Haragei (belly talk)

Newsletter of the Aikibudokan, Houston, TX
Vol 2, Issue 4May-June 2011
In This Issue
Dojo Projects
Mastery in the MA
Aikido in Real Life
Featured Article
2 Swords on Beach
"Dojo Projects"
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Now scheduling several Ikkyu, Shodan and Nidan demos that we hope to report in the next newsletter or two. 

 

Jodo:

Scott Meshberger-Ikkyu

Lee Lackey-Ikkyu

Grover Jackson-Nikyu 

Chris Nobles-Nikyu

Julian Ho-Gokyu

Michael Sorgenfrei-Gokyu

James Donovan-Gokyu

 

Congratulations!

  

This Month's Thought:

  

"To practice properly the Art of Peace, you must: Calm the spirit and return to the source.  Cleanse the body and spirit by removing all malice, selfishness, and desire.  Be ever grateful for the gifts received from the universe, your family, Mother nature, and your fellow human beings."

 

Morihei Ueshiba

 

 

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Greetings!

The year is moving quickly so so here is our May & June issue for early summer 2011.  Summer can be a great time for cookouts and family events.  Vacations, summer school and job can always seem better, more fun and more positive than in the dead of winter when it's cold, rainy or dreary.  However, with that being said, staying on track at the dojo and keeping up your training regimen and work-out routines is important for your long term development.
  
Remember that 5 or 10 or 20 years from now you'll have the skills and confidence that you desired when you were just a white belt, while remembering that vacation or BBQ you went to back in '08 will be next to impossible; memories just a blur while kotegaeshi becomes slicker and slicker.
  
To many times in our lives we grab the easy, fun activity instead of the one that is more long-term in its' learning progression and more life-changing in its possibilities.  So instead, do both.  Stick to your training schedule while carving out time for fun.  If the dojo only has 3 classes a week that you attend then guess what; that still leaves 4 days to rest.  If you only go to two night classes per week then guess what again; you still have 5 nights left to slurp pasta, cut sushi, sip hot sake or cold martinis and veg on the couch as you liquify your brains on "reality tv".
  
Just stop making excuses and keep to your schedule.  After all; if you stay with it then someday you might be 85th Galactic Dan and have green skin and pointy ears like a certain movie star  ... so would that be a bad thing????

Hope to see you on the mat,

L.F. Wilkinson Sensei
Dojo Projects

 2 Swords on Beach

After having left the dojo I trained at some 12 odd years ago now and having spent the time since actively teaching, conducting seminars and watching people learn, I have come to realize just how vast the Aikido world truly is and how difficult it is to share and teach the information.  It seems that no matter how much I teach, I always leave out some of the important bits.

 

It also seems that sometimes I teach a lesson that I consider critical (in absolutely every sense of the word) to players' overall development and at the moment I teach it, everyone seems to understand both the concept and the application.  I'm pleased ... until I teach it again 6 months later and it can seem that I never covered the material at all.  That's how difficult it can be and why all Sensei repeat the same material over and over again, esp. for the ranks under Shodan where a full and complete understanding of the fundamentals is so very important.

 

There are many well-known Sensei out there with much the same observation; that sometimes it seems as tho' we Sensei are forever teaching the same lesson over and over and it never "sticks" so-to-speak.  All good Sensei accept this reality and willingly, if not gratefully, teach the basics because the future of martial arts always lies with the beginner, the white belt who someday is bitten by the Aiki-Bug and who can't put it down afterwards.

 

My Sensei also made much the same observation and when I was still with him he would many, many times hold a seminar for out-ouf-towners (member dojo of his org) and we would watch as people would come up and make a comment such as "Gosh Sensei, I sure hope that you teach that jodo lesson again (or kata again).  I really enjoyed it when I was here 6 months ago but I forgot all of it.  Would you please teach it again?"

 

 I was shocked the one time he made a fully honest comment to me of "Why should I bother.  He obviously doesn't want to learn it and work on it otherwise he would have spent the last 6 months working on it at home.  Does he want me to spoon-feed him the information?"    ..... Sensei was talking about black belts that in some cases were Nidan or Sandan and up and not about colored belts/kyu ranks but true to his ethics, he taught the requested material in a serious attempt to help people learn and advance.

 

Although his comment was directed at high level black belts who should know better (not beginners who are still trying to understand fundamentals) it always stuck in my head and raised a question .... how do we put the info out there?  DVD's and training tapes always seem to be nothing more than an encylopedia of waza and don't really teach the in-depth material that is handing out at a seminar.  They are a sort of "animated book" and not much more beyond that with little meaningful explanation or teaching.

 

I've been told that when I teach, I give out as much data in one day as other Sensei do in 2 or 3 days of seminar sessions.  I do that deliberately because it's like a bug under my skin trying to break out (did you see the "Mummy" movie?).  There is just a bunch of stuff in my head and I can see the value and I want others to see the value and to learn and progress faster because when I stand in front of a group of players whether it be a dozen or a over a hundred (and I've taught groups of both sizes) I do not see a bunch of white belts; I see 6th, 7th and 8th dans in front of me.  This stuff (Aikido and MA) puts the lead in my pencil and has added so much incredible value to my life that I cannot understand how someone can tell me that they want to learn but then not do the time on the mat to make it happen).

 

So after years, decades literally, of wondering how to get the info out, how to let people see the lesson over and over again so that at some point it "sticks" and they can utilize it, I decided that we'll film every seminar and that I'll do a total brain dump so that the DVD's we have available for sale beginning this year will, in and of themselves, "BE" the seminar.  If you attend the seminar and then later watch the DVD it will BE the seminar so now you can hear the lesson and see the drills over and over and over.

 

In this fashion I hope to find at least a partial solution to this problem of communcating the info enough times and in sufficient detail to be of real use to Aikido players.

 

We already have Kodokan Goshin Jitsu almost ready to go.  This month we filmed the 8 Releases.  We should also be able to prepare Kuzushi no Kata and The Walking (in the can for the last year but we plan to re-shoot it with the new depth of detail).

 

I'm pleased that when we filmed Goshi Jitsu last year we covered so much material that we literally had to cut hours out of it and still ended up with two full DVD's of information for only 21 waza.  Who would have thought that Kodokan Goshin Jitsu had so many solid hours of material that amounts to a private lesson?  We taught for a full day and had to cut the material to the most important but it's still a lot of material.  The 8 Releases were  plotted out and I calculate 3 DVD's at least, each with up to 2 hours of material.  Like I said; once you really, really dig down deep and start looking at every nuance the amount of teachable (and studyable) material in Aikido is much more immense than what any of us realize and it would behove each of us to focus and learn as much as we possibly can from the best sources available.

 

The moral to the story is this.  Everything we teach has so much detail that it amounts to a lifetime of study; truly a lifetime.  You should not expect to learn it all in one sitting but instead, over a long time of repetitive lessons, learning classes and practice times.  Classes, seminars, DVD's, Godo Geiko, You Tube Channels, and prep'ing for demo's all add to the bits and pieces that over time fit together into the larger whole.

  

 L.F. Wilkinson Sensei 


 Mastery In the MA


Being consistent in training is an important factor in mastering Aikido or any other martial art.  The principles are "consistently" the same across almost any range of endeavor whether that be gym or dojo

 

______________________________________________________
Some brief ideas on learning and mastering a new skill:  
  • Choose the skill (Aikido and martial arts).
  • Find a learning source (the dojo).
  • Accept that it will take work and effort (can't learn it by reading a book or surfing Face Book).
  • Set a workable training schedule and stick to it faithfully (I do resistance training and aerobics 4 days a week on M/Tu/Th/F and rest Wednesday and make every possible effort to not slack off and stop the training).
  • Stick to that training schedule and do not allow anyone or anything to intrude because it is "your personal training, learning and fitness time" (skip Happy Hour, Monday Night Football, dinner with your mother-in-law or whatever).
  • Remember that every "slack" period of no training or of little effort will result in a "catch-up' period of heavier work just to get back to where you were so make it easier on yourself and don't slack off to begin with.
  • Accept that true mastery will take at least 5 years to start the process (and to make some good headway) and 10 years and more to truly master that activity.
  • Learn to not expect too much of yourself in the beginning and do not allow yourself to become personally frustrated at any perceived lack of progress (only Sensei can tell you whether or not your progress is where it is supposed to be and you cannot judge yourself). 

You are progressing.  It's simply that the study is so large that for a long time it's difficult to tell where on the path of mastery you are exactly

 

 L.F. Wilkinson Sensei 
Aikido in Real Life 
Tomiki-Shihonage
Tomiki Sensei taking Shiho-nage

Commentary from Aikido players about how it has affected their day-to-day activities or helped them avoid unpleasantries.

  

______________________________

 

  

 

In the Loo

 

Another Samurai Zanshin lesson from the dim and distant past.  When going to the loo (that's public restroom for those not from the mother country) one must be aware that attacks can occur.

 

For males only, when standing and conversing with the nice man in the stall next to you, use the free hand to put on the wall to push away if attacked from behind so that you can't be smashed into the wall.  Look up and around (not down) to see who comes and goes while you are occupied and be certain of what they are doing.  For male and females both, when sitting for that brief moment of personal reflection, take one foot completely out of the pants legs so that the pants are around one foot only.  Don't sit there playing video games with your head down as you stroke the buttons on your cell phone.  Head up and be alert.  Plus leaving your cell phone in your pocket will help you avoid dropping it in the bowl (something one of my in-laws did a while back, she left it there in the water and bought a new one ... go figure).

 

If attacked while in the stall you will then be able to stand up and walk/run/motivate/randori without having both pants legs down around your ankles.  Remember what the Samurai said, "Samurai with pants off can run faster than Samurai with pants around ankles".

 

(Also, always use the lock on the door and if it's broken, go to a stall with a lock that works.)

 

This Samurai moment just sounds too funny doesn't it?  That is, until I tell everyone that a player from out-of-state came to train in Houston years ago and related the story of how he was in a stall in a public restroom and had a belligerent individual push the door open and attack him while he sat during his moment of meditation.

 

This individual, having heard about this lesson at the dojo, used it and came through unscathed after giving his attacker a small lesson in correct manners when in the restroom taking a potty break.

 

L. F. Wilkinson Sensei

 

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About Us:  We've been teaching independently since 1998 and are now one of the largest aikido dojo in the Houston metroplex and South East Texas; offering instruction in Muso Zato Isana Tomiki Ryu Aikido, Shindo Muso Ryu Jodo and Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido.  Commited to the preservation of traditional Budo and Japanese martial arts, our goal is to preserve these disappearing art forms for the benefit of future generations.  If you have any questions about our classes and dojo activities then please contact us.  We are a member dojo of The International Aikido Alliance.