VKS KI TRAINING NOTES, JUNE '98 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this document 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: JUNE INSTRUCTOR'S CLASS The June class will be held on Saturday, the 27th at 1:00. I will be discussing testing for 1998-99 and expanding on my concept of "Casual Aikido". Following the class there will be a demonstration by Regina Cohen of five Taigi and multiple attacker randori, clarifying issues raised during her San Dan examination. CAMPS KINGSTON CAMP The Kingston Ki Society will host a summer camp July 10-12. Guest instructor will be Sensei Kashiwaya, 8th Dan. There will be training the evening of the 10th at 7 PM, on the 11th from 9 AM to 4:30 PM and on the 12th from 9 AM to 3 PM. Tuition, including lunch is C$90.00 before July 1 and C$110.00 after July 1. Married couples are C$150 and C$180 respectively. Dinner on Saturday is C$15.00 and C$20.00. Limited billeting is available but register early if you can as it is limited. Make your checks payable to: Kingston Ki Society and mail to Celia Revenboer, 925 Clearfield Crescent, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7P 1Z9. I attended this camp last year and can recommend it highly. MARYLAND CAMP Sensei Dan Frank is currently making plans for a camp on July 17-19at Frostberg. The guest instructor is Harry Eto Sensei, a person whom I regard as an Aikido Treasure. Please get your registration in early, before June 30. The camp will be held at Frostburg, Maryland. The fee is $150.00 for participants and $110.00 for non-participants. Private room supplement is $21.00. OTHER TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES HAWAII: The Honolulu Ki Society is sponsoring the Annual Ki Society Seminar in August, 1998 in Honolulu Hawaii. A welcome party for Master Tohei will be held at 6PM on the 15th. My most recent information is that this event is full, however if you want to attend there is no harm in asking. GUEST AUTHORS Why We Study by: Dennis Hooker, Sensei We all have our own reasons for getting involved in Aikido, as well as every other facet of our lives. These activities fill gaps. If we are fortunate we find positive fillers for those holes in our lives. In my own case, I look for things to enhance my life in a way I define as positive. We may agree on the definition of this term "positive" but it is not necessary that we do. I am not looking to change my life but add quality to it. Deep structural change in a person goes well beyond the dojo. We will all modify our behavior based on our individual experiences. Clark Sensei, Izumi Sensei and I all talked about the path of our lives to Aikido. It seems the point of intervention of Aikido into our individual systems of social relationships followed like paths as did many things in our lives. We found we are a great deal alike in our social and cognitive makeup's. One thing is for sure, it is not Aikido that makes us who we are. It is us that make Aikido what it is. We are (each of us) the defining factor in the makeup of Aikido. O-Sensei is dead, most of us do not live our lives in daily contact with the "paragons" of Aikido. We in our actions are redefining "what is Aikido" daily. If we live in a make believe world of Samurai then Aikido is no more than a game of role playing, it is an anachronism. However, if we incorporate the principles of Aikido (again as we define them) into our lives then it becomes part of who we are in a very real since. What is Aikido? I'm not sure that I know. Has my life had a measure of quality added to it because of my relationship to Aikido? I think everyone that knows me would say yes. We are all different in our social-structural makeup, but I think there is an underlying and undefined profile for those that choose to use Aikido and Aikido like tools for socialization modifiers and personal self control. CHIEF INSTRUCTOR'S CORNER Much of this month's newsletter is going to be covering the Aikido-L Seminar in San Antonio. I will incorporate the report of the seminar organizer, Jun Akiyama, under the "From the Internet" segment. Mr. Akiyama is to be congratulated because he not only had a dream but he acted upon it and, after much work and the application of his organizational skills, was able to pull it off. Jun has been a kind of Aikido vagabond or should I say Ronin, going from dojo to dojo to get the best instruction he can find. He is currently associated with the Aikido Schools of Ueshiba at Mt. Tamilapias in Marin County, California. Several of our dojos are experiencing problems with student intake and retention. A review of our statistics in Merrifield indicate that the addition of Taigi to the examination at 5th and 4th kyu may be a part of the problem. As a result I will be discussing this issue with the instructors at the class on the 27th. If I find consensus that this is a problem I am prepared to change the examination to remove taigi testing at those grades, effective with the end of the class. Regarding new students, we need to pull together as individual dojos and the VKS to find ways to increase awareness of our programs and what they can do for people. In Merrifield we are expanding our outside demonstration program by going to health fairs and at book stores. Carol Shifflett's book, "Ki in Aikido" has resulted in several phone calls asking about lessons as has Will Reed's book, "Ki, A Road That Anyone Can Walk". We can not discount these published writings as a source of new students, nor can we discount the Internet and World Wide Web. I have received notes from folks asking about our programs and referred students to Hampton, Pittsburgh and Richmond as well as Merrifield. We need to be more active in this arena as a source of new students. George Simcox FROM THE INTERNET The Aikdo-L Seminar 23-24 May, San Antonio, Texas. The Training Carlos Escobar Sensei Carlos Escobar Sensei (4th dan; Kurita Juku Aikido; Mexico) taught what seemed like a very traditional class. Escobar Sensei's movements were very large, pronounced, and very nice to watch. Escobar Sensei provided us with some points of practice from Kurita Juku. Escobar Sensei also worked on a lot of nice, big throws involving body movement moreso than just trying to throw uke with your hands and arms. We went through a fair amount of suwariwaza from katatedori wherein Escobar Sensei emphasized movement of the body rather than being caught up trying to move the arm itself. His taisabaki is very elegant and wonderful to watch, and he went over a lot of great fundamentals. Chuck Clark Sensei Chuck Clark Sensei (7th dan; Jiyushinkan; Tempe, AZ) talked first about his Jiyushinkan 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. I thought this kata was very beautiful to watch and contained a great amount of movements that are integral to aikido. Unlike the Tomiki style of aikido on which his style is based, Jiyushinkan aikido does not have competitions. A couple of his students then went to demonstrate what I believe Clark Sensei called the "Jyunanahon no kata." With Clark Sensei's son Aaron Clark as uke, Mimi, who had just tested for nidan, went through a variety of techniques. The one thing that really captivated me during this was the zanshin displayed between the two; they never took their eyes off each other and there was never a moment of slack between them. At one point, Aaron "tested" Mimi when she displayed a moment of hesitation and basically went right through her to land her right on her back; I liked this as it really emphasized awareness for both nage and uke (or, shite and tori). His students then demonstrated their randori which I thought was pretty awesome. Uke remains very aware of any openings which nage may have and will take control of the situation whenever possible. This makes for a very dynamic interaction between nage and uke with the roles switching and, in the long run, 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. Chuck Clark Sensei told me that in his system, the person in the role of nage takes care of where uke lands and is thrown. In this way, uke can really just give his or her body to nage and not have to worry about being thrown into another person on the mat or into an otherwise dangerous place. I agree very much with this, and I hope other people will incorporate this into their practice, too. Rocky Izumi Sensei If any of you have been on the list for any length of time, you'll remember postings from the indomitable "Rocky." 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. Using Aaron Clark as his uke, he went through a lot about body positioning as relative to uke. By keeping his foot, 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 "Corn Holio." (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 a "technique," in actuality an aikido principle. All in all, a great class from an Aikido-L legend. (I chatted with him in Japanese at the Saturday night dinner. He, too, came over to the States when he was six years old as did I.) George Simcox Sensei George Simcox Sensei (5th dan; Virginia Ki Society; Merrifield, VA) started out his class by going through a few "ki tests." He led us through the exercise of being pushed in the chest and shifting attention from the hand doing the pushing, down to the feet, and then back up to "center point" and noticing the differences it made in dealing with the push itself. For me, it made a world of difference. We then worked on moving through the hand that was doing the pushing, noticing that it was difficult to start moving when you were "dug in." Simcox Sensei had us feeling light in more than one way; imagine Simcox Sensei waving his hands and arms over his head with a goofy grin on his face, sort of doing a walking jig/dance and you'll get what he meant by "light." He later commented that the schticks that he did in front of class was completely optional when you practiced the techniques themselves, but they certainly did get the point across. Simcox Sensei also went through some great ushirowaza including one that he once taught to a bunch of girl scouts in 45 minutes' time. The lasting image I have of these ushirowaza is of Simcox Sensei saying, "You really have to forget about your hands when someone grabs you from behind. Just work your body backwards, and wedge your hips back between uke's hands. This works really well if you have a pointy butt like I do." He then went on to explain about Ki Society's taigi. He had Craig Hocker and Tim Gion demonstrate one set of taigi exercises which are a set of 31 sets of techniques that are "graded" on a point system. Points are taken off for technical merit, flow, and other aspects. Simcox Sensei's bubbly personality shone through his teaching and warmed us all. So many times during the ki testing were there people laughing at the unexpectedly effective results of "just" refocusing your own attention elsewhere or thinking in a different, "positive" manner. Dennis Hooker Sensei Dennis Hooker Sensei (5th dan; Shindai Aikikai; Orlando, FL) started out with some "very different stuff" as he called it. We worked on an interesting transition for the pin for suwariwaza kotegaeshi that involved leveraging uke's arm across nage's shin to turn uke over. We also worked on a few variations for iriminage including a nice, direct entry into uke's chin, and a variation from that into kaiten nage. Moreso than just the techniques, I'm going to remember what Hooker Sensei said in his mini "sermons." These are from memory, so they're not perfect quotes. "If you're getting attacked by more than one person, you might just have to break the first person in order to be able to protect the second. I've been through Gravis, a broken back, two blown out knees, and I now have tubes in my body from a kidney surgery." "You never, ever resist in aikido." "Do not criticize anyone's teachings. Try it first. Feel uncomfortable with it. If you like it, great. If you don't like it, ignore it. But, don't disrespect anyone's teachings or criticize it." "There's a lot more I could be doing than aikido. I could be visiting my grandkids. I could be scuba diving down in Martinique. But I'm here." "Do not judge my aikido with what I or any of the other teachers this weekend are doing up here in an hour and a half. I have thirty years of experience in aikido. Clark Sensei, forty-five. Simcox Sensei, over thirty. What we're doing up here is just an eye's blink of what we know." Emily Dolan said to Hooker Sensei after class, "Dennis, you're the only person who has ever made me cry on the mat without having laid a finger on me." I'll be honest and say that I had tears in my eyes a few times, too. At the end of his session, Hooker Sensei accepted his "Dog God" award, a harmonica wedged between a dog hand-puppet's teeth from the awards committee, by playing the first couple of bars from "Amazing Grace" on it. "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me." Chuck Gordon Sensei Chuck Gordon Sensei (Renshi (Chuden); Kokororyu Aikibudo; Indianapolis, IN) went through techniques that were a lot more martial in nature than the other teachers. His techniques included a lot more atemi, joint locks, and bigger kuzushi than "usual" aikido techniques. However, underlying all of this were the same exact principles with which I have experienced in my own aikido training. Gordon Sensei showed us some really neat koshinage (which I might just have to bring out for my upcoming test) including one from ryotedori koshinage (with an elbow in uke's face (not as an atemi, but just for positioning)) and another one like aiki-otoshi that was like a reverse koshinage where uke lands directly behind nage. What I got from Gordon Sensei's class was that the same techniques that I normally practice in my otherwise "soft" style of aikido can easily be extended to become quite martial and vice versa. The armbar technique that we practiced from ryotedori, for example, could easily be extended to simply break uke's arm or it could be softened to just raise uke's center off-balance for the throw-all with the same underlying principles of affecting a person. TRAVELS I was gone from the Dojo for much of May. I visited the Midlands Ki Society Dojo in Kansas City, Kansas where I was hosted by Sensei Vic Montgomery and his students. We spent two days eating some very good KC Barbecue and studying what it means to operate from an ever expanding personal universe. Following some tourism in Waco and San Antonio, it was down to business at the Aikido-L Seminar. You can read Mr. Akiyama's report and get a clear picture of what happened. Six VKS folks were in attendance; Suzi and Mike Bartman, Tim Gion and Craig Hawker in addition to Norma and I. Mike is still recovering from his retinal problem in his eye but performed yeoman service as Seminar Photographer. June Travels: None scheduled but July promises to be a biggie what with two camps and visits to Hampton and Richmond on the agenda.