VKS KI TRAINING NOTES FEB 99 NOTICES: FEB INSTRUCTOR'S CLASS The February class will be held on Saturday, the 20th at 1:30. I will be conducting the class, continuing our look at the current method of performing techniques on the examination. There will be a problem solving session with all of us performing the techniques from the examination sheet, critiquing what is done and ending with the teaching purpose of each technique covered. KIATSU-HO SEMINAR Norma and George Simcox will be conducting a seminar series, one Saturday afternoon each in the months of February, March and April. The first session will be February 13th at 1:30 and cover an introduction to Ki extension for Kiatsu, and treatment of the head, neck and shoulders. The session in March will cover the torso and the April session the extremities. There will be no fee for the seminar but a box for donations will be available to those who wish to make a contribution to the VKS. KAGAMI BIRAKI Due to your generosity, we were able to send over $435.00 to the Midland Ki Society for their Mat Fund. Thank you. SEMINAR SERIES I am initiating a series of seminars focused on the many faces of the Aikido related martial arts. On October 11 Sensei Shiro Shintaku conducted a class on Iaido. I plan to ask him to teach the Aikido he learned from Master Michio Hikitsuchi, 10 Dan, Aikido sometime later during the year. Subsequent seminars will feature instructors from Aikikai, Iwma, Yoshinkan, Yoseikan and Tomiki and possibly ju jitsu and tai chi. A suggestion has been made that our regular instructors also give sessions since many of our students have not been able to visit all the classes at the Dojo. I agree so we will also add our regular instructors to the schedule. Comments please. CHIEF INSTRUCTOR'S CORNER WHY TAIGI & RANDORI? When Tohei Sensei taught Aikido in the States and went back to Japan he felt that the students understood. Afterward, when he returned, he found that they were all back to using strength, competing with each other. In an attempt to eliminate the loss of knowledge he developed taigi - set piece techniques which gave responsibilities to each side, taking competition out of the process for each of the participants and putting it into doing their best as a team against other teams (note that more points are given to the process of the taigi than to the proper performance of the techniques themselves). The harmony existing between the performers is of much greater value than doing the technique with a particular set of moves and when moves are evaluated they are those which reduce confrontation and conflict. Whether this approach will in fact accomplish its objectives is open to review but at least it is an attempt to put the focus where it belongs. Regarding randori, it is a process in which neither side knows what will happen. It is open ended as to duration and content. It also involves from one to several persons against only one. It should teach that one must be flexible in what one can do, recognize what is happening at the moment and that techniques do not have to be finished to be effective. In fact, to stop to finish a technique in the face of multiple attackers can be highly perilous. It also challenges endurance and exercises the cardiovascular system. The Internet section is a bit long this month but the articles there are of interest to us all and I don't want to hold them for another month. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. The authors are not from Ki Society dojos. This demonstrates that thoughts about Aikido, its origins and reasons for practice exist in many venues beside our own. It is good to view the opinions of those who have received training different from our own. FROM THE INTERNET ETHICS, RELIGION & PRACTICE A member of the Aikido Listserv wrote: >Practice and our ethical development are not separate roads; they are intertwined...and such that keep popping up here, completely uncontested if I stay silent. Religious pronouncements that are more properly discussed in terms of belief..> This is a common misconception. Ethics aren't automatically religious. The ethics of Confucianism aren't religious. They are about building better societies and members of those societies (I don't always agree with them, but that's their goal). In many western traditions ethics are driven by religious concerns, but that is not the case in Japan, and I would hazard that it is not the case in any other Confucian country either. I agree that there is a lot of religion tied up in many peoples interpretation of Aikido (it is in fact the subject of my master's thesis). I enjoy looking at what people believe and do, and it made for a very enjoyable time writing my thesis. It's pretty clear that Ueshiba spent most of his life up until he joined the Omoto-kyo sect on a quest for religious understanding and insight. In the person of Onisaburo Deguchi he found a religious teacher who fulfilled his needs. Something most people don't know is that one of the prime tenets of Omoto-kyo practice is that through the practice of art, one manifests the divine. So once Ueshiba established a dojo in Ayabe (then headquarters for Omoto-kyo) he was undoubtedly practicing his art with this in mind. That Ueshiba was deeply religious is quite clear. That his art was an expression of his overall philosophy (not his religious philosophy) is also fairly clear. Ueshiba did not make any religious requirements of any of his students. In fact he told those who asked him if they needed to convert to Omoto-kyo that they most definitely should not (I believe Robert Nadeau talks about this in "Aikido in America"). Omoto-kyo was Ueshiba's religion. He told his students they should develop within their own religion. Part of this is likely because of the open teachings of Omoto-kyo, and part because Ueshiba did not believe that a person had to have the same faith he did to master Aikido. It is a characteristic of western religion to proclaim that there is only one valid religious truth. This is anathema to Asian religions. They allow for a great plurality of religious truths. Ueshiba taught his Aikido within that plurality. Within Asian religions, and most likely for Ueshiba, all peaceful religious truths were accepted as being valid, if different, interpretations of the religious truth which no one could fully comprehend anyway. This leaves room for each religion to be looking at a different facet of the diamond of truth, and for all of them to be valid for the facet they are looking at. This kind of thinking horrifies many people in the the west, while the dogmatic, "there is only one truth" sort of religious thinking is at least as horrifying to people who come from Confucian/Buddhist cultures. Ueshiba was a deeply religious man. Did he believe that you needed his religion to fully understand his art. No. Mugendo Budogu, LLC. The Finest Martial Arts Equipment From Japan To You Peter Boylan WHYS AND WHEREFORES OF PRACTICE >I was told that Samurai were police, for all intents and purposes, of medieval Japan. Does this then create a distinction of Samurai who were Local law enforcement and the ones who fight in actual wars. I thought they were one in the same person. Budo isn't about war. Soldiers prepare for war, but don't ever want to go. Aren't we doing the same by training in Aikido. I know I don't want to have to use my Aikido in real life but I am prepared to do exactly that. > >Bill Bartholomew > Not necessarily so. You know that training in aikido doesn't necessarily mean that you are training for war. Only if your practice is martial, then you can say you are prepared to do it. But if you practice aikido in a non martial way, then you are doing (and looking for) something different. Aikido is a formula proposed to help humanity to take a step further in what we as humans have achieved. The Founder didn't use such terms as nage-uke, since it would have kept the concept of a defender vs. an attacker. Furthermore, applying technique in an aiki way allows you to do it safely and non violently against yourself (which means against another human being). And uke and nage blend into something else. Regarding uke as your enemy stops you from growing in aikido and that explains why many people have so many doubts about timing, about better applications of technique, about the eternal search for the right way to do it, about the existence or non-existence of Ki, about crosstraining, about ethics and religion, and all that stuff (you name it). A wrong and poor practice is reflected when people ask why their technique doesn't seem to be working in any of these aspects. Furthermore, it reflects how careless instructors have been (unless that's what they have chosen to teach, which I understand). Unfortunately many practitioners still want to look at aikido as a martial practice instead of a martial way, and they reflect it so in their performance. They want to learn just more about fighting, and aikido is appealing to them because of its repertoire and nothing else. This unfortunately goes exactly in the opposite direction of what the Founder achieved and proposed. On the other hand it keeps them at a Kindergarten level. IMHO. ---Carlos Escobar Kurita Juku, Mexico (Carlos Escobar Sensei was one of the instructors at the 1998 Aikido-L Seminar in San Antonio) UKEMI So many people think that ukemi is about falling down, how to fall down, about being thrown. Well, of course it is, but it is also about so much more. It is about engagement, both physical and energy(which starts way before the physical and lasts way after), it is about intent, about attack and continuation of the attack, it is about looking for the opening to take back control after you have been unbalanced, it is about keeping up the attack while keeping yourself safe, it is about sticking in there as long as possible to try to find a hole, so if nage makes some mistake you haven't bailed out and are no longer around. It's about separating from the other person when it becomes futile to continue, so that you can live to come back and attack again. It's about constant awareness of all that is around you. I see so many people just taking cool looking falls. Yeah, it's fun, and some people may think it looks cool, but many times (not always) it's not ukemi. And often after the big jump the person either lies there or gets up but without awareness, so that the person who just threw uke could in fact step on uke or attack from behind. This awareness, this connection with your surroundings is what I find missing in most practice. I took ukemi for a shihan at an embu recently. Afterwards, a guy came up to me and told me "Your ukemi- You never took your eyes off of him" Of course I never took my eyes off the person I am engaged with. If I did, I would have a large opening and he would kill me. Sometimes it is necessary to take a breakfall or some "spectacular" ukemi like that. So for those few instances, we must practice such falls. But we must be clear about this. And even when practicing these types of falls, not get sucked into the "I wanna take cool looking falls" trap. Uke and nage- both are always attack each other's center, both must keep themselves safe, both must find a way to take the other's balance, to keep the connection. Always engaged, always connected. This is budo training. Lisa Tomoleoni, Instructor, Aikido Shindo Dojo Tokyo, Japan OUR MAN IN BOLIVIA Howdy George, Hope things are going well with you so far in the new year. I understand there is bad weather in DC area now. We are having fallish weather with rain occasionally during the day. That's because its the Rainy Season! Started up our ki-aikido class today, 11 Jan 99, two new students and the 20 year old son of another student who has some prior aikido instruction from his dad (the Colonel). The majority of today was spent doing ki development exercises and doing demonstrations of the applicability of ki. The theme of today's class was an observation from you which I quote cause you've made so many that you may not remember this one: "Always give the attacker what he wants., with a little bit more. Does uke want the hand? Then give him the hand; that is his battlefield. Let him have his battle field--now YOU move the EARTH." See Carol's book at bottom of p.101. Examples: Bouncing ki off the center of the earth to pull up the hand of nage who has planted hand on ground. NB: A comment from a student was particularly rewarding when she executed the exercise with success: " Cool!!!; Cool!!". This enlightened response was followed by warm laughter in the room by the other students--many whom had already been convinced of the existence of ki. This person was particularly excited because she was asked to perform the exercise against the black belt hard stylist in the class. Other examples: Unbendable arm; walking with arm extended; nage being pulled by two ukes; the full nelson trick; and the ok test --with thumb and forefinger barely touching. Also did usual ki development exercises in the beginning and some stretching. On the aikido front reviewed the katatori ikkyo irimi. However, I tried something different which I observed when Dan (Henry) was teaching some beginners in December. I attempted to break the technique down into parts, had the class practice each part separately, then put it all together. Also I had them do the technique in very slow motion (some of the more eager ones were trying to do the technique at what I call "combat speed"--which of course isn't necessary to have a successful technique. ) By slowing them down and by breaking the actual technique down into parts, I noted better execution by the end of the class on the part of everyone. Also reviewed yoko shiho irimi (w/o pin this time). Here nages were having trouble squaring to ear of uke and then using ki for the downward execution on uke's wrist. After much sweating by Bill, He noted that nages were not getting close enough (were not really "irimi-ing"---new word) thus not making the spin around and squaring off to the ear respectable. Once I figured that out--I could get it across to the group. Again we practiced slow mo and by breaking down each different movement of the technique. Takes longer but seems to really make technique better--more precise. One of the new folks is a Tai chi practitioner and a qi chung (?) practitioner. Very peaceful person. Bill Phillips TRAVELS None scheduled for February or March.