Training Notes March 2000

TRAINING

The April instructor class will be held on the 15th at 1:30 PM.  We
will continue our practice of randori with multiple attackers and
attacks..

AROUND THE CIRCUIT

Sensei Richard Miller will conduct a seminar at Merrifield on April 8
& 9, providing instruction in Yoseikan Budo.  this will be an
opportunity to see other styles of Aikido technique and application.

Charlottesville has moved to a new location, about six blocks from its
former home.  They will have an Official Opening on April 1, starting
at 10:30. All are invited to attend.  Directions will be available at
Merrifield or by looking up the Blue Ridge Ki Aikido web site.

The VKS Summer Camp on June 9-11 with Sensei Pietro Mieda is fast
approaching.  Reserve the date on your calendar as I am sure you will
be well served by Pietro's teaching, especially in weapons on Saturday
PM.

Maryland will hold a summer camp this year in mid July with Kashiwaya
Sensei as the instructional leader.  You should all make an effort to
attend this opportunity to train with the Chief Instructor of the USA.

SPECIAL REPORT - KASHIWAYA IN KANSAS.

Feb.18-Feb.20, 2000

I arrived on a cold Friday in Kansas City and was kindly met by Stan
Hael, a long time student and instructor at the Kansas Ki Society in
Lawrence.  For those who remember, Lawrence, KS is where Iwao Tamura
Sensei gave his first seminar in the US in March of 1996. I have many
wonderful memories from that first visit to Lawrence. I am pleased to
say that the return visit this past weekend was also a great
experience and I made many new and old friends. After a quick visit to
the Taco Bell where the infamous incident involving a KU football
player occurred, we arrived at the new dojo. Andrew Tsubaki Sensei,
Andrew LeBar Sensei and their students have every reason to be proud
of the hard work they have done to create a first class dojo training
space. Those tatami style swain mats are really firm in feeling but
breakfalls felt fine and rolling was easy. Even with a severe discount
that Andrew was able to arrange those mats are expensive!

The mat space was around 1200 sq. ft. and with no pillars like they
had in the old space.

The seminar with Kashiwaya sensei was really great. The seminar
classes were open to all levels of students. I will discuss some
things that stick out in my mind, but any errors or gaps are my own as
I was not taking notes during the classes. In the first evening class,
Kashiwaya Sensei discussed some of the basic exercises and some nikkyo
techniques, particularly ryotemochi nikkyo tenkan. He wanted us to do
it with virtually no down and up motion, instead we were to lead uke
around.  With patience, one was supposed to let uke reach the position
where they could not resist. We should then point the fingers up and
then curl the fingers down. It looked very smooth and easy when he did
it. I did my best to emulate it. Patience in the timing was the main
point I got from this teaching. The most memorable part was when I
worked with a real giant of a guy - the first time in a while that I
had some difficulty doing nikkyo - trying to do it just like
Kashiwaya, some old habits creeped back in.  Though I also later found
out the guy was wearing a white belt, he actually was a shodan in
Iwama style aikido and had spent three years in Japan. We had a good
time chatting later.

My Otomo Jamie, a KU student in the Navy ROTC program, turned out to
be rather sick and did not attend the class. He was a casualty of the
all the long hours the dojo members put in to make the place so
presentable in time for Kashiwaya Sensei's arrival. But he did get
better as the weekend progressed and was able to pass his shokyu
exam. So I rode with Mary Ann from KC who had been originally a
founding member of the Lawrence dojo when they were in a community
recreation hall twenty years ago. Five of us and Kashiwaya Sensei went
out to the new Indian restaurant in Lawrence.  Lots of fun because it
was the younger generation besides Mary Ann. I found out that Tohei is
writing a new aikido book and that Will Reed is translating it to
English.


Saturday morning class (held at KU) was informative if not very
physically active. My legs fell asleep easily on those firm swain
tatami mats. We went from tekubikosatori (koho and joho) exercise to
the tenkan exercise.  Kashiwaya Sensei emphasized the idea of leading
uke into your center through the down motion. From these exercises, we
worked into katatetori irimi udeoroshi. Using the joho tekubikosatori
exercise, Kashiwaya sensei next instructed us in katatetori kokyunage
tekubikosatori. Bringing the down in the throw from the movement of
the tekubikosa exercise rather than how I had usually seen it
discussed using the udemawashi exercise. The way in which Kashiwaya
sensei did this technique everyone went flying, but when I started to
practice with other students something seemed a little weird. People
seemed to be doing it fairly abruptly. Tsubaki Sensei explained to me
that in the instructors conference in Honolulu a couple of years ago,
the instruction was that there was no big turn anymore.  Apparently it
is thought that this makes the technique easier to do properly by
students because the down part is emphasized. It's just my opinion,
but the only people who seemed capable of doing it this way
effectively were those who had been practicing long enough so that
they were WELL practiced in doing the throw with the turn. So I am a
little puzzled by this logic. Having a sense of the big turn let more
advanced students do a subtle turn out to allow uke to fly past them
in this new version. I felt I could create the same effect as with the
big turn because to my mind it is the big dramatic movement going to
subtle movement with the body sense and image of the large dramatic
motion still there. A practice I am familiar with because of classes
with Doner Sensei in which one starts out with large dramatic
movements and then eventually goes to subtle motion with the mental
image of largeness intact. I have always liked this technique and have
no problem putting a good down motion in there with the
turn. Something to think about.

We did jo and bokken in the afternoon back at the new dojo hall. The
primary emphasis was on the relation between the jo and bokken. We
practice Jogi Dai Ichi and Kengi Dai Ni with an emphasis on the proper
way to count. What was interesting was practice on counting rhythm and
the relationship to kiai.

A little after 4 PM they started the testing session. Around sixteen
shokyu exams, five chukyu, three jokyu, one shoden and three shodan
exams. The shodan exam was interesting since they still were asked to
perform the hitori waza but Kashiwaya sensei would throw in some
impromptu twists.  For happo undo, after they did it, he had each one
do it again but with one of the others immediately attacking full
speed with shomenuchi from behind the moment they finished the eighth
count. Nage had to respond with kokyunage. The shodan exam is
different in that they do sequences of five arts to different attacks
such as yokemenuchi, katatedori and tantodori.  This reminded me of
Aikikai shodan tests I had seen. They then do two taigi picked at
random from the first fifteen taigi (I doubt #5 is ever chosen) and
then they get to choose one more taigi to perform afterwards.  Out of
the three of them I saw 1,2,3,4,9,11, and 12. I thought the tests went
well, but the four person randori needs work. I saw few good throws
and no sudori. Being in Texas, I can appreciate it being difficult to
get sufficient practice in this part of the art. Recalling Tamura
sensei's lessons on Randori, the most common mistakes were not
managing the space, being reactive rather than taking initiative and
trying to go up with ukes rather than just relaxing down. All three
got bound up with all the ukes fairly early and then kept getting
completely bound up several more times. The cultural differences from
the east coast were interesting, I have never seen the audience shout
encouragement during a randori before. I was able to finally have some
fun by participating in the randori as uke for the third guy. Overall,
they did well.

Afterwards there was a pizza party at one of the students houses.
Kashiwaya Sensei sat next to me and we talked some more about general
business. Later we saw funny out-takes from the taigi films that
Kashiwaya Sensei and his students had produced in Seattle and along
with bits of Star Wars and humorous one liners. "Blazing Bokken...."
heh heh heh heh...

On Sunday morning, Kashiwaya Sensei focussed on Ki development -
mostly ki testing movements in the Oneness Rhythm Taiso. Mel, a woman
from KC, and I stood in front of everyone and lead the crowd of 50 or
so. I hadn't done it in a while and was just glad I didn't screw it
up. Mel kept counting really slow, so I matched him but when the
second count came all the rest counted too we kept going faster. This
reminded me of several classes with Jon Doner Sensei in
Charlottesville about the effects of the group on counting.

We finished the morning session with a discussion of the new name that
Tohei Sensei has come up with to label techniques formerly known as
"kotegaeshi". The new name is "koteoroshi". In Japanese "kotegaeshi"
implies twisting the wrist back on the arm to a native speaker. For a
native speaker, the descriptive label "koteoroshi" emphasizes the
concept of the lead and drop found in the ki society in the techniques
formerly known as "kotegaeshi". Apparently in Japan, newer students
were always focusing on twisting the wrist in techniques labeled with
"kotegaeshi". Of course this was not a problem in other countries,
where the term kotegaeshi meant nothing but what the teacher said and
showed. It may make sense in Japan, but I think perhaps the idea of
keeping the name "kotegaeshi" around and using koteoroshi to indicate
that subset of kotegaeshi techniques that clearly fit the pattern
might be more useful. Just my opinion.

The Ki barai ceremony, aikido demonstrations and reception went very
well on Sunday afternoon. There was a full house with many people from
the general community of Lawrence attending the ceremony. Several
students of the Kansas Ki Society performed taigi after the formal
ceremony by. One of the children students was so excited about just
learning the jogi dai ichi that she wanted to and did perform it for
the audience. Kashiwaya Sensei also performed this jogi later and
afterwards brought a little lightness when he turned toward her, bowed
respectfully but playfully and said he hoped his performance met with
her approval. Tsubaki sensei and a student also performed a nicely
done iai demo of Muso Eishin Jikiden Ryu. He did a very nice job but I
guess someone who is a master of Noh would probably pick up iai really
well. One of the highlights of the demonstrations was when Tsubaki
sensei and Kashiwaya sensei performed Taigi 29 with iaito.  My otomo,
Jamie, was finally feeling better and with a little coaching did a
decent job of folding my hakama. I am using the method outlined in the
back of Maruyama's green book now but this is apparently different
from what they are teaching in Kansas. I made him redo it. :-)

I had another long chat with Kashiwaya Sensei and a very pleasant chat
with Tsubaki sensei at the reception after the demonstrations. Jamie
drove me to the Kansas City airport after I said my good-byes. I had a
very easy peaceful 1.5 hr flight home on a mostly empty plane
surrounded by a lot of good memories from the weekend events.

All the people I met were really great and made me feel very welcome
and the energy was very positive in the new space. That sort of
weekend experience is one I really cherish at this point in my life,
regardless of technical questions on aikido.

Domo arrigato and ciao everyone!  Craig Hocker Houston Ki Aikido


INTERNET COMMENTARY

HOW TO GET THERE

On Thu, 24 Feb 2000 15:20:30 -0500

"mailto:CHUCK.GORDON@DFAS.MIL" waxed philosophic:

>From: George Simcox ["mailto:kimas@EROLS.COM"] 

>>Jun, you have raised
a very good point and question. Do we "follow in the footsteps" of our
teachers or do we "stand on their shoulders"?
>> 
> 
>
Dunno about others,
but I always look at an old Zen saying, something about not seeking to
follow the path set by men of old, but rather, seeking what they
sought ...
>

Speaking of old men...

Sensei put an interesting spin on class the other night. We started
(after warm-ups) with a bit of an experiment. We paired off, and uke's
job was to walk right past (through) sh'te and out the door -- with
intent and purpose. Sh'te's job was to stop uke with basically a
stiff-arm to the chest. We did that a few times, and then talked about
it.

"What did it feel like as uke?" Sensei asked. We gave responses like
frustrating, confrontational, aggressive, defensive.

"What did it feel like as sh'te?" Similar, actually. A bit aggressive,
confrontational, yet on some level it felt "good".  Good, in that you
felt the power and dominance of stopping someone cold.

Then Sensei talked about how that "good" feeling of control and
dominance is part of the nature of the human animal. However, we have
choice, and can exercise control over that basal feeling.

We paired up again, and uke had the same role. However, this time,
sh'te, instead of stopping uke cold, turned with uke, put their arm
around him, and walked with him, while steering him 1800.

"Now, how did THAT feel, ukes?"
Confusing. Cooperative. Non-aggressive. One person said, "I was
strongly heading for the door, and the next thing I knew, I was
strongly heading AWAY from the door. I don't really know how it
happened, it just did."  "How did it feel for sh'te?"
Cooperative. Smooth. "I still got my way, but I didn't have to fight
for it."

"That," said Sensei, "is aikido." Let's remember that when we practice
these next techniques. Then, we continued with class.

What does this have to do with "old men"? (Remember, that's how I
segued into this story.) Well, at the END of class, Sensei talked
about how we all get older and our physical abilities deteriorate.

He told the story of an escrima master he saw at a demo some years
ago. The guy's hands were nothing but a blur; he was clocked by a
radar gun at something ridiculous, like 118 mph (190 kph).

Sadly, he was very depressed. It seems he had lost 2 mph of hand speed
that year. He went into sever depression, since he had based his
entire self-image on being the fastest in the world.

His "moral of the story" was that one reason we like aikido is that we
can still do it, even as our bodies age and our physical strength is
no longer at its peak.  "Remember," Sensei told us, "aikido is done by
a bunch of old men who just don't want to quit."

[NB: Please take "men" in the generic sense of "mankind", and don't go
on a discrimination rant. After all, Sensei's wife is a godan...]

Of course, these thoughts aren't new to any of us, but it did give me
pause for thought.  And I *really* liked the exercise at the beginning
of class.  I may have to use that myself, sometime...

A few random ruminations for Friday morning.

Scott Crawford

A RESPONSE

You stopped them? That's odd...when we do that one uke tends to walk
out the door, either with nage bouncing along ahead of them, or, more
commonly, with nage left spinning off to one side like a
beercan... :^)

The main requirement is for uke to stay relaxed, ignore nage, just
"extend ki" out the door, the county and the local spiral arm if they
can manage that. If they bring their mind back to struggle with nage,
they stop.  Their mind is at the point of contact, and they are
already there, so why keep moving? :^) If they've still got someplace
to get to, and they don't tense up and fight nage, they tend to keep
moving, and nage feels like he's tried to stop a rolling truck.

>Then Sensei talked about how that "good" feeling of control and
dominance is part of the nature of the human animal. However, we have
choice, and can exercise control over that basal feeling.>

Yep! Same as the way we override most of our instincts all the time.
That's where stress comes from! :^)

>We paired up again, and uke had the same role. However, this time,
 sh'te, instead of stopping uke cold, turned with uke, put their arm
 around him, and walked with him, while steering him 180=B0.

>"Now, how did THAT feel, ukes?"
 Confusing. Cooperative. Non-aggressive. One person said, "I was
 strongly heading for the door, and the next thing I knew, I was
 strongly heading AWAY from the door. I don't really know how it
 happened, it just did.">

>"How did it feel for sh'te?" Cooperative. Smooth. "I still got my
 way, but I didn't have to fight for it.">

>"That," said Sensei, "is aikido." Let's remember that when we
 practice these next techniques. Then, we continued with class.>

Good demo, and excellent way to communicate the basic idea to those
who aren't verbally oriented. It's stashed away for future
reference. Thanks!

-- Mike "come on back anytime!" Bartman --

TRANSLATED COMMENTARY BY NISHIO SENSEI

-- So, why do you think things have collapsed?

"No one was trying to actually listen to O-sensei. All they were doing
was trying to learn the kata, the shape of the techniques.  Although
O-sensei said, 'What are you trying to do, emulating my techniques? A
technique, once it comes out, is over,' no one listened.  People kept
thinking that what he was saying was so divine that no one actually
listened very carefully. Yet, sometime later, I suddenly realize, 'So
that's what he was saying!' This is the kind of superficial training
that people do these days. They don't even go to see other kinds of
budo. My feeling is that the 'worth' of a budo can only be ascertained
after you compare it with another budo.

"If the majority of people just sit around doing kokyu-ho with other
aikido people, then there's really nothing that can be done.  That'll
only produce things that will work in the dojo. Yet, people say things
like, 'You're still doing karate and sword work even if you're in
aikido. If you want to do karate, then go to karate. If you want to do
sword work, then go do kendo. There's no need for those other things
if you're doing aikido.' Even in other budo, people are still working
very hard. We should take a look at that and strive to make a 'better
aiki.'  Aikido is a budo which has that kind of
destiny. Unfortunately, the sempai who have that kind of vision are
all passing away. The collapse can only continue.

"Now, if we were to want to proceed in the way that I've said here, I
think that there needs to be a reeducation of the younger
teachers. This isn't something that can be done in one morning or
afternoon. After 30 or 40 years on this path, I finally get a kind of
'feeling' that something has finally begun. Because of this, when I
think about the future, I worry more and more about what might
happen..."

Jun Akiyama

(note: Shoji Nishio is an Aikikai Shihan, born in 1927 and starting in
Aikido in 1951.  He is ranked in Aikido, Judo, Karate and Iaido.)


CHIEF INSTRUCTOR'S COMMENTARY

Recently I have rediscovered the importance of taking up the slack in
Ki Development and Aikido.  Often what we know well tends to slip into
the background of our training as elements we are not so familiar with
take up our attention.  This is neither bad nor good, just natural,
but it does behoove us to recognize this fact and review our
activities from time to time to insure that old lessons, once learned
don't become stale and feeble.

In the Internet section of these notes I have included a rather
lengthy discussion by Scott Crawford, a past visitor to our Dojo and
Mike Bartman, a current member as they discuss differing approaches to
understanding the "walk through" exercise.  The Internet is quite
useful in discussing things with folks from other dojos and glean from
the discussion a better insight into your own training.

Nishio Sensei's comments were, I thought most interesting in that he
was discussing how he finally came to understand that technique study
was only a portion of the training and that awareness of what others
were doing was most worth while.

TRAVEL

I am off to Seattle on March 24th and will return on the 27th.  Then I
travel to Charlottesville on April 1for their Official Opening and
some testing. I plan to be in Arizona on May 12, 13 and 14 conducting
a seminar for the Arizona Ki Society.  I also am trying to find time
to go to Indiana to visit Jim Karaffa Sensei and his group at Notre
Dame University.


A PERSONAL NOTE

I would like to thank all of you for your prayers and concern for the
health of Norma, my wife.  She has been a mainstay in my life on this
Aikido path.  Her initial dose of Chemotherapy is completed and the
surgery on February 14 was mostly successful, removing all of the very
aggressive tumor and most of the less aggressive one.  She will
undergo another round of chemotherapy starting on March 21.  Please
keep her in your prayers.  I can not express how much your thoughts
and actions have sustained her during this trying period.

GEORGE SIMCOX