The Thoughtful Sensei-Aikido Musings

182. I Wanna’ Be 85th Galactic Dan

The world turns, times change, nothing stays the same, 2 steps forward and 3 steps back, and turn in circles.  Sometimes change is not progress and certainly not for the better.

Lately I’ve been noticing blogs by other Sensei and dojo about a decrease in promotional standards aggravated by an increase in big-time promotions, so this must be the new thingie’ in Budo-politics, a new fad maybe, all trendy and such, kinda’ like hair styles.  However, I can sadly tell you is that it’s actually nothing new and has been around for a while, decades maybe if not longer; certainly as long as I’ve been around.

With that said and as jaded as I am sometimes even I can be surprised by a blog such as the one I read recently which said that a high rank went inactive from his organization for a time and when he came back to re-start training they apparently said, “Buddy, friend, hey guy, alright-alright, welcome back, good to have you ……. but we’re dropping your re-entry rank by a few so even though you still know the material we’re just going to punish you for …… whatever.  Just look at it as character building as you learn that humility we keep talking about to the white belts.”

I’ve been around on the mat for about 50 years now and that was the first time I’d heard that one for a couple of reasons.  First, I wouldn’t be surprised by a bill for the missed time in not paying membership fees (but this was way beyond that) and second, why did the guy accept being busted in rank?  Neither I nor most of the people I know would take that from anyone as it is an insulting slap in the face and clearly shows that the organizations standards weren’t that quality-based to begin with.  And third, the last time I heard of anything like that was when someone was required to resign (read: forced out involuntarily, hit the highway buddy, get lost).  In that case he was not allowed to rejoin and not only his membership, but all his rank was effectively cancelled, the demand was made to return all his certificates and scrolls, which of course made him a true ronin in the classic sense.

What do you say to a group in any martial art that basically promotes (or “un-promotes”) based on whether you take a hiatus from training?  Doesn’t that mean that they don’t actually have standards at all and instead promote based on who you are, or how much money you pay, or who’s in charge this week, or did you do something they didn’t like such as asking out the Sensei’s best girl on a date?  After all, you knew the material when you were originally promoted to “whatever dan” so did you somehow forget everything since then as if you never knew it to begin with?  And if so, then why were you promoted back then, thus necessitating the downgrade today?

What I’ve normally seen in the ‘verse of entropic budo (as the classical traditions are lost) was how my old organization handled it; both the initial high requirements for promotion and then the degradation of standards that came later.  When I first joined as a “nothing belt” I was given a list of promotional requirements which included both the required time in grade (actively training mind you and not just holding up the wall) and the technical standards to be performed.  One of those was that to make Yondan I had to know all the kata including basic, intermediate, and advanced.  When I say all then I mean all.  I had to literally know the entire system including all the Koryu work, and all rank beyond that was based upon increasing levels of ability, deepening understanding of life, the universe, and everything, along with teaching experience. 

I guess one could call that “Dynamic Promotional Performance”, or in other words you already know the technical requirements of the entire ryu but now you must demonstrate increasing levels of expertise every time you step on the mat to do an embu or teach a lesson and, do it consistently at that high level over a very long period of time.  This standard was almost like judging in gymnastics where they score on both your historical performance and your putting on a good show today in order to prove that you’re not simply a flash in the pan; that long term consistency proving up your comprehension and deep understanding and ability in the fundamentals.

At some point in the entropy of the universe (and the standards of my old organization that I eventually resigned from) all that changed.  People began to be promoted by what member dojo they came from, who their Sensei was, how long they had been practicing (or not practicing at all) and whether the Kaicho (head of the organization) liked them. 

Money came into play as I was told by one of my deshi (students) of his friend in another state (also in my old organization) who had stopped training 2 or 3 years back but was told it was now time for him to be promoted to the next higher rank for the small but tidy sum of several hundred dollars.  Obviously, the promotion was based on “time hanging around” and writing that check (damn, if only I had known that good handwriting would get me there faster I would have spent more time practicing my cursive).  As a friend and fellow Sensei I currently know and train with described it, “He (the Kaicho) became a merchant and forgot he was Samurai class”.  Money just corrupts so many things and needing to make a car payment is not a good excuse.

The other issue that arose and that played a part in my eventual resignation was the day that a 6^th dan in a karate school applied for membership in the organization.  He was immediately promoted to 6^th dan in Aikido under the guise of “Anyone who reaches 6^th dan in any martial art is also 6^th dan in Aikido because the principles of all martial arts are the same across the board”. 

No mention made of actually “knowing” the kata or the technical standards came into this transaction or that some karate principles may differ from some Aikido principles, only that he (karate Sensei) had multiple dojo in his business model with a few dozen students and that my Aikido Sensei could enroll all the karate students in his organization and promote them.  Can you smile and say, “Lots of membership and promotional fees to take care of?"  Well …… I thought you could.

The moral here is that as organizations and their management age, things can change and at some point, you may have to decide.  In my case I had already reached 7^th dan before the creeping degradation of standards and of reaching for the Yen (and the dollar) became too outrageous.  Younger players, not knowing what I had witnessed over my 25 or so years with that organization stayed and, in some cases, they were promoted on actual knowledge and ability since they were honestly committed to the study.  Others rose in rank to ridiculously high dan levels with no real or true ability shown with the resultant underlying conflict between the two groups raring it’s ugly head on occasion.

So if you decide at some point to reach for 85^th Galactic Dan (and get your lifetime membership in the “Obi of the Month Club”) then now you know how to do it.  Just go look for that “special” Budo organization and be sure that you have your checkbook sticking out of your shirt pocket so that they can see it when you walk in the door.  However, don’t expect the rest of us to do anything but bust you down in rank if you want to join a real Budo organization and we happen to be sitting in the admissions office.  After all, there are more legitimate rationales for “de-promoting” someone other than simply taking a vacation.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

December 15,2021

168. PIE R Square - A Brief Rambling

What we do in the dojo needs to be as real as we can possibly (and safely) make it.  It’s Budo.  It is not a sport.  It is not a game.  It is an activity where we practice the very serious art of controlled violence where mistakes have consequences and even the little things can often be critical so everyone’s head must always be on straight.  The quantum 8-dimensional algorithm may therefore be stated as:

PIE (Physical, Intellectual, Emotional) ………….. R (Reigisaho) Squared. 

Reigisaho can be considered many times more important than simple PIE.  PIE can be looked at as how “teachable” a student is (a measurement of their capacity and potential so-to-speak).  R (Reigisaho) can be looked at as “how seriously” that student views the training and whether they develop the proper mental attitude to understand that the dojo (and indeed Budo) are not sports nor are they games.  Reigisaho should then be looked at as R-Squared.  Maybe even R-Cubed and beyond.  That is how important Reigisaho is to the life of a dojo and to its’ existence in the Budo-Verse.

A dojo, if one pauses to consider, is an unrealistic and impractical idea; a waste in the business sense of unoccupied space and underutilized facilities since 24/7 classes are impossible.  Many Sensei have described the dojo in their own fashion so there are many ways to consider the idea of the existence of such a place.  A place of competition?  No.  A place of combat?  No.  A place of pure contemplation?  No.  A place of self-realization and enlightenment?  No.  An institution of learning?  No.  A place of social discourse?  No. 

What then?

It is not a gymnasium, a sports bar, a church, a social club, a rec center, a temple or monastery, a beer or dance hall, a business or a corporation.  Some Sensei have used the term “sacred place” although that term while more complete than others, is still insufficient.  It’s not even a school although most of the advertising one sees describes it as such because the normal Western civilian is simply unable to grasp the idea that it is something beyond a mere “school” per se.

It is also not a “physical” place.  Yes; it has walls, roof, floors, and other structures that one can walk into and “be” within, but a dojo is more a mental and spiritual state of being than of mere body.  Yes; the dojo is a physical manifestation of the ideals of Budo, and a dojo is said to absorb the “energy” of those who train and spend time there to the point that a sensitive can enter and “feel” those energies.  A Dojo however is better considered a larger existence with all other descriptive possibilities attaching themselves to that one point; a locus as-it-were.

We all work and struggle and rejoice and suffer in our efforts to prosper or just to survive in our society with its emphasis on achievement, money, politics, etc. so the dojo becomes an offset to that life-battle.  It becomes a space that exists for our larger selves, and that space is energized by us going beyond the binary yes-no, win-lose idea.  The dojo needs several things that create, support, and maintain its “being”.  Those are within the overall encompassing aspects of Reigisaho.

There is a widely told teaching story in Budo concerning kendo and kickboxing.  A high-level championship shiai is held and when the winner is declared there are two differing reactions.  In the kendo match the facial expression of the winner and of the loser both remain the same with no real emotion.  The winner is the one who first bows (to the loser) to show his respect for the efforts made by him.  The respect from each to each is obvious.  In the kickboxing match when the winner is declared, the winner begins to raise his hands in the air, jump up and down and beat his chest as-if to gloat and disrespect the loser.  Two different reactions.  Two different personalities.  Only one understands.

When we train in controlled violence we have to “over-respect” our training partner who is giving us permission to do things to them that contains the possibles of maiming or killing someone who is not trained; or who is poorly trained or just sloppy and unobservant.  In Aikido and Judo when we throw someone into the floor they survive intact only because they have been taught and have learned how to relax, react, and respond.  Despite their understanding and knowing their side of the Budo-equation (you throw …. I react and protect myself) there is still danger involved and showing respect maintains an attitude within you that reflects your appreciation for their working with you that will cause you to slow down or hold back to ensure that they can “get down” (to the mat) or not break or dislocate anything.

Many people are ejected from a dojo.  I’ve ejected more than a small handful myself over the years because they just seem unable to respect and protect their training partner and seem to not understand that they are in a dojo, not a high school debate club.  They claim that they are only “just making sure it works against someone resisting”; a ridiculous claim at any level.  They act as if the dojo is not a special space and as if Sensei and the Sempai can be argued with and debated illustrating their lack of understanding of the serious nature of training in Budo and their ignoring the idea that Sensei and the other Sempai might have a different viewpoint on the important issues at hand; those viewpoints being based in the fact that Sensei might literally have more years on the mat than the kohai has been alive.

A matter of perspective but an important one.

If we are training properly, if we have good teachers, if we pay attention, then we should realize that the repetitive practice we are engaged in is designed to exploit the opponent’s weaknesses.  Soft repetition gives us feedback that we cannot sense or understand if we are using power and speed.  That soft repetition sometimes means that the technique fails on occasion BUT WE MUST understand that it is failing against another player that is likely at the same level of ability that we are.  That means that even if it failed against another highly skilled player that it would work against an unskilled civilian (non-martial artist) who has none of the highly trained reactions and skill sets a trained player has.

This distinction means that to develop skill we must have someone who we can work with repeatedly over a long period of time.  Doing simple things like bowing before, during, and after the keiko shows the respect due to a fellow player and show that we appreciate their working with us, and that we will show our appreciation by not trying to inflict injury by “testing” the technique, or ignore Sensei and “fly by the seat of our pants”, a cute phrase to describe someone not following directions and inventing their own variations.  In most forms of Budo, this “free-style” training and ignoring Sensei is itself a dangerous form of disrespect.  Sensei is working to keep training safe and by consciously disregarding Sensei (not respecting his directions) the student can do something dangerous that results in injury.

In the end, reigisaho is simultaneously respect and an adjustment of our attitude and how we relate to and work with others as we train in controlled violence.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

October 30, 2019

167. Pie R Round

Yes.  Pie are round.  Annnd?

Most pies are indeed round but so are zenpo kaiten (forward rolling breakfalls) as is one of the three primary figures many attribute to Aikido (the square, triangle, and the circle).  Understanding the circle can’t be done overnight, zenpo kaiten takes some work, and making a great pie takes some “Grandmother” level skill-sets.  Try getting overly technical when teaching a beginner how to roll into a breakfall properly and that beginner may end up not liking you very much as their confusion and frustration levels rise.  Then go home and make that peach pie your grandmother used to make when you were a kid; you know, the one that has the old-style “pre-Betty Crocker” recipe that says “take a pinch of this, add a palm-full of this, pour in a tea glass of fresh milk (I thought it was all fresh milk but maybe grandmother had a different cow than most people).

Teaching, like pie making, is an art form for which there really are no good textbooks to follow so if you’re a “book person” then you’re out of luck.  My old Sensei who guided my development for about 20+ years once told me that I was a “book person” and that until I accepted that martial arts are an “art form” (pun) and that training in them (but most especially teaching them) is a true “art” that I would be locked into place at my current Budo-Ceiling and unable to rise any higher in rank, understanding, or ability at randori. 

His observation (as I finally figured out) came largely from my tendency to look for hard and fast rules in how I was to learn, in my demanding that everyone I was teaching follow the same hard and fast rules, my placing everything into boxes and categories, and my assuming that everyone else did also.  All those hindrances to my martial arts development and career were a result of years of being a finance & economics major, followed by working as a bank regulator and then an EDP examiner.  Everything had a box, or a flow chart, or a graph, or a policies and procedures manual, or a spread sheet to fit into.  It didn’t matter whether it fit or not, “Get thee into yon round hole thy wearisome square peg”.

It took years to work myself out of that “bookish” over-analytical attitude (or frozen mind) and to understand how to look at the art form as just that; art.  Martial Art ..... Art Form ...... any clues here to see?

Teaching was the same.  Not everyone learns the same; something that is not easily understood until one fully accepts and has the responsibility to run and manage a dojo.  I had to figure it all out, first at my Sensei’ dojo for several years before I moved on, and then at my own dojo for the next 20.

So ………. PIE …. A Budo acronym for (P)hysical, (I)ntellectual, (E)motional. 

A researcher named Gardner many years ago wrote a book that detailed the idea that IQ is not simply and only the ability to score high on the Weschler Scale (one of the most commonly used IQ tests) but instead is multiple intelligences.  He believed that each can be separately tested and measured thus giving a more comprehensive view of any persons’ actual abilities in areas such as spacial perception, mathematical ability, understanding of abstractions, morality, or verbal acuity.  Taken together, the various IQ’s give a more comprehensive picture of any single person’s adaptability and learning potential than would otherwise be possible.

Budo then ………..

Physical.  Ever notice how some students work hard but still can’t tell their left foot from their right or how some students have such a fear of breakfalling that you think they’ll never, ever get it in a thousand years? 

Some students just don’t have the physical ability of the “natural athlete” to do physical things which, according to Gardner is an indicator of a low kinesthetic IQ (remembering that this is a "physical or kinesthetic" IQ and not that of overall intelligence).  It comes difficult for them and they must work twice as hard.  We had one student who finally learned how to do forward and backward rolls (there’s that zenpo kaiten circle again) but for whatever reason they simply were terrified of being thrown over their own hand as is required for kotegaeshi, sumiotoshi, or a guruma.  Even a well-supported Judo hip throw was frightening. 

How did we get the student past this?  We spent weeks and months working on a soft crash pad until finally, they jumped into it and could do it as well as the rest of the class.  I for one thought that part of the issue was that in childhood they fell out of a tree and their subconscious contained a subliminally instilled fear.  Another, more spooky thought was that maybe in a prior incarnation they fell off a cliff resulting in a genetically imbued fear of being airborne or thrown; a concept known as epigenics (a topic for another time).  Whatever the underlying reason, we had to work to desensitize them to the idea of being thrown and of falling until they could use their mind to control the subconscious fear and work through the issue.  All it took was a little extra instruction which no good Sensei should object to doing. 

So don’t let them quit.  Only keiko and facing the fear inherent within the issue will get them past it and you the Sensei (or the Sempai) must bluntly insist that they work the problem.

Intellectual.  Some folks just talk it to death.  You explain the technique, demonstrate it, ask them to do it, and then get a hundred questions.  You again ask the student to do it …………. and get another hundred questions.  Sometimes I think that there are those out in the Budo-verse who are just too smart for their own gi.  They may have some brain smarts, a couple of degrees or two, and be very competent (and maybe overpaid) in their profession but they use their intellect to question, and then explain what they think it is.  They share their opinion across the board without actually understanding what it is and what is ain’t.  They seem to doubt most or all the information given them as if keiko on the tatami is a Socratic debate with everyone passing around the hemlock (and if you’re the Sensei then you’re the first to reach for the cup so that you can put yourself out of your own misery from having to listen to the incessant brain dump).

After encouraging, telling, directing, literally ordering some deshi to just be quiet and to do the work, they finally (after a time) get the jest of the idea and the incessant running commentary finally stops.  The body learns before the mind can grasp the questions that may arise.  Confusion and uncertainty can be overcome after a few dozen if not hundreds of repetitions of the movement during which the neural pathways are formed, and the body begins to automatically respond correctly.  The issue here is that sometimes being Sensei and working to guide the deshi and to teach them requires that a firm (and sometimes rude?) attitude adjustment be directed at the deshi.  As one of my former Japanese teachers once told me, “More work, less koochi-waza” (koochi waza (sic) roughly translated from the Japanese meaning “working the mouth”).

At some point they have to get past the Socratic idea and just accept the teaching as it is; otherwise they will never progress and become a burden, an irritant, an (insert your own adjective) since they know so much that they make themselves “unteachable”.

Emotional.  What we do in the dojo needs to be as real as we can possibly (and safely) make it.  It’s Budo.  It is not a sport.  It is not a game.  It is an activity where we practice the very serious art of controlled violence where mistakes have consequences and even the little things can often be critical, so everyone’s head must always be on straight. 

Some students are unable to “get into” the idea of learning how to potentially hurt or damage someone and if they accidentally cause an injury, even a very minor one such as a scrape or bruise, their reaction is to semi-panic and become overly concerned over what actually amounts to nothing.  The occasional bruise in a dojo is (and should be) an accepted part of the training as long as it is not a serious matter requiring unnecessary recovery periods.  Most people, myself included, have received much worse injuries playing high school football or turning an ankle while running the city park for example

Some are not able to handle the focus of intense training required to learn how to responsibly control the physicality of maintaining control of uke and of themselves; the combination of the two needed to avoid injury of either training partner.  A lot of training and mat time is necessary to achieve that level of expertise, but the mental acceptance of that required time may be difficult for the student with mat-time is pushed aside in favor of Happy Hour and running personal errands.  So should the Sensei consider that deliberate avoidance of training time to also be an avoidance of the personal responsibility of building that focus?

Some people push too hard and get in too much of a hurry to learn (and being too concerned about that next promotion) and they must be slowed down.  All learning, especially of physical art forms requires an absolute minimal amount of time, and trying to rush the overall process can result in personal burnout, injuries to either tori or uke by trying things that they are not yet ready for, and can thereby become a burden for the senior ranks who are working to teach and guide them.  The senior ranks would prefer to work on the basics while the student drives to rush ahead to the next promotion or kata before they have fully developed the prior work.  This can and very often does make them a safety concern on the mat that the Sensei or Sempai must now be concerned about.  Advancement means not only learning that new material but reaching a higher qualitative level when working on the earlier material that came before.

And for the moment let’s not get into the emotional issue of ego where they learn a little but now think they know a lot; an attitude that stops all progress in its’ tracks.  Not much needs said about ego other than it must be squashed, preferably through self-correction by the person engaged in it; but by the Sempai in a firm manner if necessary.  Suppression of ego is a critical part of true advancement in Budo.

Teaching martial arts is a difficult task; one that many senior ranks believe they understand when their understanding is only just started and barely beyond the elementary level.  Like many arts in life, the longer you the teacher is “at it” so-to-speak the better you get, the more you understand, and the more backwards looking observational time is available to you.

The more total teaching time as Sensei or a senior Sempai you have under your belt, then the further back you can look on your historical pathway enabling you to see the results of the various teaching and learning methods you tried, and how they helped or hindered a student’s development.  Adjusting your methodologies is a critical part of advancing your (the Sensei’ or Sempai’) development and guiding the development of the student.

Having a 20- or 30-year history of success and failure with students allows you to see how to help that person with the unconscious fear, how to finally get the chatterbox to stop the brain dump and cease giving opinions and just doing the work, and how to address the various emotionality’s and ego’s that students bring to the dojo.

The flip side of that is identifying the weak player who may not be the consummate athlete, may have fears of trying something new, and who may not be the fully mature individual but …. they want to learn so it’s up to you to take them under your wing and guide them to full maturity and ability.  As long as they can physically progress and act in a mature fashion it can be a successful relationship and they will eventually rise to their natural level and may one day become a Sensei in their own right.

The other flip side of that however is that it also enables you the teacher to identify the “lost cause”; that person who will never make it, never really learn, never really improve.  Sometimes, asking someone to stop training is the best thing for all concerned as they will never hit their goals, and may never be able to safely train or to avoid injuring themselves or someone else. 

While one can and should argue that every potential student should be given the opportunity and that a good Sensei should work to ensure everyone’s success, one can also rationally argue that sometimes the tough decision should be made while we remember that what we do in the dojo needs to be as real as we can possibly (and safely) make it.  It’s Budo.  It is not a sport.  It is not a game.  It is an activity where we practice the very serious art of controlled violence where mistakes have consequences and even the little things can often be critical, so everyone’s head must always be on straight.   

Not everyone can make the tryout for the volleyball team.  The dojo, being what it is, is no different.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

October 14, 2019

158. The Greatest Gift

On occasion we have a Black Belt meeting at the dojo and most of the time if they’re in the training hall we’ll invite the Ikkyu’s since they are “almost” Yudansha.  At one we had recently, I talked at length about why I started training in martial arts and why I continued; all of this as part of a larger discussion on why we have been working on transitioning the dojo to new management as I get older.  While I’m still in good shape (better shape actually than many half my age) and can still take a lot of ukemi and throw a lot of ukes around, coming up on your late 60’s (with the early 70’s just around the corner) should give one pause to plan for future eventualities.

Our Tribal Elder (very much a term of respect) and a man in his late 70’s has a saying; “None of us are getting out of this alive”, a statement of fact in that each of us has a life span that thus far science has not found means by which it can be viably extended (with good health and quality of life).  Another way to look at it is a quote I saw once stating, “On a long enough time line the survival rate for everyone drops to zero“. (author unknown)

Martial arts training has many, many benefits including gaining flexibility, strength, agility, overall fitness and aerobic capacity, faster reflexes, and that’s before considering things like self-confidence and self-defense ability.

One item that I mentioned to the attendees in passing during the meeting was the gift my Sensei gave me many years ago.  As he put it, “I have given you the ability to become an old man, and not be intimidated by young and arrogant men”.  So, what did he mean by that?

Knowing self-defense and having the confidence to know with certainty that you can use it means “never having to say you’re sorry” (unless you consciously choose to).  You walk into a store and accidently bump into someone and you apologize.  Then the party you apologized to becomes accusatory, belligerent, and in effect (through their voice and body language) demand that you not just apologize but grovel.  If you are an old man who has never had any formal training in martial arts (or extensive experience in just plain old fashion street fighting) then you will likely grovel since you are afraid of being hurt.  The idea that the person facing you has his own issues of insecurity to deal with is beside the point.  He’s still an a__hole and a bully abusing someone weaker than he and deserves to be ignored (in the least) and maybe pounded (in the most).

So what does that do to your self-confidence and belief in yourself; all that groveling?  It pretty much destroys the spirit of the inner “you” and once that pattern of groveling is established due to your lack of ability and having no self-confidence in being able to handle a bully, it goes on until reaching the point of you flinching any time any younger person raises their voice to you.  You begin to live fearfully.

So this was the gift my Sensei gave me; the ability to face off with someone literally half or even a third my age and not flinch nor back down unless the situation calls for it and I consciously decide to do so via rational reasoning.  The years on the mat, the ability that gives you, and the self-confidence that engenders, means that you can dispassionately take a mental step backwards and make that evaluation.  Do I pop him, or do I talk him down, or do I just wave my hand at him and say “whatever Dude” and walk away.  Being able to make evaluations of conflict potentialities objectively and not under the pressure of fear and panic is of infinite value to us all.

Having the confidence of knowing with absoluteness that you can slam him into the floor so hard that his eye-teeth shoot out his butt means that it’s difficult if not impossible to make you fear anything he says or does.  This is valuable not only in life and as an older person, but also for younger people in tough business negotiations and client meetings where aggressive body language and direct (but “polite”) accusatory language is commonly employed.

This gift my Sensei gave me is simply too valuable to allow to vanish, to disappear, or to just fade away in the twilight.  It has to be carried on from generation to generation, especially at dojo that still teach classically and that focus not on sports, or kids, or trophies, or the current fad of the moment, but instead on things that actually work and that will produce true bushi. 

Lordy, lordy, some of the technicolor gi’s I’m seeing these days along with aluminum weapons moving faster than realistic martial physics would allow, and jumping, screaming students that look like a windmill in a hurricane, are just beyond belief, as is children wearing black belts at age ten, and instructors teaching “no-falling” martial arts like Aikido.  How does one “teach” Aikido if no one falls down or is thrown?  How does one build self-confidence in the student when everything taught is for show, flash, and glitter.

So my goal these days is to set the dojo up such that it can survive without me and will be able to carry on sharing the gift with new generations.  My Sensei passed on four years ago and he set his dojo up to live without him.  All Sensei must accept the responsibility to pass the torch to the next generation just as all our lineages show back to before the time of Ueshiba, Kano, and Funakoshi and more importantly, all the deshi must accept the gift and commit to pay it forward.

The greatest gift any Sensei can give someone is the ability to grow old and not be afraid of the young and arrogant.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

August 2018

154. Where's the Sake?

Do you remember the old tv commercial of the two old women?  The one where they walk into a burger joint and start complaining when served?  Where they ask over and over again, “Where’s the beef?”  What a great commercial that was as it dealt with paying for something that you the customer didn’t get.

Last year pre-Hurricane Harvey flood (that 6 months later still has the entire city disrupted) we were engaged in a study of all the martial arts dojo in Houston that we could find, looking at classes, web page design, instructor qualifications, pictures of pretty uniforms, mascots, action photos, videos, cat videos, etc.  You know.  Standard web kinda' material.  Pretty normal for any small business when you are looking to prep’ for the New Year and getting things in gear.

So here I’m cruising the web like a boss-beach bum.  Surfing and clicking and hanging 12 and humming old sailor shanties when suddenly I’m taken aback at one site.  “No Throwing Aikido Classes” the web site says, right next to “Aikido for Children”.

So I hike up my Birdwell’s and turn my Hobie (er .. ah .. mouse) around and spend some time researching this idea.  There it was and I hadn’t mis-read the page titles.

The site for this “other dojo” clearly said “Child-Safe Aikido” and “No Throwing Adult Aikido Classes”.  Wow, thought I.  How interesting.  How progressive.  How forward-looking.

WTH?  How can you proclaim yourself to be the "premiere Aikido school in town" and not teach how to throw; not to mention watering it all down to make it "child friendly".  

In our blog series that’s gone on some 10 years or so by now, I’ve made observations on ideas inherent in martial arts training such as; you get out of it what you put into it, look for practical training, look for a dojo that won’t destroy you but that will teach you, find competent instructors, seek honesty in training philosophy, look for true Bushido.  There are more than just these few but bottom line is, if you are looking for martial arts then find those and don't settle for second-best.

If you are looking to lose weight then do so, and if you are looking for Kabuki Theater or Comicon fantasy role play then look for that also.  Just be sure to find what you want and if you are the Sensei, be honest in how you present your curriculum.  No one should have any issue with you training the way you want as long as you are presented the full and honest picture right up front and are happy with the package (and price) you are buying.

The idea that you can present a full-scale Aikido curriculum as being a valid study of Bushido but not have any throwing involved (go watch some Ueshiba videos one day and watch for the “no throwing” uke around  .. HA! .. lol) and therefore have no break falling involved (ummmm …. doesn’t throwing automatically suggest “falling” may also be involved) strikes a professional Bushi as simultaneously dangerous and a severe form of martial arts malpractice.

Many years ago at my old dojo, the Sensei who was a Japanese-trained stickler for precision in teaching and performance had two deshi; one, a pretty senior black belt and the other, a lower-level black belt.  They had the idea of starting up an Aikido-based exercise program.  I can’t remember the marketing name they copyrighted so let’s just call it “Sweaty Aikido Exercises for Non-Aikido People Wanting to Lose Weight”.

And that’s what it was.  They did it outside the dojo and never told Sensei about it.  Heck.  None of us knew about but to be honest, when I heard of it I was a little jealous thinking what a great idea of a way to apply martial arts (which we all loved) to teach a little something to folks who otherwise would never be exposed to any Budo at all.  Had my liking.  Might even get some new players out of it.

Once Sensei found out about it however, he went … how to put this … apoplectic, berserk, insane, he was beyond upset, all of the above, and few more.

His point was this.  Once you do the motions of any particular waza a sufficient number of times, you will eventually and in spite of yourself, blow uke out of his fundoichi because for that one moment in time everything worked exactly the way it was designed to.  So the longer they train, the more rep’s they put in, the greater the likelihood that they would hit the sweet spot and uke would be smashed senseless, unless they knew how to correctly break fall.

So put another way, a Sensei who runs a dojo should not bill any class as “No Throwing Aikido” where Aikido techniques are taught and practiced but in which players are not required to learn a full range of dynamic ukemi.  Conversely, if ukemi are not taught and described as “optional” then the description of the class should instead be changed to something like “Exercise Class Using Aikido-Type Ideas But Not Real Martial Arts” and then, modify any Aikido technique to the point to where it couldn’t work even if Ueshiba tried it.

Bottom line is that if you teach Aikido in any form, then actually teach Aikido including the break fall skills so if anyone is thrown even if by accident then they will be (and will land on the mat) safe.  Don’t claim to be teaching Aikido and leave out what could be the most important part.  That is quite and simply unethical marketing and martial malpractice by any name and after they are injured on your mat they just might be asking, "Where's the Sake?" as they wave at you out of the back of the rickshaw on the way to the hospital.

See you on the mat.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

January 2018

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138. A Long Comment On The State Of The Budo-Verse

150. Ever Seen?

Uh, Like Dude, Where Am I?

Understand that where you are is not where you think you are.

Ever seen a fist fight up close?  Ever seen someone step in and try to break it up?

Ever seen someone get in an argument with someone else?  Ever seen anyone make a comment about “can’t we all just get along”?

Ever been in a dojo and seen a junior student voice a half-question/half-opinion?

Ever seen a total stranger walk up to someone and tell them how to act, almost as if they were a parent instead of …… a stranger?

Yeah.  Me too.  And I watched as the fight was re-directed to the interloper and he had his head handed back to him, and as the argument turned into a beat down on the guy with the unwanted opinion, and as the junior student was slammed into the mat and physically escorted to the door of the dojo by Sensei, and as the “imagined parent” came ever so close to being slammed against the wall with the only reason not, being the person who was accosted was more mature and restrained than the “parent”.

At some point in your life you’ve seen, maybe not “seen it all” per se, but you’ve certainly seen enough to draw some conclusions about people and their weaknesses; and the desire to insert their opinions where they are not at all wanted is most certainly a weakness.  Indeed, it is a weakness so severe that in many cases it could be classified as an entry to “The Darwin Awards” where the gene pool is cleansed by the elimination of one more errant piece of random DNA.

People tend to want to know that their opinions are wanted, that their ideas have value.  They also want to feel superior to others in the sense that they feel smarter than others and at some point concluded that the only way for people to know that they are smarter is to simply jump the shark and leap right in there with their ideas and opinions.

Budo, and by extension the Bushi that follow the precepts, know that to insert oneself into a point in space and time that does not include them is to unnecessarily endanger themselves.  This is an important lesson in Budo and in becoming a Bushi.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

July 2017

 

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143. How to Wear Your Black Belt – Part II (Focus)

Once you get your black belt it’s easy to lose focus, to slack off and take a brief vacation from the intense training that you did to prepare for your demo.  In a word, “Don’t”.  In another word, “DON’T!”.  Part of Humility is the ability to understand and deal with the idea that you don’t everything (yet), likely never will know everything, and worst of all, don’t really know what you don’t know.

The basic difference between Shodan and Nidan is minimal and the time in grade (assuming that you get to class and train) is also minimal.  The longest periods between promotions can fool you because the break-points in learning (and internalization) are not where you think them to be.

The first longest period is from first-night beginner to Shodan.  This is simply due to the necessity to take someone with likely no athletic or martial arts experience and have them internalize the fundamental operating principles of the art form.  Moving off the line of attack, blending and flowing, learning attack and defense timing (Sen-no-Sen, Sen-Sen-no-Sen,  Ato-no-Sen), kuzushi, ukemi, musubi, the basic waza of striking, throwing and joint locking, etc., etc., all mean a long road to internalize and make functional the base essence (the core) of the ryu.  When you hear old players in koryu forms discuss how the actual structure of the ryu changes the deshi, then this is a part of that “re-structuring” of the person.  The deshi “becomes” the ryu.

Shodan to Nidan is, in a very real sense nothing more than setting into concrete your intuitive understanding and ability to use the fundamental principles and waza of your art form.  Shodan means you “got it” and Nidan means you “really got it”.

(Keep in mind here that I never intend to denigrate the achievement, only to set that achievement into its proper context within the larger picture which is IMO necessary to maintain the focus needed to move forward).

Nidan to Sandan has another long period although not as long as beginner to Shodan.  This is due to Sandan being a jump-point in understanding.  In our ryu Sandan is where the deep understanding of flowing, merging and of taking control of the attacker the first instant when they cross ma-ai and begin the attack sequence (and then not letting them regain control until waza termination) begins to be acquired and internalized. 

Sandan marks a demarcation as-it-were; the next really big progressive step in making a high-level Aikido player.  The timing from Sandan to Yondan therefore, much like Shodan to Nidan is also fairly brief as Yondan is more material to learn and internalize but that material is essentially the same as that learned for Sandan; except “more of the same” with added sophistication applied.  Yondan then “firms up” the jump-point; a critical necessity since beginning with the journey to Godan, really advanced material is looked at.

So the first gap is beginner to Shodan.  Shodan to Nidan is fairly close then the next big gap is Nidan to Sandan.  Sandan to Yondan is fairly close due to the similarity in the work required so the next big gap is Yondan to Godan with Godan to Rokudan being fairly close.  Then the next big (I should say “BIG” gap is Rokudan to Nanadan.

I think you see the picture.  The long and the short of it is to not lose focus, EVER!  And, humility is a part of that.  Arrogance retards learning because that arrogance, that failure to understand that you don’t know what you don’t know yet becomes a barrier, a closed door that is difficult to pass.  The phrase, “empty tea cup” does not apply solely and only to the beginner sitting in the rain on the front porch.

The gaps between major progressions is really quite minimal so once you make Shodan just go for the Nidan and quit worrying about it.  Once you make Nidan just go to Sandan because you know that once you get to Sandan then Yondan is just around the corner.

Pretty soon you quit worrying about “just around the corner” and you just “become” Aikido.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan, Houston, TX

February 2017

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142. How to Wear Your Black Belt – Part I (Humility)

Yeesss!  Today I made You-dawn-sha!

I am now an 85^th Dan, a Masta’, a Stud-Muffin!

“Attention K-Mart Shoppers, the Stud-Muffin has entered the room, please look for the blue light for your personalized shikishi”.

Sorry.  You ain’t none of those and neither am I, and I’m the Sensei with almost 50 years behind me with black belts in 3 different martial arts forms and senior teacher status in 2 of those.

Making Yudansha (graded dan) which starts at Shodan is, if isolated and taken strictly on its’ own, a great, repeat, great accomplishment and puts the wearer of the coveted black belt in a rarefied part of the atmosphere; but I’m a “Big Picture” kind-of-guy and in the greater scheme of things it is just another step on the way to a higher plane of existence.

I keep statistics and in the 19-odd years I’ve run my own dojo I have logged about 1,000 people who have either kept me on the phone for 30 minutes of discussion, come to visit the dojo, tried out a free class but never came back, actually signed up but never paid anything, signed up and paid money but didn’t last the first 60 days, or who signed up, lasted long enough to get a promotion or two and then quit.

1,000 people out of which I have a total of less than 20 or so active black belts and a dozen or so who would live at the dojo, if I let them.  So if one considers that the real education doesn’t start until Shodan (the term after all means 1^st step) then the percentage of people who actually start the trip to Yoda-hood (and then stay with it long enough to really accomplish something with the accrued skill sets) is about 2/10^th’s of 1%.  In case you slept through your high school algebra class, that’s not real high even if we’re generous by using the commonly cited statistics form various MA magazines  (of all dojo and all MA styles) of about 5%.

So why can’t you consider yourself a stud-muffin (or studlette-muffin in the case of the ladies) if you are part of that <5% who has enough self-discipline and desire to commit to and stay with a long term study like Aikido?

Humility is why, plain and simple.  Remember that Budo is all about self-improvement, about taking our natural potential and maximizing all that we can be (with the expenditure of enough hard work paid for with blood, sweat and tears), improving mind-body-spirit and by unifying them, our becoming a whole that is greater than the sum of the original parts.

Take a look at one word, “Spirit”.  It has little to do with the mind (that’s all about intellect) and it has little to do with body (that’s all about the physical).  The spirit and its’ improvement in making us a better person, is all about really old fashion things; ethics, humility, self-discipline, morality, honesty, not doing things in excess, the golden rule (do unto others…..), and all the complicated topics Aristotle writes on in Nicomachean Ethics which states in simplest terms that in order to in order to become "good", one should not simply study what virtue is; one must actually be virtuous in one’s daily activities at all times, whether those activities are comprised of issues of reputation (how one acts in public) or character (how one acts when you think that nobody’s looking).

Notice that nowhere in there are any terms like arrogance, abuse of others, taking advantage of others, demanding worship, ordering a junior student to give your left foot a tongue bath, or emotional cannibalism.

This is especially true of the halo effect that sometimes happens when we make black belt; we get a halo, or a small handful of lower level student body (kyu ranks) we just came from puts a halo on our head whether we want it there or not.  In other words we become overly impressed with ourselves (we believe our own press clippings) or the kohai begin to look up to us like a child looking at their father or a teeny-bopper looking up to the latest rock-star hero (or we imagine that they do, thus making us a legend in our own mind).

Humility, humility, humility is the only thing that keeps the new black belt from going ballistically egomaniacal (or as the pundit said, “drinking our own bath water”).

Making “First Step” to someone like me who has 50 years on the mat is nothing other than a sign that now I can really start to teach you some neat stuff.  It doesn’t mean that you are anything more than a beginner or that you are more than one small step removed from the kyu/colored belt that you used to be.

So, in order to keep that ego in check and enlarge your usable quotients of humility (and humanity) remember three things;

First, Shodan translates as “first step” so in reality, you are still a beginner with much to learn and you are a very long way from understanding all there is about Aikido and martial arts in general,

Second, since you are just a beginner, a newly minted black belt, then you don’t know what you don’t know.  In and of itself that should be enough to keep that ego in check and approach every class with an empty tea cup.

Lastly, the black belt means that someone helped you climb the ladder to get you there so you have to return the favor in the same positive fashion as the people who helped you.  Failure to do so means that few black belts above you in rank will likely want to waste any more personal time on a walking ego-trip.

Humility will get you much in life and make you many friends.  It’s one of the more important qualities we all look for in friends, spouses, ukes and the Sensei.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan, Houston, TX

January 2017

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125. Interlude - Peace Be Upon the Mat or, A Snap-Comment for a Friday

Today's "Snap Comment" as we clean-up the work before closing down for the week and reflect upon the eventful last 8 days.

Preparing & packing to make my first MA seminar road trip in several years.  In fact, it is the first in almost 15 years in which I will be a student instead of the feature Sensei.  I'm looking forward to it since it will be enjoyable to be able to just sit there and learn instead of spending three days being on point.  Shucks .... I even washed my fundoichi for the trip.  Sometimes being the Sensei is a little stressful since you feel that you have to really focus on presentation (and wearing a clean gi) and setting a good example for the deshi and the visitors and guests to see me and to emulate my presentation as Sensei.  After all, if they are there to learn from you then you have to wear your best face and uphold your reputation.

This been an eventful week for me.  I've expelled two senior Yudansha for cause, I've picked up a half-dozen new deshi during a bad economy, my insurance agency had an upswing this week, two old deshi whom I thought were gone both came back with compliments for how I run the dojo (after seeing everyone else out there in Budo-Land) and have re-upped and I picked up a very experienced Iwama Ryu Nidan who apparently really liked what he saw and is excited about new learning opportunities.  On the other hand, I'm personally excited about working with someone with a decade in a different form of Aikido (but that is so similar) which reaffirms my view of hard work on the basics and exacting precision.  I view it as an opportunity to expand my understanding and more particularly to expose my senior people to someone who brings experiences to the mat they don't have (yet).

When I was first in Aikido many years ago I had the great fortune to train under several people including a man who had an impeccable reputation for fairness, objectivity, ethics and moral behavior (in addition to having a dynamite foot sweep and Aikido randori game).  I stayed with him as his student for about 20 years after having moved to Houston because he was, in many people's minds, THE exemplar of what a Judo/Aikido Sensei should be in how to teach and how to treat people fairly.  Even after a disastrous divorce those of us who helped him thru' it commented to each other that he really was what he presented himself as being (a real Budo man who did what it took to survive, be positive and to move on with his training and his teaching).

Sadly, as time went by and life placed its burdens upon him, as it does us all, he changed; gradually over time but the change was apparent.  Before, his policy had been to never discuss with his students or guests the big three forbidden topics (sex, religion, politics) or to criticize any other persons beliefs or actions (as long it didn't impact the mat).  It was his feeling, as I remember, that to do so would pollute the atmosphere of the dojo and not only inhibit learning but also create friction between everyone there.

As an example of this; how would I discuss politics in my dojo when statistically 50% of my deshi voted for Obama and the other 50% voted for McCain?  How could I, or anyone in the dojo, make any kind of compliment or critical remark without offending the "other" 50%?  I compliment the POTUS and 50% think I'm crazy or I criticize the POTUS and 50% think I'm being too critical.  So my solution is to not discuss it nor do I allow anyone else to discuss it.  If any conversation occurs then it occurs off to one side or outside the dojo  between me and someone whose predilictions I am completely aware of so that there is no offense taken or given ...... and voices are low so that the mat never hears any comments.

He began to go out of his way to start arguments; monologues really that no one could object to since to do so would end our Aikido careers.  It became burdensome to be forced to sit and listen to our (or other people's) religions be attacked or their sexual preferences being attacked, or to be directly criticized for our career choice or the fact that we took our kids to church.

After watching a good friend and a great dojo fall into a world of being critical of other peoples religious belief, sexual preference, family issues it created in me, and many others I know, the decision to not engage in that behavior.

Running a dojo (or a martial arts organization) doesn't give us carte blanche to conduct ourselves like we're a radio host doing political commentary.  Go on AM radio sometimes and listen to those men/women who do so.  It wears you down and over time makes you just a negative as they are.  Some of the monologues I remember were cast as being "just in fun", "not really serious" or a "teaching moment" but for those of us who were the targets (or the witnesses) it became more than that.  Sometimes if anyone objected then we were accussed to being "thin-skinned" and "not willing to open our minds to his lessons".

So all these years later I've made the conscious decision to not run my dojo in that fashion and to try best I can to avoid those who do .... keeping my opinions on sex, religion & politics to myself and totally off the mat.  I don't allow others to bring that negativity into the dojo either which explains one of my expulsions this week of a 10 year student this week; his negativity having no place in Budo.

So what's the answer?  Simple.  There isn't one.  The best any of us can do is try to avoid the endless political discussions, comments on religion and sex-based jokes that seen so endemic today, esp. on social media.  I may even have to start de-friending people and re-cast the ways in which I engage in social media. 

I fail to understand how I can engage in social media or plain old fashioned gossip, loop in my students, and then proceed to express myself on the internet in the same argumentative fashion as did my teacher face-to-face all those years ago .... such is the communicative decay we now see due to no longer having to personally stand in front of and face the Christian we are saying "F____ Jesus" to or the atheist we are calling "crazy" or the political opponent we just described as "stupid" and "uninformed".

The longer I run a dojo, the older I get, the more I find myself willing to terminate relationships and to call people out for their negativity (masquerading as "humor" or "teaching moments").  Life has simply become too complex for endless negativities and once it spills into Budo and the martial arts relationships with students and associates it begins to have negative impact on what all of us, as martial artists, claim to be which is teachers and exemplars .... or just friends.

And with that said, I now find that I must be certain to live up to my observations and to no longer engage in the temptations to which all of us, including me, sometimes fall victim to.

Next blog-insanity .... Part Tre' of "The Incredible Shrinking Gi" ........

L.F. Wilkinson Sensei

Aikibudo Kancho, Aikibudokan, Houston, TX

February 2012

 

121. But Mommy, It's My Turn To Win!

To continue my New Year's thematic ........ the truth is truly extreme.

How many times have you heard the phrase, "As a martial artist you must learn to transcend victory and defeat"?

Wow.  If I heard that once from Sensei I heard it a thousand times ... maybe 10,000.  Problem is .... it's largely a lie ... or a falsehood ... or too optimistic and unrealistic  ..... depending on how critical you feel like being today.  It just sounds all "zen-ny" and "new-agey" and "aikido-esque"; sorta like saying, "When you can snatch the church key from my hand you are ready for happy hour."  ...... 

Humans didn't survive the last million years or so of evolution as we shed our hair, lost our tails and climbed down out of the trees and started walking upright and learned how to talk and use tools by not being competitive survivors.  We survived because bottom line; we are highly competitive creatures who got here by competing with nature, with animals, with the weather and with each other.  It's only the fact that we developed abstract and critical thought processes that we haven't killed off the planet or made ourselves extinct ..... yet.

Not competitive you say?  Bwahaha .. don't make me laugh and call you  a liar to your face.

Standing in line at a great restaurant that won't take reservations, waited for 2 hours and the next person called for a table ahead of you got there AFTER you did.  Roll-over or immediately ask the host WTF?

Studying hard in school, took the tests, scored the same perfect 100%, straight A+ scores as one other person but told THEY are going to be the Valedictorian and you're not?  WHAT?

Working that dream job for the big corporation that has one slot open for promotion and a 20% raise in pay.  You have seniority and you've been doing that job anyway for the last 90 days as a stand-in until management decided who to promote ..... and the guy who sits in the cube next to you with half your experience and half your time on the job gets the nood.  And you're happy about that?

How many examples do you want of just how competitive all of us really are?

You want to win just like I do.  The problem is that an overly strong desire to win is largely out of place on the mat when training, especially when doing randori of any kind.  It leads to inappropriate behavior, injuries, hurt feelings, belligerent attitudes and anger.  So this is where Sensei says, "You must learn to transcend victory and defeat"  ...... (must be said in deep booming voice with echos in background like a mystic living in a cave)  ...... you know ...... one bowl, one robe, one koan ..... oh and throw in some mist slithering along the ground like in an old B&W werewolf movie.

So what do we do about our competitiveness?  Well, my solution was one I could never voice to my Sensei as I don't think he'd really understand nor appreciate.  I want to win all the time but ... I equally want to lose all the time.

If I want to win then I'll do my best.  If I want to lose all the time the it's likely that I'll not do my best or, will hold back so that Sensei is not critical.  So the rub here is that if I have the wrong view of "transcending" then if I win I may start feeling guilty about being better at randori/kata so I'll hold back and do badly so that everyone likes me and I follow Sensei' directions.  Now I'll never do my best and never improve.  Judo gets past this with no competition in class but with shiai at tournaments.  Aikido, being a non-competitive martial art (tanto shiai be damned) has no such outlet so randori in class can become an issue.

In Aikido randori (the toshu, tanto kind with no tournament or competitive aspect of that kind involved) I strive for a balance.  I want to win as much as I want to lose.  I want to lose as much as I want to win. 

If I can keep it at 50-50 then both benefit me.  I have the satisfaction in randori of "winning" (more properly translated as "doing the best I can even if the other guy is less able than I am and can neer catch me.")  But if I lose then I have a very positive attitude about that because I can take that experience and improve myself.  It becomes a "win-win" even when I lose and my training partner who just took kote-0gaeshi on me 37 times in a row is teaching me and showing me where my weaknesses are so that my subconscious mind can begin to make those little corrections in my footwork and timing and posture that will, in the long run, make me a much better Aikido player.  If this is the case and my attitude, then how can "losing" to him be a bad or a negative thing?

So now "winning" or dominating the other person in randori teaches me how to be technically best and most effective against a lesser "opponent/uke/player" ...... while losing to that other person shows me my weaknesses so that I can correct and improve upon them.  Both "winning" and "losing" then become positives and I can positively direct and focus my competitive side while not feeling badly or fretting over my "I lost" side.

It is certainly true that in a dojo there will always be those naturals who have spent the time to become better and that in a heads-up randori scenario they will most always come out on top.  However, as long as everyone acknowledges that "winning" is not that "bad thing" that we're told it is and as long as the better players always take the time to assist and teach the lesser players how to improve and grow and become that "better" player, then a positive atmosphere is developed and maintained in which "winning" in randori is not a negative and "losing" in randori is simply nothing more than a challenge to oneself to work to learn to do better and is always, always a positive learning experience for all involved.

Randori is a critical part of training and of learning.  "Winning' therefore is not something to be avoided and "losing" also is not something to be dreaded.  The two are nothing more than two sides of the same coin and each should be valued for its appropriate place in the Aikido paradigm.  One cannot exist without the other and both can, and should be, made positive learning tools for the true Bushi/Aikido player.

 

L.F. Wilkinson Sensei, Aikibudo Kancho

Aikibudokan, Houston, TX

January 2012

112. Lipstick, A Tutu and a Smiley Face ......

Lipstick, a tutu and a smiley face ...... bwahaha .... the envelope pleeeeze .... wakka wakka ....

.... You can put lipstick on a pig ....

... and it's still just a pig.

You can put a tutu on a pug ....

 
.... and it's still just a dog that can't dance and it likely as not put the "U" in the word ugly.  (My kid owns a pug .. I should know).

And when a new student walks in the door and signs up while smiling broadly ....

 

.... well, sometimes it's sincere .... and sometimes it ain't ...

Many years ago my Sensei/mentor and I were having a discussion on "newbies" and I asked what I thought was a really simple question.   (Bwaha ... simple my dead aunt Grace's very ample left butt cheek) ...

My question was essentially, "How do we avoid teaching Aikido and the power that underlies it to evil people?  Won't we be enabling evil deeds outside the dojo?"

His immediate answer (one that later that week greatly expanded into a full monologue on how the mat really works) was simple ... "Nope."

Sometimes when someone walks thru' the door as a monjin we get an immediate read that says this person is trouble.  An experienced Sensei can see the issues before they arise and generally difuse them before it becomes physical by being matter of fact, giving very short answers to questions and just generally discouraging any interest in what's going on in class. 

Sometimes I'll inquire as to what they want in the MA and the answer will be something totally alien to the Aiki-Verse so at that point I'll drag out my list of other local dojo and Sensei and make a recommendation (grappling, competition, board breaking, head banging, jumping off the roof, wearing black PJ's, etc.) as to what they think they are looking for.  No harm.  No foul.  And we both get what we want; I keep my tranquil training environment and he gets a school to go to.   Win-Win.

Occasionally tho' the person walking in the door isn't broadcasting the dark side

or anything else that's really a face slapper and you decide to let them start simply because they are genuflecting all over the dojo and are repetitively stating how serious they are about learning Aikido because of ....blah, blah, blah ... all the normal things in the books and movies.  You don't sense anything untoward so take the check, wear the keikogi, bow-on and get to work.

Sometimes (most of the time actually) this works pretty well simply because (as it turns out) they were serious and honest.  What set off the alarm bells was just their being intimidated by all the strange people doing ukemi, joint locks and strangulation's and other weirdness commonly seen in a room full of budding Budoka inflicting mayhem on each other.

You were detecting their personal insecurities at work and their fear of the dojo shimmering thru' their interest.  And as it turns out after they settle in and stop being goofy and learn to focus and start building confidence, they begin to show all the signs of eventually becoming a real Aikido player with the potential of becoming a senior teacher someday.

When people first start a new activity they are trying to show their best face and convince all around them of their sincerity and potential value to the group they are seeking acceptance with.  This is pretty normal tribal and peer group behavior as they look first for admittance, and then for acceptancea and then begin working towards reputation enhancement and trust. 

It's only AFTER  the admittance & acceptance phases that they begin to feel really comfortable and at home and the mask comes off as they move towards reputation enhancement (thinking that who they are deep down inside has been fully accepted).  They just don't realize that the group accepted the "face" they came in with and not the true underlying character which they are now seeing in full for the first time.  They are sucha flawed person that they just can't see the truth even when confronted with it.

They can wear all the lipstick, pretty clothes and smiles you can think of but ... a pig is still a pig and a pug still can't dance and a person with evil intent or bad character and ethics is still ..... not a nice guy.

What Sensei observed (and probably your dad and granddad too since both of mine told me the same thing when I was a kid) is that the mask comes down when they feel at home and in control of their immediate environment.  They begin to feel so comfortable that they forget that others are watching them.  Sometimes, they become so comfortable that they begin acting arrogantly, as if they own the mat and begin telling everyone how to do waza that others have been doing correctly for years.  It's at that point the occasional bad joke crops thru' or the nasty snidness and snarkyness appears or the downright abusiveness shows itself.

The phrase is "You cannot hide your true character on the mat."

Two definitions that I see occasionally in newspapers and the like are:

• Reputation - how we act when we know others are watching
• Character - how we act when there is no one else in the room but us.

To those I would add the Aikido corollary:

• Character - how we observe Budo and share our positive attitude with others in the midst of long practices and when we are tired and not carefully parsing our words and actions and how we take 5 more minutes to help someone else learn even tho' all we want to do is get out of our hakama and go home and how we act supportively and not in a denigrating fashion

This is the reason that Sensei said "Nope" all those years ago.  No matter how hard they try, at some point their true nature pops up for all to see and their egocentricity is hung right out there and just can't be missed even by a blind person. 

Someones true nature and character can be a force for good and for positive actions and outlooks ... or it can be evil or simply negative and destructive.

Either way, no Sensei (unless they are evil themselves) ever has to worry about producing high level players who will be abusive outside the dojo since eventually, well before they learn anything of real power, their true self will stand before you for judgement and they simply will not last long enough on the mat to learn anything of value that can be used against others.

L.F. Wilkinson Sensei

Aikibudo Kancho

Aikibudokan, Houston TX

July 2011