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

206. Come On, You Can Trust Me

Many times over the years the question has arisen of "why reishiki" (why so much emphasis on ritualized manners) as seen in Old School dojo.

When I first began training many (too many it seems sometimes) years ago I and everyone else simply followed along and, I might add, felt very "Samurai-ish" for doing so. Most dojo of all types used some form of courtesy, manners, or ritualized greetings of each other after walking into the dojo to train. Over the years however much of this has been lost other than in the most traditional of dojo.

Most dojo as far back as hundreds of years ago used strictly formed and shaped courtesies (reishiki). This included bowing to the Shinza when entering the dojo, then bowing to the Joseki and the Sensei, then bowing before stepping onto the mat, then bowing into class, then bowing to Sensei when he gave the lesson, then bowing to the training partner both before starting and then ending the keiko, then bowing out of class, bowing off the mat, and bowing out of the dojo when leaving. It also included calm behavior and tone of voice and cooperative attitude and in modern social terms, no discussing of sex, religion, or politics. You are there to train and learn and not debate or argue.

So the question comes up ...... "Why?".

After many years of training and teaching, I finally stumbled across and read old papers out of several books on Bushido that gave and confirmed the answer that I had already arrived at years before ..... that is ..... since we are training in techniques, tactics, and strategies that could if fully applied result in serious injury or death we need to have and to train in what could be termed a "High Trust" environment. This High Trust environment both provides a comfortable atmosphere and also increases learning since stress creates fear which retards the educational process since you spend time looking over your shoulder as it were. Over time, the reishiki becomes a natural part of who you are as a martial artist and a Budoka.

People can get frustrated, angry, (a possible product of a "bad day") or overly stressed and energetic and throwing too fast or hard, or over-applying joint locks so using a highly formalized system of ritualized manners and behaviors is the most effective way in which to keep all those bad ideas at bay. In this fashion our training partner can trust us to protect him, and he in turn protects us. Basically, I can "give" him my body for training and know that he will not deliberately harm me.

In recent years and with the advent of sports martial arts, these ideas have fallen into disuse or forgotten altogether. In some cases no bowing is seen at all or if still used looks somewhat like a kid bobbing for apples at the spring party. Sometimes they might shake hands before slamming their training partner into the center of the earth, winning the match, and then jumping up and down like a kangaroo while screaming "I'm the best"; not a productive attitude in an activity that is often billed as character building. This lack of teaching and using formalized manners that over time creates a better human being has today become one of the differences between Koryu (Old School) martial arts which includes a study of the differences between life and death, and sports martial arts in which trophies may be pursued.

This is a thought to carry forward and to understand in your study. Once you are fully accustomed to the reishiki and understand the rationales, it becomes a welcome part of your keiko (deep and serious training) and is no longer that mysterious Japanese "thing" that it seemed when you first began the journey of Bushido.

Originally Published March 22, 2024

200. It Comes With The Job

Taken for granted. Have you ever felt taken for granted.

 

It's completely normal you know. Open a dojo and start holding classes. Over years of operations everyone just gets used to the dojo always being there,and classes being available on a dependable schedule.

 

Don't want to train 'cause you have to meet the gang at Happy Hour? No problem, the dojo will be there.

 

Don't want to train 'cause you have to mow the yard. No problem, the dojo will always be there.

 

Tired and just want to surf the couch tonight. No problem.

 

Got errands to run. No problem. The dojo is there, will always be there, and I can drop in and train any time I want.

 

Well, maybe it will .... and maybe it won't ..... be there that is.

 

Sensei are human and are only here for a while as are we all ... until we (and they) are not. The dojo itself, since it is run by the Sensei, are also here for a while ... and then it is also gone. Old age, illness, creeping decrepitude, sometimes economic issues, and eventually death appear in the picture at some point.

 

Every Sensei who has been on the mat for a while and who has dedicated some portion of their life to promulgating the system that they teach is acutely aware of these aspects of life in general; especially if they teach an older or specialized form of the ryu or are teaching an actual and recognized koryu. Sport Karate and things such as BJJ or "self-defense classes" are pretty much a dime a dozen and if one dojo closes, a dozen more spring up to replace it since what they teach is fairly common.

 

However, if a koryu form is involved then it is entirely possible that part/most/all of what is being taught is old, not widely available, and cannot be replaced. That is, it was founded perhaps hundreds of years ago and may include work that is not well known, that originated as part of an other old system and has been subsumed (with that other system now gone and lost) or that has work that includes unique teaching pedagogues (teaching drill sets) that enhance learning and retention of the old forms.

 

And as regards not replaceable, it is a simple truth that the societal, cultural, economic, and military/law and order conditions that any old ryu was created to deal with no longer exists. As an example, since no one duels with swords on a daily basis, how would Shindo Muso Ryu Jojutsu (or Niten Ichi Ryu Kenjutsu instance) be recreated since the ryu was formed as a response to Musashi (long dead some 400+ years). Or Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu for that matter, especially since BJJ, Kickboxing, and Sport Karate are currently all the rage and the need for a secret court martial art that is privately taught to only a select few by personal transmission is no longer common.

 

So what is to be done if a Sensei teaches what essentially is an irreplaceable ryu but sees the need to preserve it. How does that happen. How does he save a martial art that was built on the battlefield for one-on-one conflict and that paradoxically is today more practical than carrying around military-style firearms or even a small sidearm with a carry permit that have limited use in most situations.

 

He trains his replacement in the same fashion as he was trained; by his predecessor, who was trained by his predecessor, who was trained ..... well you get the idea. This is how you (You) ended up studying a 450 year old martial art form or perhaps a slightly more recent (maybe "only" two hundred or so years old) but still a deeply built form every bit as complex and sophisticated (such as Daito Ryu Aikijutsu).

 

So this links back to the idea of "I can train anytime because Sensei and the dojo will always be there". Maybe.

 

In a very real sense Sensei is training his replacement at every class. Whether or not you personally are training specifically to be his replacement is immaterial. Remember that no Sensei or Dojo Cho (head of training hall) started out to become the person that runs the shop. Instead, he just got interested in the work and trained and one day looked up, had the seniority and knowledge, and opportunity and simply stepped into the position of either being the #1 guy or, being a support person behind him.

 

There is an old saying that goes, "Every Sensei out there opened a dojo in order to keep training". That is so very true. At some point you become so high ranked that you can't change dojo because you will likely find that you know more than the other guy and probably outrank him; the issue being that "everyone" seems to take 6 months of classes, buys a DVD, and opens a dojo or refuses to put in the decades of work necessary to honestly reach a Shihan or Hanshi level. So at that point you either retire from martial arts training or completely change art forms (from Aikido to Kick Boxing for example). Then there's the problem of your aging out and wanting to still train but not at a competition dojo against kids in their 20's or 30's.

 

So the gist of this is that to maximize your opportunity to learn what could be an arcane art form that could disappear one day, you train as often as you can and by doing so you increase the odds that the ryu continues and that one day either you or one of your training partners could be "That Guy" .... the one who continues the ryu and passes it forward, the benefit of which is that you to get to "keep training".

 

L. F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

September 11, 2023

188. Strategies of Teaching

Strategy most normally involves setting goals and priorities and then determining actions to achieve the goals and using resources to execute the actions.  Having a strategy entails a description of how the goals will be achieved with the resources and in many minds is primarily thought of as being a military or governmental idea; large or global as it were.  Strategy may also be applied to smaller venues, such as succession at a dojo or kai (martial arts school or martial organization).

A Samurai saying was that there are three kinds of people.  The first is the person (deshi) who understands the purpose of his teacher’s teachings and functions well within that limited scope.  However, he does not have many original or creative teaching ideas of his own and does not practice much. He can become a teacher of students but not a true leader or master of the art.

The second type of person is the one who, besides what he learns from his teacher, adds his own ideas of effectiveness into his skill sets and randori ability.  He practices long and hard to both improve those skills and his ability to communicate (and teach) those skills.  He is the deshi who excels and if put on a battlefield will likely as not prevail most of the time.

The third type of person is the one who does not learn all his teacher’s techniques nor absorb his knowledge but understands the ones he does learn.  He can become competent on the battlefield and in randori but is rarely able to grow beyond whatever direct lessons he has been taught.  Some would refer to him as being a “book person”; if it’s not in the book then does it exist.

The Samurai strategist who proposed these categories of students or deshi was referring in the larger sense to warfare on a larger scale but these may also be applied to the smaller universe of the dojo. 

The Sensei or Dojo Cho (dojo manager) needs the ability to do a couple of things here.  First, be able to identify which up and coming Yudansha fit into which category; and second, be a guide.  The Sensei must be able to teach, guide, and work with all three categories.  A dojo does not need only the second type of person who excels at everything at the potential expense of the other two.  A Sensei should be able to work with all three and assist each of those in improving, growing in understanding and ability, and becoming a real leader; his replacement as-it were and in so becoming, a testimony to the ideals of teaching.

L. F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

May 11, 2022

173. Anachronistic

Once upon a time in the west …… or the east ….. or wherever ….. folks wandered into a dojo looking for the magic of Budo (self-improvement and all that), for the intellectual challenge of learning something never before seen in their home town (“Can I wear a Samurai topknot under my Stetson?”), or to learn a practical method of self-defense (aka, how to not be shoved into the lockers at high school and be given 1^st spot in the food service line for enchilada Friday in the cafeteria).

New prospective students walked in, asked good questions, showed interest, signed up, and like many of us stayed with the same Sensei for decades; leaving only after having squeezed the sponge dry and hitting a high-enough rank to be able to honestly make the claim that they actually trained and learned and knew something.

Today those folks are still out there but it seems that they are there in lesser numbers as many applicants to today’s dojo seem not as interested in learning; just in gaining rank or status, or in checking off one more box on their punch-list.  They visit class to observe and ask whether we teach the technique they saw in a video game (yes, I’ve had that specific question put to me).  They send an email with a photo attached and, in the photo, they have colored hair, tattoos, and enough piercings to start a jewelry store.  I don’t care about the hair (one of my Japanese Sensei had purple hair and I was told that only descendants of senior Samurai families could color their hair like that as it close to being a sign of royalty).  Tat’s don’t bother me as I have two already and am looking at a third (my wife and daughter both have more tat’s than I do).

Then they never make contact again even after an open invitation is extended, which begs the question …. why the photo if you never intended to show up?  Why the “personal touch” of too much information including your sexual preference (yes, I have even had that given me before …. but why …. because I didn’t ask and really don’t care).  Do you always send photo’s to strangers?  The dojo email and messenger app are not dating apps are they, so why treat them as such?

Sometimes visitors show up and they don’t have the colored hair or the tat’s but they have the piercings complete with nose rings and ear plugs.  One guy came in and his first night in the dressing room everyone noticed that he had pierced nipples so it was no wonder he complained about the pain when we taught grappling one night.  One guy showed up in a dress with his hair in French braids hair down below his shoulders and in the braids, he had woven metal bells.  Oh my, how he jingled when he walked.  When told that the bells in the hair had to go (might hit someone in the face when training) and that the nose rings weren’t safe (might get hooked by someone’s finger and jerked out, don’t need blood on the mat) and that the ear plugs might get torn out (don’t need that blood on the mat either) he was offended and left.  Oh well.  One less future problem to prepare for.

So, do you want to train or not?  Or are your personal affectations more important than learning something new and improving who you are as you progress?

We old-sters (maybe “Mat Fossils” is a better term) no longer understand a culture in which people seem to think that rank is simply gifted and not earned, that rank and status are more important than becoming a better human being by improving mind, body, and spirit, or not comprehending that adopting a “martial arts” mindset of sorts is a necessary part of learning some pretty sophisticated and powerful material.

We no longer understand how someone can walk into a dojo claiming to want to learn but bear personal affectations (with the concurrent attitudes) such that training is neigh-on impossible; and yet they still expect to be allowed on the mat and to be promoted in quick time no-less.

Yeah, yeah …. now the naysayers are going to tell me that martial arts have always been about rank and that if someone trains even a little bit then they should be promoted just because they tried.  Well, martial arts have always been about rank but only in the sense that the rank signifies the work put into gaining the overall knowledge and ability, along with the growth (and improvement) of their body, mind, and spirit. 

So yes, they’ve always been about rank but not to the commercialized levels we see these days where dojo drop their standards just to get money paying bodies in the door; and certainly not with the strange humans walking into the dojo.  So what we’re seeing (not all the time mind you but on occasion) are prospective students coming in with a life-style that contradicts the requirements of actually training; and that life-style reflects the idea of entitlement as-in, “If I show up for class once in a while and remember to wash my gi on occasion, then I’ll be promoted even if I’m not really up to speed on the material”. 

This attitude is even being seen (for some time now) in corporate America where I was told the story of a man who straight out of university was hired at a large corporation (with what was likely a 6-figure salary) and on his first day at work was seen sporting an ear-stud.  His new employer could be accused of having no sense of humor as he was apparently told that if he showed up the next day with the ear-stud that he shouldn’t bother coming in at all; so much for that posh overpaid executive position.

When you sign up at a dojo and become a deshi (a word that roughly translates as “disciple”) you are expected to adopt certain behavioral aspects.  The color of your hair is not important.  The number of tattoos is not important.  What is important is understanding that body piercing can be dangerous and is therefore not desired; along with the realization of the need for good hygiene and the correct clothing (a clean gi & hakama, trimmed toenails).  Becoming a disciple doesn’t mean joining an abbey, becoming a Marine vegan, it doesn’t mean carrying the gi bags of the senior students, but it does mean devoting yourself to learning and adopting the means by which you can learn.  Basically, it means following the forms and the rules that over decades, centuries in fact, have proven most effective in allowing you to learn and to become the martial artist you have decided you to be.

Enclothed cognition is the psychological concept that states that how you dress affects how you think.  In other words, dress like a samurai and start to think and behave like one.  This concept is one of the key ideas behind a study of koryu and indeed of all serious martial arts that are structured to change who you are by giving you knowledge and abilities that you’ve never had before.  Thinking in the patterns that the reishiki describes and the kata flows in will over time change the way in which you view the work, which will lead to understanding how the Samurai had to think when using the movements in actual combat.  Understanding the mind-set leads to a change in how you in turn consider exposure points in your kamae, and openings in the opponents’ kamae.  “Becoming” the kata, performing the kata in the way it was designed, doing the work as an “old flow” system makes it effective in adapting to combative exchanges as it came from battles that likely had limited outcomes (you die, I die, we both die, we’re both chopped up so bad that we wish we had died).

In a sense this is what combat consists of; kamae that either offer an opening (in the attempt to appear weak and draw the opponent in), kamae that are strategic (such as Mushashi’s concept of “open on all sides”), or kamae that allow you to “spring-board in” so-as to advantage openings in the opponents posture.  Not taking the concept seriously and attempting to make the kata “yours” by changing the way you view and perform it in order to suit some personal idea nullifies its’ effectiveness.

Aikido is one of the worse but all martial arts today seem infected with the idea that a student is supposed to study (to some degree, or not), learn something (how well may be debatable) and then at some undesignated “future time”, understand the art form such that they can, “make it their own”.  They totally miss one of the central themes of koryu which is that you don’t change the art to fit you; the art changes you to fit it including body posture and movement, reaction to stimuli, and mental attitude.  This is a key component behind the concept of actually “learning” something instead of “being exposed” to it.

Sensei, as they screen prospective deshi for admittance to the dojo have to learn to ask questions of dojo visitors in an attempt to discern whether the monjin (person standing at the gate) will be a serious player or just a tourist; a nice tourist but still, just a tourist.  By working to analyze intent and commitment which is done by subjectively judging their adaptability and willingness to drop affectations (thus becoming a deshi) the Sensei can understand who to focus the most attention on (and who to look out for); understanding of course that there are beginners that at some point become seriously devoted to the entire idea of koryu and budo.  Flexibility in judging and categorizing deshi, combined with understanding the issues at hand is invaluable to any serious sensei.

As the saying goes, “To acquire something you’ve never had before, you have to do something you’ve never done before” and the same holds true for both senior long-time players, and beginners.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

February 17, 2020

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

166. Not As Easy As You Think - Part 3 - The Mechanics

Go Big or Go Home or so they say.  After all the considerations we made as comented on in Part 1 and 2 (of this mini-series on opening and running a dojo) we finally found a way out of the “Y” and into our own space where we could have a dedicated space to train.  We wouldn’t have to share room with gymnastics equipment, rock walls, pilates classes, kids, wanna’ be Mt. Everest climbers, or overweight house wives and best of all, we could extract ourselves from the politics of the YMCA Board of Directors, patrons, money-men, and program directors all of whom competed for time and priority.  We decided to build a world-class dojo that would hold the 45 students we had gradually built up to over our time at the “Y”.

We were very fortunate in that two of our players decided to not only design and build but also to finance the move.  The mood was upbeat and everyone danced on the mat; until that is, reality set in.  So for anyone who still harbors the desire to open a large professional-level dojo as an owner and a teacher, here is what you’re in for.

Find the location.  It must be freeway accessible and cannot be on some small, two lane street that is difficult to find or that is out of the way just because the location may be cheap.  People will not drive more than roughly 30 to 45 minutes (in easy traffic) to or from class making accessibility and road time a critical component.  The rub here is the balance between time on the road and cost.  Prime locations can run upwards of $12 to $18 psf so the equation reads “better and more visible public access divided by cost per square foot = a lot of money”.  Great locations in a frontage strip center, depending on how many square feet you are considering, can be several thousand a month.  An office warehouse space can be half that (but it won’t look nearly as nice on the outside and your neighbor may not understand how to take out the trash can). 

Size of the facility.  How large can you go and still be affordable?  More importantly, how large a space can you lease (we’re assuming that we’re not buying the property which is its' own can of worms not addressed in this short series) and does it have poles in the middle of the mat/training area.  Generally, the larger the desired mat area the greater the likelihood of having structural support poles in the middle of the room.  Nothing is more inconvenient than throwing your uke into the pole every other technique.  Additionally, poles severely restrict the total training area simply because of the wide berth you must give them when putting students on the mat.  We calculated that every pole in the mat area cuts down the total training area by about 200 sf (using a radius of 8 feet for the circle around each pole, e.g. throwing a 6 foot tall uke towards the pole and having a safety margin) so if your total projected mat space is 2,500 (what we ended up with) then one pole reduces that total mat space down to 2,300.  Two poles turn what should have been 2,500 sf into 2,100 sf, and so on.  Functionally however, the overall loss of “effective” mat space is possibly twice that since the spacing between training pairs must be reconsidered.  So part of your planning must be the construction of the leased space and cost of the mat area vs. loss of mat area due how the building is set up.  We ended up leasing two bays in an office warehouse park that was stran-steel and without poles in the middle.  The location is off the freeway and in the back of the park.  Not being street visible means no walk-in traffic and that advertising takes on a more critical role than would otherwise be the case.  This need for greater advertising has a obvious impact on the P&L.

Interior.  Dressing rooms?  Showers?  Storage rooms?  Rest rooms? Yes to all if you want civilians (folks not yet into and committed to Budo who are just “trying you on for size”) to actually come in and like what they see.  I’ve seen dojo with no dressing rooms where either you come in your car already suited up (“Hey, look at that guy in the car next to us in those funny karate clothes”) or you change in the rest room, ("Pardon me.  Pardon me.  I'm just trying to step over your bag and clothes and get to the urinal.  Oh sorry, I missed.").  Showers are nice but not crucial, so we saved some money there.  Rest rooms, a critical item but some dojo don’t even have that.  Try teaching out of your garage at home and having all the students go into your house to relieve themselves.  Try being in a strip center of some kind and they have to trot down the way to a filthy public bathroom since your space doesn’t have one.

Training area.  Since we were training a throwing art (read: uke falls down a lot) then we had to build the same type sprung floor that my old Sensei had and that we had at the “Y”.  Many people talk about how to construct that type sprung/raised floor including using Styrofoam spacers (not enough give and the mat on top is still too hard), valve springs taken out of car engines (can you find enough springs exactly the same size and draw weight to spring the entire floor and are they too soft to accommodate 250 pound players hitting the floor), car tires (again not enough give and can you find enough that are exactly the same size).  So we took the route that the Kodokan and my old Sensei took which was to build the floor using custom spun specially engineered steel springs with a plywood floor mounted on top of those all covered by foam sheets designed for grappling and MA applications with white canvas  stretched across the top.  It was a really fast training floor easily walked across without sinking into it, but it could take massive ukemi and uke got right back up.  It took us about two weeks to build out working at night.  Cost was not cheap (it was a lot less money 20 years ago but in today’s dollars expect a bill of around $25,000 for a non-mobile floor permanently bolted into the concrete).  The end result was well worth it, but it had the impact of cementing in our commitment due to the financial burden if nothing else.  The other part of the buildout also included dressing rooms, office, and rest rooms that all went in before the mat did.  Construction was quick but not cheap and had to be negotiated.  And, since there was no lighting (and the space we leased was 3,500 sf) we had to bring in an engineer to tell us how many lumens we needed and how to hit that mark with the right kind of lighting (your table lamp at home won’t work well).  Plus, we had to bring in HVAC engineers to determine, and install, the proper amount of btu's to cool and heat what amounted to a large barn.

Opening the doors.  Complicated at best, not much fun at worst.  After doing our own drive-by’s all over town we finally gave up and contracted with a commercial real estate agent who specialized in business leases.  We had to sign an agreement with him.  We ended up at an office warehouse park and had to sign a lease with him (for this expect to pay first and last month in advance).  We had to have signs made for the door and for the street marquee.  We had to open an account with the electric company (that was a surprising $1,000, much higher than turning on the power at your house).  We had to take out property and liability insurance (pay a full year in advance).  We had to pay for advertising in the local neighborhood paper and build a website (hand coding in html back then was real work so unless you’re good with todays’ Word Press, expect to pay upwards of several hundred dollars if not thousands).  We had to send out (behind the “Y”s back) notices to all our current students to notify them of the move in advance to telling the “Y” we were leaving.  We were not surprised to find out that only about half of the student population came with us; an immediate impact on our initially projected cash flow.

After we moved in and began accepting new students, we of course had the issues of paper towels, water fountain and paper cups, toilet paper, medical supplies, light bulbs, air conditioning filters; all the little assorted odds and ends that it takes to run classes.  And cleaning.  Cleaning is a constant need due to effectively running what amounts to over a hundred students a week if not more (people come more than once a week increasing the effective head count) on the mat who drop hair and skin and track dirt onto the mat creating a need to constantly clean, and clean, and clean .......

Sensei used to say that if you can’t clean your own toilets then you shouldn’t run a dojo.  He was right.

So hopefully I’ve discouraged your idea of opening a dojo.  Keep in mind I’ve left out all the personnel and dojo-politics issues and the constant need to be on point.  On the other hand, if I’ve excited you and you still want open up and give it go, and I’ve given you some ideas on what pitfalls to avoid then I’ve accomplished something.  While running a dojo the last 20 years has certainly had its’ ups and downs and challenges to overcome, it has been immensely satisfying. 

They say that a Sensei is only a student who had to open a dojo in order to keep training and that is so very true.  When I left my old Sensei I was pretty much burned out.  Once I started teaching however, I fell in love with the whole “Budo-Thingie” all over again and my universe expanded as my knowledge and experience increased and I could be creative in some of the lessons.  If you can stand the heat in the kitchen, then put on your apron and bake those cookies and cobblers and while you’re at it, pour a little wine and toast all those people who taught you and worked with you over the years to put you in the kitchen where you belong.  As Roosevelt said, “….. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds ….”. 

That description of the effort certainly fits running a mat.

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

September 25, 2019

 

165. Not As Easy As It Looks - Part 2 - The Country Dojo

So in this part 2 of how to found and run a dojo let’s take a look at what my old Sensei referred to as a “Country Dojo”.  What is that and, what are the good and bad points about one of those?

After knowing that we had to leave the “Y” (from part 1 of this short series) we looked at alternatives that other people we personally knew had done.  The organization that my Sensei started had member dojo in probably 10 or 15 different states and even a couple of dojo in Canada and they ranged Texas to Florida to Washington DC to Washington State. 

All of them had come to his organization and teachings via word of mouth, referrals, having met at Judo shiai, or attending week-long training clinics.  Many/most did not have the time or financial commitment that he had put into his dojo which had a fully sprung floating floor with professional mats on top covered in white canvas that was about 2,500 sf in size with dressing rooms and showers, so they did what they could the best way that they could in order to stay in Budo and actively train where ever they were.

After moving to Houston from my small hometown I fell in love with springs and good mats, up to that point having experienced only folding gymnastic mats laid on concrete at a community ed center.  Unless you’ve trained on what essentially is no padding at all, you simply have no idea of what that is like; nor can you viscerally understand the joy of discovering training on a professional grade floor like they have at the Kodokan in Tokyo.

So while everyone loved his mat, they couldn’t match his facilities or his commitment of running a professional curriculum.  Long story short, they did what they could but largely fell short for several reasons.

First, holding regular classes on a consistent calendar schedule can be difficult.  If you’re running a small dojo and have no senior ranks you can depend on and you’re sick one night, then class is cancelled and your students are disappointed.  Having a large group of dependable teachers under you can be very difficult to grow if your entire student population is less than a dozen people most of whom are in class on an irregular basis.  Having a much larger group of students in the dojo means that about a third are really regular in class, about a third are kinda’ sorta’ regular, and the bottom third come so infrequently that it might take them ten years to make Ikkyu.  I had one of those once and it took him 9 ½ years to make Ikkyu since we don’t promote strictly by “time in grade” but instead by actually training, knowing the material, and being able to demonstrate that knowledge. 

Having a large student population means that you have a fair-sized group of deshi who stay and train and progress over the years with the most senior and capable rising to the top.  They become an essential part of the dojo such that you, the guy running the dojo, can simply pass classes off to someone for a week or two and just not worry about it because you have some depth in your personnel resources.  Best of all though, is that you don’t really need a lot of these high-level players; only 2 or 3 that you can really trust and depend on but, you must have the foundation (large enough group of students to work with) to grow them first.

Next, it can be difficult to teach advanced material with enough repetition so that deshi can learn it and become truly competent; not just competent mind you, but reaching high-level ability in the art.  A throwing art such as Aikido requires ukemi to understand the quantum mechanics relationship between tori and uke.  Not being able to take enough ukemi for your tori means that they will never feel the throw a sufficient number of times to become really good at it.  Additionally, your ukemi will never properly develop since you can’t take enough falls for them and over time you'll develop a hesitation at being thrown which increases the chances of your being injured if anyone really hits the mark and you can't avoid the breakfall.

Why is this?  The mats in a Country Dojo generally do not have the quality of a permanently installed sprung floor that is bolted into the concrete (or wood, whichever).  The common element of most Country Dojo (unless the Sensei has a budget large enough for a permanent location with a floor installed, such as owning your own building) usually must have an arrangement such that the mats are rolled/folded out for class, and then put away after bow-off so that the next group can come in behind you.

One solution for this can be renting mat time in a gymnastics school which many do but now you’re back to the issue we had at the “Y” which was, keeping the assigned mat time, not having the gymnastics people pre-emp your classes due to a calendar shift or gymnastics competition (which happened to us more than once) or having the kids run across the training area wearing street shoes.  And that’s if their liability insurance will permit them to take-on a martial arts dojo that may or may not use weapons for training.

So with that said, without equipment designed to allow a maximum number of falls with a minimum level of pain and discomfort (did I mention taking bad ukemi on thin folding mats on a concrete floor?) students “top out” and find that they can only take so many falls a class.  Worst of all is that if you are running older students who may not have the physical conditioning of a high school or college-age person, then for them the ukemi become close to impossible to learn, much less become good at simply because it hurts ….. a lot.  How many blown out shoulders can one person tolerate?

Staying at the same location can be very problematic.  One small dojo group that Sensei had was relegated to moving from public school campus to public school campus.  They were renting mat time from the wrestling teams at each school (for the mat availability) and as the school calendars changed or as school dismissed for holidays (meaning no classes allowed during Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Spring Break) and the summer, they would spend a month at one campus before being told to move to another down the street.  Nothing can discourage growth like never being in the same place for very long (no one can find the class, "I could swear it was here just last week!") and it really complicates any advertising since your address is always changing.  Growing class size is critical for the survival of the dojo so this small group of maybe 10 to 15 that I was personally acquainted with and taught clinics for managed to hold on for several years but never grew and finally folded the mats and went home.

Expectations of the students can become an issue.  If someone wants to try out Aikido and can find your small Country Dojo at a rec or community center somewhere then they likely will not mind paying $30 or $40 a month for classes.  However, don’t expect a student to pay $100 a month or up unless you can fulfill their expectations of a better than average training floor, dressing rooms possibly with showers, decorations for atmosphere (we have a lot of calligraphy and art work hung everywhere) and a professional level environment with easy parking. 

When I first started it was in a community center with terrible folding mats on concrete and I was paying $12 (yes, twelve dollars) for 6-weeks’ worth of classes.  That class fee won’t even pay for advertising today so the worse and more temporary your facilities are, the lower the odds are that you can hang on to having a dojo, much less actually grow it into something because you won’t impress potential students like the karate shop down the street does.  You may have a better martial arts product overall but remember that marketing (and closing the sale) can be everything.

So what is an alternative?

One is to teach only weapons classes such as Iaido, Kendo, or Jodo.  By focusing only on weapons work and not teaching an art form that requires breakfalling you can eliminate the need for mats.  Wood floors would be nice but smooth concrete, tile that is not irregular with grout joints, and linoleum will work and all the comments above on floors can be disregarded.

However, all the other comments fully apply here also.  Regular location and training times that don’t change.  Having full backup instructors in case you go out of town on vacation or work or you have the flu is critical.  Having facilities that look acceptable.  Good marketing for student population growth.  Etc.

So while switching to a weapons form cancels the need for flooring, the other issues still exist.  If you can’t get past four or five players including you then reaching high-levels of performance becomes difficult as the size of classes ebb and flow and no one is really there often enough over a course of potentially years to really and deeply learn something.  One or two students drop out and now you not only have to find replacements to make whatever expenses you may have, but the instruction starts over from scratch and all that prior instructional development is lost.  Over time, your higher-level skill sets stagnate because there are few students who can test your ability and if those that you do have fall out, then basically that means that you are topped out, quite possibly permanently.

Ah! you say.  But I can bring in a senior instructor.  Maybe.  The last time we brought in a senior instructor in anything it was into four-figures in cost so for a country dojo with say six to a dozen players tops, you can’t make that nut and now you have to spend personal funds to travel there instead and then try to bring it back, share it, propagate it, and then push it forward.

By now I’m sure that if you were considering opening a small study group (or a Country Dojo) you’re discouraged and questioning your sanity at such a thought.

Don’t be.  Remember what I started off by saying at the first ………………… you do what you can the best way you can.  Just remember to temper your expectations and be realistic in what you think you are looking for.  Also remember that sometimes being a student instead of the Sensei means that you can just train and not worry about the business aspects.

Next installment ………… Go Big or Go Home & The Mechanics.

 

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

September 20, 2019

164. Not As Easy As It Looks - Part 1 - The "Y"

Several months ago I received an email from an old student who via economic swings and the phases of the moon landed in a mid-size town where about the only Budo is kids karate classes (he is in his forties or so and definitely fails to qualify for the Pooh Bear Medallion for good grades in kindergarten).

He asked the question of “How do I open my own dojo so that I can get back into teaching and training”.  After I choked on my coffee, I re-read the email and hammered out a response and forgot about it.  I only now found it again while cleaning up the server, so I’d thought I’d share it for anyone who is insane enough to actually want to “step off into it”.

Therefore, for anyone who thinks that they want to open a dojo, or even start a small study group, here is what I learned 20 years ago when we opened for ukemi.  I also based my response to him after 20+ years with my former Sensei who had more than a handful of small “country dojo’s” in his organization.  He defined Country Dojo as a small study group basically with anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen people more or less that met on a semi-regular basis in a garage or community center with an impermanent (read “folding mats”) training surface; whereas a “serious or professional dojo” was one like his, and like the one we eventually opened, with upwards of 30 to 50 students, full dressing rooms, and a Kodokan-style sprung floor.

When I first resigned from my old dojo I had planned on permanently retiring from Aikido and doing only some occasional Judo with an old friend who had national level competitive experience.  I was burned out on teaching and filming and running large groups of players and was only interested in an occasional workout for fun with no attached responsibilities; basically, go when I wanted, if I wanted.  That quickly turned into phone calls and email of “You have to start Aikido classes.  Build it and they will come.”  Even the Judo Sensei I wanted to train under was in on it and emphasized that the YMCA was looking for new programs to add and, the Athletic Director wanted to speak with me about it since he had already spilled the beans. 

Since the Judo group was at a YMCA it was easy, at least at first.  We pulled together resumes, copies of all our promotional certificates, and a curriculum, applied and were hired by the YMCA because they do not take on sub-contractors nor do they rent out space. 

Unless they have changed radically from what I remember they only do programs where the teacher is an actual “Y” employee and fully subject to their personnel policies and insurance coverages.  The positive was that they did all the advertising and liability insurance.  The negative was that they took most of the money, paid you a salary every two weeks, and dictated what the class fees were.  So, a money maker it was not, and we barely made enough to pay for gas.

The only time you got a raise so-to-speak was when the number of students increased.  Of course, like all YMCA’s looking to increase program revenue, every time the number of students increased the Y would increase the class fees resulting, no surprise here, in students dropping out due to the increased cost that they had to pay.  And, if they were also a member of the Y then their Y membership fees plus the cost of the class certainly didn’t help student retention or class growth.

The second downside was that they dictated your teaching schedule and the facilities you used.  We ended up in the children’s gymnastics room on a gymnastics floor with weak springs attached to particle board with floor carpet.  The floor always came apart, so we were forever pulling it up and putting it back down since is wasn’t made for heavy adults but only light weight kids.  Since the room was multi-use, we had gymnastics bars and racks on one side and a climbing wall on the other and we had to continually yell to stop training when 7-year-old kids rans across the mat in the middle of throwing people around.  Ever seen a 50-pound kid impacted by a 200-pound adult?  Yeah, me neither and we seemed always able to avoid it somehow.  How many times did we ask the parents to not let their kids fun across the mat during class?  Too many and of course they always went and complained about those nasty karate people.

The other downside was that initially, they only wanted us to take students who were either already members of the “Y” or who agreed to sign up as “Y” members.  No “non-Y” students were allowed so the “Y” used our Aikido program as a tool (read blunt instrument) to build up their own membership.  This of course didn’t help us much as we were required to continually market YMCA membership and informational pamphlets.  How many times does a new student have to say “no” to you before they get tired of it and leave? 

After some conversation they finally allowed us to bring in “non-Y” students but because they were not YMCA members, they couldn’t use the dressing rooms and had to change in the public bathrooms with all the dirt and filth and constant flow of people in and out.  We lost several good students over that since it was hard to explain a “Y” program that relegated our students to a public bathroom as opposed to a full dressing room.  It was so poorly thought out on their part that even I and the other instructors couldn’t use the dressing rooms because while we were “Y” employees per se, we weren’t “Y” members because of the cost.

After we finally managed to get the Aikido program on an even keel despite all the issues that we had to hurdle, we wanted to expand the program by teaching Seitei Jodo.  We had several existing students and people walking in during class asking about Samurai weapons so we viewed it as both an opportunity and a means to solidify our standing with the “Y” by increasing the cash flow we generated with another program offering.

So we had a demo for Amy “No Last Name” who was the Athletic Director.  She was quite impressed having never seen Jodo before and very promptly said at the end of the demo, “That’s wonderful but sorry Charlie.  Our liability insurance and our program manual prohibit anything that could result in being hit by a weapon (training or otherwise) so we cannot add Jodo to our programs.”  Then she told me about the kendo group who had applied to open a class there and a guy who had wanted to teach iaido (dull swords but still made of metal) and they also were turned down flat.  So, while they could see their way to doing Judo, Aikido and a kid’s karate program, anything beyond that was just verboten.

Then there was the real kicker.  At a “Y” all important decisions are always made by the Board of Directors and, the Board of Directors is generally the patrons with the fattest checkbook and the heftiest donations.  So we’re at the “Y” going on two almost three years and thinking that things have finally smoothed out and that we’re good to go for a while only to be told that the wife of a board member has decided that the “Y” needs a Pilates class room and that the gymnastics room where we are set up looks just perfect.  We now have a time limit to either move to a different room, day, and time or just shut down the entire program.  It didn’t matter that by this time we had over 45 steady players and were a functional profit center for the "Y".  It only mattered that somewhere out there was a possibly overweight housewife with a wealthy husband who wanted Pilates.

So we had to look at alternatives and move fast.

Next installment ……….. So Sensei, what about those country dojos?

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan

Houston, TX

September 19, 2019

 

146. Join the Samurai Navy and See the World (recruiting 101)

When I started this blog years ago I promised to write about interesting, or intriguing, or strange things in Budo; things that hopefully make the reader cant their head to one side like a Pug and say, Huh?”  Things that make you stop and think for a second is my intent so here is today’s momentary descent into, “The Budo-verse”.

Back in the gym after two or three years of broken promises to myself and just pure outright laziness.  Promised my Head Hatamoto that we’d “do stuff” at the ‘doj and throw each other around so must get back into fighting trim.  Not all that easy at age 65 but it’s still there.  Just have to reach for it and do the work.

Worked out, had a “healthy breakfast” at the whole food shop inside the gym.  Pretty convenient and they had plenty of black coffee to boot with a go-cup.  My health club isn’t quite as nice as the old-world “Gentlemen’s Clubs” in London; you know, the ones where you do your workout, and then go to the lockers as your man-servant hands you a gin and tonic to cut the edge off those 1,000 sit-ups, and then you perambulate to the steam room as you waddle naked across the locker room, and the shower attendant hands you your fresh, hot, monogrammed towel and the green bar of English pine soap, while you admire your pumped, buffed, and waxed nakedness in the mirror.

No.  Not quite that nice but maybe one day …………..

So on the way into the office, the skies turned black with this weather front coming through with massive rain and spectacular lightening shows. Satellite radio went into a “fem-ale” mode with song after song (by Toni Braxton, Anita Baker, Norah Jones, Tina Turner ……. Old School kind of tunes) so it was a smooth drive in with ‘tunes, nice weather, hot coffee, and good traffic for a change.  Stress-less, not stress-free but close so the mind drifted into thinking about conversations I had heard around me that morning at the gym about people always wanting something from you and pushy salesmen (apparently this is a week for carnival barkers) and I remembered several occasions at the dojo where someone, ostensibly looking at training, actually wanted something other than Budo.  They wanted things but used “visiting the dojo” as the wedge to get into the door and to try to put me at ease for the “close”.

I sometimes think that the world outside the Budo-bubble or the Bushi-verse looks at a dojo as a means of recruitment for whatever they are hawking, selling, thinking, doing, or hallucinating about.  And sometime they can be pushy so a Sensei, who has the best interests of his deshi at heart (and who is concerned about the viability of the dojo as being a “way place of learning” and not just another pit stop on the road to mediocrity) has to be direct, sometimes to the point of rudeness and everyone once in a great while, threatening to do some serious bodily harm if they can’t figure out that they are simply not wanted.

Bwahahaha.  I’ve been an insurance broker and agent for about 20 years now and got my start as a professional telemarketer after I left commercial banking.  Even when I was in banking before going into insurance full-time back in ’97, the big corporate banking centers I worked at actually put us through classes in how to sell and close, to how profile the prospect, and how to gauge, evaluate and control different personality types either as a loan officer, a risk management officer or as a problem loan & liquidation officer (I was all three at times). 

I’m the last person in the world you want to try to manipulate for a sale of anything and everyone once in a while, I’ll just screw with them, just because ………………. “Sure, I’m interested.  Tell me more.  Tell me more.  But what if …… tell me more ………. But would you want your mother to do that?” ….. but, who developed this and did they make any money?” ….. Have fun with it and interrupt their sales script, which throws them off.  Then you get to watch them try to recover so you hit them again.

So …………….. the occasions that popped into my mind during the drive in that were the most unusual and that had the best set-up as in the carnival barker coming in, talking martial arts and then slowly and gently trying to slip the ‘shiv in were …………..

Fellow sends an email asking if he can visit and the email says that he lives and trains in another martial art here in Houston; but that a good friend of his, an Aikido Sensei from Europe is in town and wants to visit several dojo to see what Aikido in the US and Texas is like.  So I say sure, come in Saturday.  They both come in, sit and visit, ask questions about Tomiki Aikido and I explain how Tomiki set it up, how the curriculum works and mention that Tomiki Ryu has strong self-defense focus and a heavy flavor of Kodokan Judo with how we work the off-balance on the attacker and enter for the technique.  This was all information that I already knew the European Sensei didn’t know as he had never seen Tomiki Ryu before.

So during the conversation, the fellow that had sent the original email made mention (after I had to ask several times) finally ‘fessed up that he did another martial art that consisted of punching and kicking and some throws of various types and that he had students and was building a dojo here in Houston.  My thought was …. hmmm but I said nothing.  Then he asked if he could train.  I said no, that I don’t take visitors and that only active students could get on the mat, not visitors, not people who weren’t already Aikido Players, and esp. not visitors from other styles who would be there only that class period.  His response was, “Oh, a cynic”.  Strange I thought, but knew immediately that he wanted to try his art against Aikido; something I had no interest in.  Last time someone talked that game I told them that I’d ask one of the police officers in the class to come over and convince them of the error of their ways.  Then as a test, I turned to the Aikido Sensei from Europe and asked him a simple question; to wit, can you see the Daito Ryu, self-defense, Judo influences. He got a sorta’ funny look on his face and said, “YES. I can really see the Judo influence”. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised at the techniques or what.

So, while they were both pretty courteous and not rude and not outright challenging, I interpreted it as checking out the competition by using the European as the excuse.  Then, the very next day, I received an email from the visitor that he had emailed my senior Hatamoto to visit his dojo; an effort at recruitment as I interpreted it.  So the entire email, visit, conversation was, bottom line, an effort at recruitment as I had several people who had experience in what he was teaching and he must have thought that he could interest them in visiting/joining his school.  No biggie to me.  I only want deshi that are interested in our program anyway.

The strangest attempt at recruitment however was the night a stranger walked in unbidden with no advance notice.  He had a strange aura about him and seemed a little distant but curious.  We talked and he said that he did some martial arts informally (my first thought was “Oh Gawd. Another guy working out with his brother-in-law in the garage by reading books and watching You Tube”).  It turned out that he was claiming to be one of the few individuals in the country who knew “Viking Martial Arts”. 

Bwahaha.  Hokay then.  Thor’s Hammer Ryu.  This must be a joke.  Nope.  Not a joke.  So after prodding him as to what he was looking for he stated that he wanted to learn Aikido and grappling to improve his Thor Ryu.  Then I made the error of asking him what he did for a living.

And for the first time I about fell off my stool.  He ran a sex-club where everyone traded spouses and they had bondage rooms where the audience watched and had martini’s and bacon wrapped shrimp as someone was tied up and …… er …… ah ….. “abused substantially” as the cameras rolled.  So after sagely remaining silent for a minute or two, I just had to ask.  “So.  Thor.  How do you find clients? customers? mattress divers? WTH do you call them?”  He didn’t think that was very funny but interesting enough, his expression never really changed so that told me that he’d done this before.  His response was, “We have to be discreet.  We just offer that we do this and then allow people to approach us and join. We love to have visitors to the club to see what we offer”.

Didn’t take too long to figure out that I was being invited over and by extension, the entire dojo.  Well I thought, nothing like trying to join a martial arts dojo with 50 or 60 people who are physically active and in good shape so-as to have a fresh batch of recruits because he was overweight and didn’t look to me like much of catch for a discerning female with life choices available to her.

So he left and the next morning I went on line and looked up his sex club.  Sure enough.  There it was, less than a couple miles away from the dojo in the back of an unmarked strip center and Google Earth showed blacked out windows with no sign, only the suite number.  His photo was there on the website along with a bunch of other people and the site had photos of the “mattress room” (wall to wall), the bar (lots of interestingly clothed & unclothed bartenders in the photo, "Ah ... say there partner .... what are you stirring my drink with?"), the bondage room (no people in this one but the ladder, handcuffs and pole in the middle of the room with chains were included).  And, lo’ and behold, a group photo of people at the beach at Galveston, wearing Viking clothes and horned (horny?) helmets and carrying wooden shields and swords at what was noted as being a “Viking Wedding”.

So, if you run a dojo, then keep some things in mind. 

At some point, at some time, and one day, you very likely will find yourself dealing with these people.  Keep in mind that these are the extreme examples.  Door to door protein or internet ISP salesmen are a dime a dozen.  These were the ones that were good at what they do.  They are the ones that you have to watch for.  Don’t let them in no matter how badly you need new deshi.  Lying down with snakes never has a good result and if you feel guilty somehow about saying no, then remember the story about the frog and the scorpion.  Otherwise, you may lookup and find deshi quitting the dojo because they came to learn martial arts from you, not be recruited by Thor the Viking Sex ‘Perv. 

L.F. Wilkinson Kancho

The Aikibudokan, Houston, TX

March 2017

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