VKS KI TRAINING NOTES, MARCH 1997
=20
 INTRODUCTION
=20
This is a new communications medium for the VKS.  Its purpose is to provide
a dialog between students and the instructional faculty on training issues
and answer questions regarding technique or training practices or
procedures.  It is NOT a forum for dealing with philosophy, except as it
applies to training, nor business issues associated with the VKS.


NOTICES:

TAIGI MEETING FOR ST. JUDES

This is the second Annual Taigi for St. Judes Children's Research=
 Hospital.
It will be held at the Merrifield Dojo on March 29th at 2PM.  Again this
year we will focus on performance of the Kitei Taigi.  Judging will be
performed by the Senior Instructors of the VKS. Emphasis will be on
participation.  Scoring sheets for each team will be presented to the team
at the end of the judging.  During the instructors' training on 16 March
Senior Instructors will be provided additional information on judging by
Sensei Reed who received training from Tohei Sensei.  Registration for the
competition will be at 1:30 on the 29th and pledge sheets should be turned
in at that time.  Our effort here is to have fun, improve our taigi
performance and raise funds for the St. Judes Children's Hospital.  Last
year we raised some $1900.  Let's see if we can beat that amount this=
 year.

MARCH INSTRUCTOR'S CLASS

Class will be held on 16 March  from 2PM.  The class will be dedicated to
looking at technique from a perspective of testing ,Sensei Singer, taigi,
Sensei Reed and innovation, Sensei Simcox.  The second part of class will
focus on taigi scoring requirements in preparation for the Taigi for St.
Judes Competition which will take place two weeks later.  At the end of
class we will make a decision about the meeting date and time for April.

NEW DOJO CLASS

Starting March 7th there will be an additional Friday night class:
Introduction to Ki and Aikido Basics.  The class will be for one hour and
start at 5:45PM.  The focus of the class will be basic information about Ki
and Aikido such as proper form for exercises, definition of terms used in
the Dojo, etiquette on the mat,  ukemi, etc..  This class should be a boon
to beginning students who can not attend the Wednesday evening beginning
class.  Instructors will be George Simcox and Jerry Billingsley.


SUMMER CAMP

The Virginia Ki Society Summer Camp will be held at James Madison University
which is located in Harrisonburg Virginia.  Sensei Koichi Kashiwaya will be
the principle instructor this year.  Announcements will be mailed to
interested parties in March.  The camp is an open camp for all interested
students of Aikido and Ki Development.

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

The VKS has been invited to participate in the 1997 Cherry Blossom Festival
in Washington.  The demonstration will be held at Freedom Plaza,
Pennsylvania Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets on Saturday, April 12th.
This can be a major outreach program for the VKS.  We will need ukes for the
demonstration as well as persons to circulate in the crowd and assist in
instruction in unbendable arm and coordinated body movement.


GUEST AUTHOR:
Where is the Art in Budo? Clues from the Calligrapher's Brush
by William Reed
Which do you admire more in an art, spontaneity or discipline? How you
answer this question depends on your personality, your own level of
experience and skill, and very much on the situation at hand. The issue is
critical in budo, or martial art, when we must judge the level of a
student's ability. We can speculate on whether a technique works, but we
don't really know unless we test it in a life-and-death situation. But=
 then
what is the point when every situation is unique, and all that you may learn
is that it worked or that it didn't? Rather than tempt fate to no purpose=
 we
simulate situations of potential conflict in the Dojo. In Aikido we
experiment with ways to resolve the conflict through non-dissension.=20
What does it mean to have a black belt?
Most martial arts have testing and grading systems leading to rank, and the
level of black belt is widely recognized as representing a high degree of
ability. However, Shodan actually means first step, Nidan second step,
Sandan third step, and so forth, and these are by no means equivalent from
one system to another. Given that the 10th-degree is the highest level, one
way to put rank in perspective is to think of it as a degree of excellence:
1st-dan means you get it right about 10% of the time, 2nd-dan about 20% of
the time, 5th-dan about half the time, and 10th-dan means that you always
perform with excellence, close to a state of grace. Of course no one is
perfect, we all have good and bad days, and excellent performance in a
martial art is no guarantee of excellent performance in other areas of life;
so we should think of rank in relative terms and treat it for what it is, a
general milestone of experience and ability in the art.=20
Because ranks in Aikido up to 3rd-dan are granted on the basis of test
performance, is only fair to the students to make it clear what is expected
at each level, to point out the lessons for life to be absorbed at that
level, and to recognize that performance is a sliding scale toward
perfection and never an arrival in itself. Ranks higher than 3rd-dan are
granted only on the basis of recommendation by a senior Sensei, and many
things are taken into account including maturity, teaching ability,
dedication and continued growth in the art. Some assume that 4th-dan is a
person's competitive peak, much in the way that professional sportsmen=
 reach
their peak in the mid- to late-twenties. Aikido is different, because
physical fitness and technique can only take you so far, while at the higher
levels there is no limit to the progress you can make through mind and body
coordination. Aikido is a mind-body discipline in which people continue to
get better as they get older.=20
Why is there a Taigi Competition in Aikido?
Aikido is distinguished from other martial arts in that the principle of
non-dissension makes competition meaningless. It is not a sport in which
points are "scored against "an opponent, because in a martial art one cannot
assume that the opponent will respect rules or boundaries. In the Ki Society
the idea of a Taigi competition has generated some controversy, although
Tohei Sensei has explained at length that its purpose is to measure the
depth of mind and body coordination in Aikido arts against strict and
detailed performance criteria. The scoring process is very similar to the
system used in judging Olympic figure skating. Because nage and uke do not
fight each other, but instead strive to demonstrate mind and body
coordination, perhaps it should be called a co-petition, rather than a
competition. It is not a co-operation because any attempt to fake or stage
the arts is immediately caught by the judges using criteria that are
designed to measure full engagement and presence of mind-body. No one is
clever enough to stage a Taigi well enough to fool a crowd of several
hundred people and 5 judges using 8 criteria for mind and body coordination,
8 criteria for general performance, and up to 18 criteria for the techniques
in each Taigi. The only way to achieve a high score is to practice and
internalize the arts until they can be performed under pressure with Ki.
What are we really testing?
Anthony Robbins describes the learning curve in simple terms. We begin at
the level of unconscious incompetence (clueless and clumsy), progress to a
stage of conscious incompetence (we know what we are supposed to do, but
cannot do it), graduate to a level of conscious competence (we can do it if
we concentrate), and ultimately strive for a level of unconscious competence
(doing it without thinking and making it look easy). The highest level is
what the Taigi criteria are designed to measure.=20
Although we emphasize the idea of using Ki in daily life, because of the
different types of rank with testing in both Ki and Aikido, as well as the
new comprehensive system of scoring for the Taigi competition, newcomers and
veteran students alike can become confused. Much of the confusion could be
dispelled if instructors could clarify the core competencies that are to be
tested at each level, not only what is to be done but how it is to be
judged.  Ki Society headquarters offers general guidelines in terms of which
techniques are to be tested at each level. Beyond this many dojos have added
their own criteria. Individual instructors emphasize different things when
they teach, and therefore look for different things when they test. We have
students test in front of a group of instructors so that everyone may
benefit from a broader perspective on the art.
My calligraphy teacher in Japan grades performance differently for each
style of brushwork. Rank (kyu and dan levels) is granted only on the basis
of the most formalized printed style, which severely tests one's mastery=
 of
the basics and ability to copy faithfully. The semi-cursive and fully
cursive styles are graded based on relative standing within broader
categories (shihan, ten, chi, jin), where the general trend is upward, but
within your category you can rise and fall on your individual performance
each month. He also provides an opportunity to compete in a creative
category (sosaku), in which there is a theme or word-phrase to use, but no
painted model to copy other than what you can find in the classics and using
your own imagination.  Works in the creative category are ranked by the top
instructors with categories for gold, silver, bronze, and special mention,
awarded according to originality and artistic sense. There is also a
competition for duplicating a single character selected from the brush
writing of historical personages (not necessarily calligraphers), which
tests your ability to do an impression of that character. The only way to
recreate that person's style is to put yourself in that person's frame=
 of
mind and body long enough to forge or mimic the style. This competition is
ranked like the creative category but tests a different skill. With 4
distinct ways of ranking students, it is interesting to note that artistic
ability is not at all evenly distributed.  Some people are excellent at the
formal style, and therefore may have high rank, but don't perform well in
the more fluid or creative styles. Although a certain amount of technical
skill is required, occasionally a relative beginner can perform
exceptionally well in the creative or mimicry categories. To be a master you
must excel in all styles, but along the way there is something for the
technician, the interpreter, the creative artist, and the actor.
How much freedom, and how much structure?
Returning to the question of spontaneity vs. discipline in the martial arts,
the answer is that both are needed at all levels. Undisciplined spontaneity
is madness, while rigid formality is death. Neither alone has any place in
art. In learning budo, the art of the martial way, perhaps we can pick up
some clues from the sister art of brush calligraphy, or Shodo. Calligraphy
is broadly divided into three styles, the formalized printed "parallel"
style (kaisho), the semi-cursive fluid style (gyosho), and the fully cursive
grass writing style (sosho). These styles have parallels in the way we
practice Aikido, beginning from a static position and articulating each
step, progressing to a more abbreviated motion as the opponent comes in to
attack, and leading to the fully cursive style of throwing with Ki,
sometimes barely touching. The finest calligraphers were masters, or at
least well practiced in all styles. You cannot skip one out of personal
preference. Before you can effectively abbreviate an Aikido movement you
must fully understand all of its parts.=20
Style aside, it is the way of practice which instills the proper balance of
discipline and spontaneity. You practice by copying master works. Even the
teacher's master model is a copy of a work from the ancient classics. Real
purists insist that students work only from the classics, because no matter
how faithful a copy is it will lose some of the spirit of the original.
Without years of practice in copying you can never develop the fine
perceptual and motor skills to produce good calligraphy on your own. My
teacher once pointed out that I had copied only the strokes and had not
copied the shape of the white spaces between them. When I focused on the
ground instead of the figure the difference was obvious, and all my pride
vanished.=20
We may ask what good is copying without originality and creativity? Do not
forget that some of our best abstract creative artists, such as Picasso,
were also excellent realistic draftsmen. In calligraphy copying begins with
looking at the original and attempting to faithfully transfer it to the page
(rinsho). With practice the student attempts to copy more and more from
memory, only glancing at the original to gain an impression. If successful
the result is a copy which recreates the impression of the original, like a
well-drawn caricature. Though it may vary somewhat in form, it's source is
unmistakable. Eventually the artist begins to create what appear to be
original works, but in fact simply have untraceable origins in the vast
repertoire of subconscious memory resulting from years of close observation
and faithful copying. Nothing new under the sun.=20
In Aikido as well, we need to observe our teachers closely, develop the
willingness to change lifelong habits of posture and movement, and allow
ourselves to be molded into a more disciplined form. However, after that
form has been mastered there comes a time when the model should be briefly
set aside to allow some of your own original spark to shine through. At this
point the student has been kissed by the spirit of the art, and will never
again be the same. What an opportunity we miss if we reject the discipline
of the art for the sake of our own familiar habits, and yet what a shame if
we miss the spontaneity of Ki itself by adhering only to rigid rules.


SENIOR INSTRUCTOR'S CORNER
Ki Breathing - A Most Important Part of Training
I wrote the following article quite a while ago but I feel that Ki Breathing
is a very important component of Ki-Aikido training and that making it
available via our Training Notes publication is worthwhile.  I cannot
express how important I feel this exercise/discipline can be in helping
develop the calm and awareness that is integral to good Aikido and it's
application in daily life.  Build up slowly to a daily routine of at least
20 minutes - more if possible.  Tohei Sensei once said to me that one must
be able to Ki Breath for at least 30 minutes but then 20 minutes per day
would be sufficient.  It is important to learn Ki Breathing correctly - find
someone who is advanced and practices regularly to teach you.  If you have
any questions regarding this or any other topics, please contact me, via
email, at hal.singer@concert.com.  Good Health!
Ki Breathing
By Hal Singer (Virginia Ki Society)
Ki Breathing may be done in any position; the best position is when sitting
seiza (kneeling). Ki Breathing should be done for 20 minutes at a time. You
should be able to continue Ki Breathing for 30 minutes; this is a minimum
goal to attain. Ki Breathing should be natural, not forced. Ki Breathing
will allow you to consume more oxygen and expel more carbon dioxide than
most breathing methods. Ki Breathing will energize and relax you at the same
time. Ki Breathing will enhance your ability to coordinate mind and body. Ki
Breathing will allow you to become more centered and positive.
Correct Ki Breathing is difficult to master because just being able to sit
still for 20 minutes at a time is a task in itself; so do not force it.
Breath as long as you can until you feel the urge to sop; when this happens,
it is time to stop. At first, breathing should be done at the same time
every day. The next day, breathe at least as long as you did the day before.
Continue this process until you can reach the 30 minute goal.  Remember that
slow and consistent practice will allow you to benefit the most from Ki
Breathing.
I find that Ki Breathing, just before bedtime, will enable me to sleep more
soundly and wake up faster, feeling totally rested. Ki Breathing is also
helpful in finding solutions to problems. Concentrate on the problem at hand
before you start to breathe. Start breathing but do not think about the
problem; when you finish Ki Breathing, you may have a better idea of how to
solve your problem. If you get nervous, before a presentation or any
stressful activity, Ki Breathing will allow you to relax and complete the
task at hand with confidence and relaxed control.
The following is a description of the Ki Breathing Method:
=B7 Position yourself in the correct seiza posture; sitting kneeling...lower
back in...leaning slightly forward over your center.  This will be referred
to as the neutral position.
=B7 Concentrate correctly; imagine your mind at your center (3 inches below
your navel)... let your muscles naturally relax but do not collapse... focus
your Ki (attention/energy) away from your body and your center.
=B7 Exhale first: open your mouth and begin to let your breath flow=
 naturally
out. As you exhale, create the sound "HAAAA" as softly as possible. Use your
throat muscles to control the flow of your breath.  If you do not control
your breath, the exhalation will be done much too quickly. When you cannot
exhale any longer, bend slightly forward from your center. This will
compress the diaphragm and allow you to exhale a bit more. After shifting
forward and exhaling completely, return to the neutral position and
concentrate on your center, still imagining that you are exhaling. Remain in
the neutral position for 5 seconds. The exhalation cycle should take 35
seconds in total...  exhale for 30 seconds and hold for 5 seconds.
=B7 Inhale next: close your mouth and begin to let the air flow naturally
through your nose. Use your throat muscles to control the flow of your
breath. If you do not control your breath, the inhalation will be done much
too quickly. When you cannot inhale any longer, bend slightly backward from
your center. This will expand the diaphragm and allow you to inhale a bit
more. After shifting backward and inhaling completely, return to the neutral
position and concentrate on your center, still imagining that you are
inhaling. Remain in the neutral position for 5 seconds. The inhalation cycle
should take 25 seconds in total...inhale for 20 seconds and hold for 5=
 seconds.

Remember, do not force this exercise; if a 30 second exhalation is too much
for you to do, then reduce th4e exhalation to 20 seconds or whatever feels
right. But remember to also reduce the inhalation time to 2/3 of the
exhalation time. Always hold the neutral position for 5 seconds, no matter
how much the inhalation or exhalation times change.
When inhaling and exhaling, imagine that your Ki is flowing along with your
breath. This will allow you to maximize the effect of Ki Breathing to your
overall well-being. I hope this will be helpful in this most important part
of KI-AIKIDO.........Hal Singer 7/28/88.

NOTES FROM THE INTERNET

What martial art to choose depends a lot on what you want from the martial=
 arts.
Interested in sports competition:	choose=20
Judo or one of the more competition-
centered forms of Karate.

Interested in immediate self-defense skills:=20
Karate is probably your best bet, especially=20
a hard-style system like most of the=20
Okinawan types. Look for a school that=20
emphasizes practical street techniques over=20
flashy high kicks and things.

Interested in studying an art that will take=20
your lifetime to master, that will reveal a=20
new layer of subtleties every time you think=20
you've begun to understand it, that will=20
increase your awareness, that you can apply=20
both on the mat and in the real world, that=20
will challenge you to try new things, and that=20
will probably give you injuries in parts of=20
your body that you never before paid much=20
attention to:	  Try Aikido!  And, btw, if you're=20
still unsure, go with the best teacher. =20
Nothing says you can't change your mind=20
after a couple of years. Plenty of Aikidoka=20
studied Karate and Judo before they took up=20
Aikido.

Go for it. Pick something. Life just isn't the=20
same without martial arts!
Nancy Jane Moore
--
"Use every man after his desert, and who should =91scape whipping?"
=B7 Hamlet, Act II Sc II


CHIEF INSTRUCTOR'S NOTES:

TECHNICAL NOTES:
This past week I was teaching a class on ryokatatori.  One of the major
problems in the techniques from this grip  is taking up the slack correctly
in order to start the major body movement.  Usually, new students will exert
more force than necessary, thus providing power to the uke and making the
throw more difficult than necessary.  I tried a different approach:  I had
the uke hold a Jo in their hands, palm down with the hands separated by
about a foot or so.  I then exerted slight inward force by my hand which was
just outside the uke's hands and, at the same time exerted a slightly more
powerful pulling force by my other hand which was just outside of uke's
other hand.  The result was that the pulling hand was very successful in
taking uke off balance.  The use of the Jo allowed even the slightest
movement to be detected by observers.  This opened the eyes of the students
who were practicing as to how little actual movement was involved in "taking
up the slack" in preparation for the throw itself.  The result was that the
class went smother than is usual for ryokatatori zenpo nage and ryokatatori
kirikaeshi.  I will cover this during the Instructors' Meeting on 16=
 March.

QUESTIONS CORNER
There were no questions for this issue.  If you have questions about Ki
Development or Ki Aikido please send them to: George Simcox, 5631 Cornish
Way, Alexandria, VA 22315 or via e-mail at: kimas@erols.com and I will try
to publish an answer in this column.