sdargie

When I was starting out in our dojo morning training took place in a rehearsal room in the basement of our school which also housed some dorms. Being as that I lived above the dojo it was easy for me to get there three times a week and was often the only one there. This was a great oppurtunity since it was essentially private lessons with the sensei for a few months and helped me to improve greatly in a relatively short time.

That's a great point that my band director used to make in high school. Class time was not practice time. You were supposed to learn the music at home. Class time was rehearsal time where we were supposed to learn how to put the pieces together as an ensemble. Did this ever happen? Not really and for the same reasons; little time, little actual interest, etc. I love how these concepts about training and dedication are the same in martial and cultural arts.

It doesn't too long to have a very basic understanding of some key techniques, but hopefully the person training will be a police officer for a long time and will continue to train for a long time. Besides, the idea of mirroring and not adding to the attack are definetly applicable to reducing police brutality. Isn't that worth sticking around?

Wasn't the original purpose of training in stealth to keep the Ninja villages hidden and secluded? In order to keep their clans safe from invading armies they learned how to stay invisible and quiet. Sure, later some practitioners became private assasins but that wasn't everyone.

AH-HA! Professional Budo (George Katchner) The Warriors' Path (James Sidney) Code of the Samurai (thomas Cleary) Bushido: the Warrior's Code (Inazo Nitobe)

Have you checked out Kung Fu? I know what little I know so far feels much more natural to me and blends right in with Aikidos fluid movements. Isn't Hapkido a combined form of Aikijutsu and TKD?

Off the top of my head I own Hagakure (Yamamoto Tsunetomo) Book of Five Rings (Miyamoto Musashi) Unfettered Mind (Takuan Soho) Life-Giving Sword (Yagyu Munenori) Art of War (Sun Tzu) Art of Peace (Retranslation of Sun Tzu) Art of Peace (Morihei Ueshiba) The Spirit of Aikido (Kisshomaru Ueshiba) Zen and the Art of Anything (Hal French) The Secret Techniques of Police Aikido (Bill Sosa) Reflections on Qi (Gary Khor) Teaching of the Great Mountain (Taizan Maezumi) Aikido for Life (Gaku Homma) and have read from my Sensei's library The Spiritual Aspects of Aikido (William Gleason) Zen in the Martial Arts (?) A book on Kendo and Iaido sword drills and a handbook on Japanese sword history, maintanence, and construction. I think there are one or two I forgot but I'm not at home now to check.

Any striking art that feels "natural" to you would compliment Aikido. That way, when you need to atemi to "soften" your uke up you'll really be confident with it.

Modern ninjutsu is more about the application of a combat philosophy than it is about uniform and tools. It's the same way that you can apply Sun Tzu's "Art of War" to business and management rather than warfare.

There was an email petitioninig that site that made it's way around my college a few months ago.

That was really funny. I liked the closet hakema part.

Roughly 12 hours a week including morning sessions, helping with the junior class at night, the senior normal and advanced classes and the weapons and sparring classes on the weekends.

I'm 21 with a little over a year in an official martial art. Most of my experience before that was in lifesaving with isn't exactly designed for war but provided a lot of the same mentality and perspectives.

Awesome article. I work at a front desk through school and anyone who works directly with people can see the continuous lack of manners and simple acknowledgement of someone elses existence. A guy was ready to fight me today because I wouldn't give them anything without an ID. It's sad that a lot of people (at least around me) would rather roll over than deal with any kind of conflict. Thank you for the reminder.

Has anyone altered forms to fit their own requirments? We are tested on Taeguk Jeung (sp?) and I own a pair of sai and tonfa so started incorporating the weapons so I that had an excuse to practice both.

I got a martial arts tattoo on my 21st birthday. It's the kanji for Aiki inside a broken circle. It was inspired by the same quote that's in my signature except I interpret it to mean mental and moral strength as well as physical strength. The broken circle is a visual representation of Musashi's Void as well as that sphere O Sensei mentioned . It's on my left arm just underneath my shoulder so that it is easliy hidden by a shirt sleeve. It reminds me that anything that doesn't help me grow is a waste of time and effort which I think is a good message for a tattoo; a permanent reminder to always change and grow.

For the most part the weopons in Aikido are there for nage to learn how to recieve them, but uke has to learn how to use them correctly for the exercise to be worthwhile. However, while you can't really use a sword defensively nowadays, I have seen the same techniques adapted for police to use with a gun instead of a sword. Aiki jo is VERY adept at being used offensively or defensively since it incorporates a lot of the blending philosophy of the unarmed combat. In fact, lots of techniques are identical with or without weapons, which really drives home the idea that weapons should be an extension what we normaly do.

Tenchinage can be applied wether you are standing or on your back with someone sitting on you. A kotegaeshi is a kotegaeshi is a kotagaeshi....

I hope nobody thinks that this is the most important thing you can do in training. Everything should be balanced for the best effect but this is one out many ways to break see the nuts and bolts of a technique. That's definetly true. A few weeks ago I was having a fencing lesson with my father and I couldn't get the feel of a parry for a number of reasons; an foil is MUCH lighter than a bokken, there is no sidestepping in sport fencing, the parry only works if the sword is held at a certain angle and the fulcrum of a fencing parry is in a different place than a kendo parry to name few things. Anyway, he told me to close my eyes and just worry about pushing the sword far enough away to make me safe and not just feel safe. I nailed in a few tries. I did lose all that progress when I opened my eyes, BUT, I now had the correct technique in my body for a reference. It's a wonderful means to an end but it's just that, a means. I would never tell a mugger to wait while I put on my blindfold and hakema.

We occaisionally have issues with this in our dojo all though they always mean well. There are a few friends of students/instructors that come and visit from time to time who practice "pure" martial arts as opposed to our mixed art. So when we are praciting Aikido, the TKD friend is really confused but when we shift to sparring they get all excited and start teaching those around them. That isn't to say that we don't bring in friends to teach us some techniques and philosophy of other arts that they study but sometimes you just nod and smile and go back to training the way Sensei told you to.

Nobody has said this was a quick fix. Nobody said that you would avoid things without touching them. You have to be connected to the person/thing to feel how it's going to react next. Learning not to overreact IS the point of the excercise. Feeling exactly how much force it takes to turn the doorknob for example, or learning exactly how much force it takes to deflect a punch so you can save that energy and stay calm. I don't think it's that bold. The word sensitivity is a little limiting to what we're talking about. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sensitivity Just curious, what is a an appropriate name for the goal of chi sao?

Luck!

It's still training for the reason you just mentioned. You walk around all day touching things while looking so there's no shortage of training there. How often do you walk around your house with your eyes closed doing the same activities? Blindfolding yourself is that training. The test is when you're fighting and your sensitivity is as advanced as your sight.

We'll I'm still friends with them. I wasn't angry at them for thinking the way they do just sad and dissapointed in them. I suppose that's a step up from being angry at them. It mostly saddened me because I see hitting children as an admission of weakness. It's like saying, "I'm not strong enough to treat you like person who is learning every day and needs guidance but I am strong enough to treat you like a pet who needs fixing." They do have a lot of good qualities and they have been through a lot in their life so when things come up I try to support them as much as I can. Most of my issue is that I'm trying to get to the point where not matter how extreme I think peoples opinions are they won't affect me. In fact I should say to the point were I consider peoples opinions extreme at all, just opinions. I can relate to that situation as well fallen_milkman. One of my ex-roommates (I've had many) was a straight-edge Christian before the summer and came back the biggest drug dealer on campus. I go to Berklee College of Music, Enviroman.

I remembered an experience of mine a few months ago while reading "Zen Anyone" and figured I would give it its own thread since it doesn't quite relate to meditation but the application of it's mindset. While packing up my room at the end of semester at school some friends and roommates were hanging out in my room watching Nanny 911 because it was still new and we were curious. Somewhere along the line someone made what I thought was a joke about beating their child if they ever acted like the kids on TV. Not just, spanking but a backhand to face. In my disbelief I played along not realizing he was serious but as I came to realize that we ended up in an arguement about parenting, the line between abuse and discipline, and other such things. I am a music education major and I have been teaching kids in varying situations for about a decade. I have lots of experience with managing kids and have seen the fallout from horrible living situations in various ways and I have read about many different approaches to education and discipline in classes. If I ever see someone hit a child I will probably break that hand on the spot. Essentially, it really shook me that someone I had known for a long time had a part of their personality that was so against my core beliefs. I should mention before this turns into a debate about spanking that I talked to some adults that I really respect who spank their children and it's easier for me to swallow if the child is involved in deciding what a "spankable offense" is. The examples I heard were lying, stealing and instigatinig a fight. Anyway, my question for those more enlightened than I is have you ever run into a situation that rocked the foundation of who you were and it was really hard to accept that part of the other person(s) even though they were a close friend? Where is the line between accepting a person as they are completely and cutting them out of our life? I have come across situations like this before and they are never fun. I really want to learn to live by O Senseis concept of love but this was a major snag in my understanding and application of that love. Any guidance or relevant stories would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.