Uh, pardon me for sounding disrespectful (so, you know what's coming next) but this doesn't sound like a friendly gathering.
This statement by GT Gaje, whom I trained under many many years ago -1985 - sounds more like an outright challenge than anything else.
So much for room for exchange of ideas and creativity and openess.
Back in the day when I was trying to introduce the Physical benefits of swinging nunchaku - Not as a weapon per se but just for the physicality of it - GT Gaje, Jr. dismissed it as rubbage pretty much.
It boils down to this - When Frank Dux threw 70 mile per hour sidekicks at his opponents the style Did Not Matter - It was a 70 mile per hour sidekick.
The simple truth is this - you say technology - true - I've maintained my practice on the 36-way attack and accompanying drills, flows and exercises - GREAT! Outstanding stuff.
I'm an ASP tactical baton instructor, former SORT team leader and currently a special forces soldier deployed to Iraq.
Martial arts are vast and numerous and I've met and have learned to respect people from ALL styles.
I met a dude when I worked in a jail in Texas that could destroy concrete slabs with a reinforced elbow and if he played you into his clutches and was on his game - Woe! He was a shodokanist.
I see a lot of defensivity in GT Gaje, Jr's statement -
The Way is different for each person.
Kinda like religion - your God, my God - we all come to our own little truths along different paths.
I'm gonna miss this event and any other like it because I have to be on my game out here every waking moment.
Respectfully, enjoy your event but think about it.
There is merit in everything applied with the right heart - folly lies only in misuse. Don't exclude or judge other paths just because you are locked into your ways - doesn't make them better, just better for YOU!
Can you throw a 70 mile per hour sidekick? - I can't, but I'd like to keep trying.
Not a perfect one,
Zinja
