From emilyd@HOTMAIL.COM Fri May 29 09:33:31 1998
From: Emily Ann Dolan
Subject: "outsider's review" of the Seminar
AIKIDO!
With links and ties too numerous to be known
Is found in the bodies and souls of the people
They who will enlighten the world.
(Doka by Morihei Ueshiba from Kjartan Clausen's online collection)
Much has been made of how the Internet is instrumental in bringing
together people from the far reaches of the world. Memorial Day Weekend,
1998, the modern martial art of Aikido blended with the very modern
science of the Internet to bring together a group spanning both the
globe and the spectrum of Aikido.
Aikido-l is an electronic mailing list for discussion of Aikido. I
have been aware of Aikido for about 10 years and on the mat for about 5.
I hold the rank of ikkyu (1st degree brown belt) within Seidokan Aikido
through Still Point Aikido Center and the UT Aikido Club in Austin,
Texas. Mail from Aikido-L has been showing up on my Internet account
since March 9, 1998, which makes me a "newbie".
I signed up for Aikido-L mostly because I had heard they were planning
a seminar which was to bring together people from different schools.
Having started out ten years ago in Aikikai, and, after a 3-year hiatus,
switching to Seidokan, I have enthusiasm for and interest in
cross-training. I also have a peculiar belief that politics should
bring people together, not drive them apart.
I intended to attend the seminar, and wanted to get to know the
participants beforehand, but I had heard that the List was hard to deal
with: hundreds of messages, hostile attitudes, rampant irreverence, lots
of off-topic discussion (e.g. raising chickens or watching Saturday
morning cartoons, two actual recent threads of conversation) and much
repetitive discussion of what Ki really is or isn't. Positive word of
mouth about Aikido-L was scarce. However, investigating Jun Akiyama's
AikiWeb (http://www.aikiweb.com) as well as Kjartan Clausen's Aikido FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions, http://www.ii.uib.no/~kjartan/aikidofaq)
turns up treasure troves of information and articles fairly sparkling
with wit and passion for budo, credited to posters (subscribers) to the
List.
I took the plunge and subscribed. The Listka, as they call themselves,
are generous with their information and opinions. Many of them are
better informed than seems humanly possible, and all of their years of
martial experience ( not solely in Aikido) add up staggeringly. They
will answer ANY question that interests them, be it about Gracie Jujitsu
or the Godzilla theme song.
On the other hand, it is the Net, and when passions are invoked, the
"flames" do arise, most frequently about Ki. Other ongoing verbal
tussles are about What Works and What Doesn't, whether Aikido is proven
"on the street" or whether it is a fruity, festive mockery of budo.
It's a tough bar. If you walk in without your sincerity, your manners,
or your sense of humor, at best they will ignore you, and at worst they
will tear you to pieces. But if you are open-minded and curious and a
little quick on the wit, you will enjoy yourself.
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, 1998
My sensei (Ross Robertson, 5th dan Seidokan, my kohai (Lynn Lytton,
sankyu) and I stayed in the same hotel as many of the other
participants. We were invited to the main gathering room to play "guess
who" and participate in that holy communion of aikidoka worldwide:
drinking beer!
Next morning, I was a little late to the opening ceremonies with Carlos
Escobar Sensei (4th dan, Kurita Juku Aikido, Mexico City) and sat seiza
awaiting his invitation onto the mat while admiring his expansive,
graceful technique. He focused on tai-sabaki and moving the other
person's center with your own, using an exercise from katatetori and
moving the hips without moving the feet.
Taking a long lunch to meet my spouse at the Sword Show at the Menger
Hotel next to the Alamo. While this was a terrific and inspiring
experience, I missed Chuck Clark Sensei's (7th dan Jiyushinkai Aikibudo)
and Rocky Izumi Sensei's (4th dan, Canadian Aikido Federation) classes.
If only I could be in two places at once!
Jun Akiyama, the Aikido-L list maintainer, was there, however, and wrote
this review:
Chuck Clark sensei (7th dan Jiyushinkai) talked first about his
Jiyushinkai style of aikido while several of his students demonstrated a
few aspects of their systematic approach to aikido.
Unlike many other styles of aikido, Clark sensei's style
incorporates what he calls kata in order to teach his students the basic
movements and taisabaki of aikido. This kata was beautiful to watch and
contained many movements integral to aikido. Unlike the Tomiki style of
aikido on which his style is based, Jiyushinkai aikido does not have
competitions. With Clark sensei's son Aaron Clark as uke, Mimi, who had
just tested for nidan, went through a variety of techniques. What was
captivating during the kata was the zanshin displayed between the two;
they never took their eyes off one another, and there was never a moment
of slack between them. At one point, Aaron "tested" Mimi when she
displayed a moment of hesitation and went right through her; I liked
this as it really emphasized awareness for both nage and uke (or, shite
and tori).
His students then demonstrated their randori. Uke remains very aware of
any openings which nage may have and will take control of the situation
whenever possible, a very dynamic interaction between nage and uke, the
respective roles becoming blurred. We then worked on a variety of
kaeshiwaza from ikkyo which emphasized staying aware of the other
person's intention and movement and moving with it (both as nage and
uke) rather than resisting.
Rocky Izumi sensei (4th dan; Regina Aikido Dojo; Regina, CA) signed off
from the list a couple of years ago, but he left all of us "old-timers"
with a bevy of stories and an indelible impression of his aikido
experience.
Dennis Hooker sensei suggested that we dedicate one of the open mat
sessions to Izumi sensei and get him to teach. Of course, everyone
agreed, and we had the "Rock" out there in person as a special guest
instructor for an hour.
Izumi sensei's style of teaching is both very serious and very
humorous. He went through a lot about body positioning as relative to
uke. By keeping his feet, hips, hands, and head in line through uke's
center line, Izumi sensei went through teaching tenchinage by using such
ingenious images such as "the Queen of England," "the Funky Chicken,"
and "Cornholio." (Yes, you had to be there.)
Izumi sensei also recalled talking to Kawahara sensei about whether
ikkyo was a "technique" or not. He said that when one of his students
asked Kawahara sensei in English, "Sensei, is ikkyo a technique?",
Kawahara sensei replied, "Of course it is." However, when Izumi sensei
asked him in Japanese if ikkyo was a technique ("Sensei, ikkyowa waza
desuka?"), Kawahara sensei replied, "You idiot! If you're still
thinking that way, you shouldn't be training in aikido!" ("Bakayaro!
Mada sonnafuuni kangaeterunara, aikido nanka yamero!"). Izumi sensei
went on to explain that ikkyo was, although technically "technique," in
actuality an aikido principle.
As I said, I really wish I had been there! Thanks to Jun for this
section of his first-rate review.
Returning in time to join George Simcox Sensei's (5th dan, Virginia Ki
Society) class, he first had us all stand as he performed a "ki test," a
push on the shoulder into the center. Having to step back to compensate
for the force instead of just absorbing it means that the body is not as
centered as possible. His class was a great lesson for me about how
closely Seidokan is related to Ki Society. The ushiro grabs were very
familiar, requiring very relaxed body and great balance and timing. He
also demonstrated a way of moving he called "floating". If you can
imagine a round, somewhat military looking fellow in a hakama doing the
traditional Native American Butterfly dance, you'll get the idea.
That wasn't the funny part. What slew me was my hard-line Kobukan
partner, Aikido-L's own postapocalyptic Hemingway (name disguised to
protect the guilty) duplicating the effect exactly!
After class, we had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, with much
tomfoolery and many awards for obscure accomplishments understood
completely only by the awards committee itself. Nevertheless, it was
darn funny for the rest of us and a good time was had by all.
As an example of the sterling character of Texas Aikikai San Antonio,
they had taken the extra money the seminar had generated and bought us
all dinner. This was possible partially because the instructors had
volunteered to teach for free. They didn't have to be there. As Dennis
Hooker Sensei, recovering from kidney surgery only two weeks earlier,
said, they could be with their grandkids or scuba diving in Martinique.
But they were there, sweating it out with us in hot, humid, sticky,
smoky (from the wildfires in Mexico) San Antone.
You might ask, Did we ever have to "take it outside"? Yes, we did, but
only because our neighbors in the hotel complained about the noise. We
chatted most of Saturday night away "live" on a breezy veranda so as not
to be a further nuisance to the other denizens of the hotel.
Sunday morning, Dennis Hooker Sensei (5th dan, Shindai Aikikai) opened
class with techniques from suwari. He also demonstrated an outer irimi
sideslipping from a punch to the face. His teaching style is somewhere
between drill instructor and old-time preacher, and as he spoke of the
time and effort it takes to accumulate technique, I thought of issues
close to my heart at my home dojo and felt tears on my cheeks. Since he
had missed dinner and his "award" the night before, the committee
presented it to him after the close of class. Included in the award was
a harmonica. By way of acknowledgment, Hooker Sensei played a few bars
of "Amazing Grace" (quite well, at that!).
When we reconvened after lunch, Chuck Gordon Sensei (Renshi Chuden,
Kokoro-ryu Aiki Budo) bowed us back in and had us form a circle instead
of lines. He then began to teach a hard-and-fast class with some very
severe arm locks and truly spectacular koshi-nage based throws. The most
intriguing technique was an escape from nikkyo (from nage's shoulder)
using a judo-style sacrifice throw. Unfortunately, a blood vessel in my
elbow broke during one of the pins and I had bow out and ice it as I
watched.
Exhausted and exuberant, we closed and prepared to go home. Any
seminar which runs smoothly is a great accomplishment, however; this one
was exceptional. Consider, for a moment, that some of the teachers of
these people who taught at the seminar cannot, in many cases, stand to
be in the same room together, so great are their disagreements. After
years of verbal randori and argument about What Works and What Doesn't,
we came together and learned from one another. The name calling
("kisterics vs "a-ki-istics") stopped, the pontificating and postulation
stopped, wiped clean by the power of sweat and earnest practice. We
learned that we all have a lot to learn. Each instructor taught us to
move from the center in different ways. We found that we had two things
in common: we stress the same basics, and we love Aikido. The students
have come together to heal the hurts of those who have gone before,
proving that the ultimate lesson of Aikido, that it is the Way of
Harmony, has been taken to heart.
"And we can be heroes
"Just for one day"
--David Bowie
Emily A. Dolan
May 29, 1998
Contributors and editorial assistance:
Chuck Gordon
Ross Robertson
Darrell Tangman
Alan Drysdale
Margo Ballou
Jun Akiyama
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