daito Ryu is internal power. While Daito Ryu clearly uses internal power generation as one facet of its training, I haven't seen any evidence one way or the other regarding whether or not internal training is one of the real "guiding principles" of Daito Ryu. All that's beyond me at the moment, of course; I've only been training for a year or so. However, if anyone is going to start suggesting that they know for sure what the core principles of an art are, I'll wonder how long they studied it to get that certain understanding.
Oh, and Nathan, I'm sure that I've told you this before: Mr. Sims is my father. You won't find him on this forum.
David Sims
"Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum." - Terry Pratchet
My opinion is, in all likelihood, worth exactly what you are paying for it.