Katsujinken Calligraphy

Late at night at KyuRyu headquarters.

Lamb born with black belt

Of course they named him Miyagi.

Surprising words from Aikido Journal

I am happy in the aikido organizations I have chosen to join. I think many people feel confined and strangled by theirs. I know there are a great many teachers and organizations I simply could not fit with. Indeed I sympathize with others in their quest for artistic freedom. I just spent today writing a new friend about the merits of forging his own path in his budo studies.

I then checked out an article by Stanley Pranin the Godfather of Aikido Journal. Much to my surprise he concluded his article with...

"Don’t look to Japan or any organization for leadership in aikido or any other field of endeavor. This world of dizzying technological advancement has left these bloated dinosaurs panting in the dust. In today’s networked world, any visionary and hard-working individual can produce prodigious results at lightning speed. The shaping of aikido’s future lies in our hands. Let’s get crackin’!"

I totally agree.


The Full Article

Principle - Musubi 結び

This week I find myself exploring deeply the idea of musubi 結び. I believe musubi 結び is a vital key to higher level aikido and judo exploration.

Aikido Journal defines Musubi 結び as - Knot; tie. The concept of a link between the attacker and defender permitting the smooth execution of techniques.

Before an engagement the aikidoda and the attacker are separate bodies in motion hurling together in a potentially devasting clash of matter and energy trying to occupy the same space. The skillful aikidoka however connects to and blends with the energy hurling towards him. The two individual structures of the human being now become more unified, the two people become one four legged structure. The aikidoka can cause his opponent to need to lean on him for support, so as the aiki man moves, his opponent must follow. The two people often lose their individual centers of gravity and gain a common or shared one. This joining together of the centers is what I consider to be musubi 結び.

Have you ever been working out and someone asks why the attackers in aikido don't just let go? Why do they continue to hold on? The answer friends is the principle of musubi.

As my regular readers may know, I am fond of words and looking at them closely to find deeper meaning.



Here is the modern simplified Chinese form of the character and the ancient form.

to tie / to knot / to weave / a knot / to unite / to join / to connect / to congeal / coagulation / to form / to found / to constitute / to bear fruit / a result / an outcome / to pay, or settle ( as an account, etc. ) / a node

The modern Japanese form has the character with a phonetic kana suffix for "bi".


結び

bind;
contract;
do up hair;
fasten;
join;
organize;
tie;


The word musubi used in many different sentences


友情が彼らを結びつけた。 Friendship bound them together.

ロープを木に結び付けなさい。 Fasten the rope to the tree.

彼は二つの考えを一つに結び付けた。 He combined two ideas into one.


Here is Mike and I working on the connection aspects of musubi. We go real slow and methodical on this. I hope this illustrates what musubi is to those in search for it.



In Tai Chi we see it too. In this example by Master Ma Yu Liang we see it, but very subtly.

Conflict Resolution in Teaching

Early in my aikido career I was largely unknown in the dojo. I was the college kid who came stumbling in with dirty hair and smelling like coffee and cigarettes. I found the practice very interesting, but then one of the senior instructors noticed me and took me under his wing. He spent a lot of time training me, encouraging me and inviting me to walk with him down the path. I felt like I was getting more out of my practice than I was getting out of school. This instructor spun my world around, gave me the gift of drive and motivation. He helped me fall in love with training and the path. I learned that the basis of practice is relationships with people. I found a mentor.


A good teacher fosters relationships. A good teacher discovers teachable moments that can turn around a student’s thinking. A good teacher can quite literally be a guide and a positive life changing force in a student’s life.


That is the power of a good teacher.


After several years of training, I made my way into the dojo on a spring afternoon. We were working on the Koryi Dai San Kata bokken work. The instructor was obviously agitated about something. Perhaps he had a bad day at the office? Who knows? Anyways, I either missed or misheard an instruction that he gave the class. All I know is that I looked up and he was staring at me red faced. He exploded in a tirade. He yelled and screamed at me in front of the class for several straight minutes. While I write this now, 15 years later, I can feel the bite of shame in my stomach, and my cheeks are getting red. This one incident was a violation of the relationship we had, and his power as a teacher. I felt terrible. The dojo became a hostile place.


I stopped training for a long while. His one bad day derailed one of his students training for several years. I avoided his classes when I returned. The magic of the practice was gone for me.


Bad teaching, even for a moment can shatter relationships. A moment of bad teaching can limit a student and push them away from study forever. A single bad moment in teaching can be a negative stain and a negative influence forever in a student’s life.


This is the power of bad teaching.

I have been in education for the past 15 years now. I have taught in Japanese public schools. I have taught residential programs with Houston’s tough gang teens. I have taught some students who have some of the toughest behavioral challenges in the state. I have been stabbed in classes, I have been bit. I once found myself being violently attacked by four 18 year olds because I found their stash of drugs. I have had students disrupt my classes and insult me.


But you know what? I have never yelled at a student, not once. It violates the strategic principles of aikido conflict resolution as it has been taught to me. It is adding speed and energy to a conflict to overpower an opponent. Yelling shames people. Yelling asserts dominance and is a harsh way to control. It is counterproductive and shows a lack of self control. It is a short term fix to a problem while not addressing the reasons behind the problem. It points to a failure in the fundamental core principle in teaching and aikido. Teaching and aikido both are based on relationships.


Of course I have made mistakes while teaching. But you know what I ALWAYS try to do? I try to heal the relationship. I am never afraid to say I am sorry, or that my choices were not the best. Even when my choices were justified, letting a student stew in negativity is a failure in teaching. Reestablishing the relationship is the job of the teacher because we are the ones invested with power.

So teachers treat your students well. I implore you to learn gentle teaching and learn good relationship skills. If we do not then we are doing a grave injustice to the people that invest in us. The students are the reason you are there. If you are not building them up, if you are not leading your students down a positive path you are failing in your career and services. One bad moment of teaching can derail a student on their path forever.

If one of your students sits down in fifteen years to write a blog post and still feels shamed and angry, was it a successful lesson?

Walking the Earth

That's right, I have a month to kill. I am loading up the truck and preparing for a walk about. If you want me to stop by your dojo on my journey, let me know. I will even let you feed me!

At this point I will be in Dallas through the weekend and in Oklahoma next week. I might head up to Indiana after that, but I am not really sure yet.

Let me know - thedragonsorb@hotmail.com

Is Tomiki's lineage a Ryu 流?

In the 30 years since Kenji Tomiki Sensei's death his lineage of Aikido has spread over the world. There seems to be a concentration of his schools in the United States, Europe..especially Britain. Many organizations have split but continue to use the curriculum of Kenji Tomiki's design. Collectively we tend to call the lineage 'Tomiki Aikido', or 'Tomiki Ryu'

On the Kaze Uta Budo Kai boards and on the Mokuren Dojo Blog there has been some discussion about whether to use the words 'Tomiki Ryu' or not. From what i have heard Tomiki Sensei did not like the use of this title. To him it was Shodokan or just Aikido. Plus the style has evolved radically in the past thirty years. There are the rough and tumble sport aikido guys, and there are the super soft and light touch tai chi like guys coming from other divisions of the lineages. Some have even taken to using their own name plus the word 'ryu' to distinguish their own style branching from Tomiki's lineage. Is saying Tomiki Ryu appropriate? Was it ever?


A opinion against the use of ryu is on Koryu.com. I will introduce Wayne Muromoto at the Koryu site to enlighten us with his opinion. He says no, it is not correct. .


Koryu.com



To Ryu or not to Ryu....I myself don't really care either way. Language is what it is. Whether he intended his name to be used or not, we did use it and likely will continue to do so. We also stuck ryu 流 on it.

Independence weekend thoughts....

Much of the world is driven by politics, whether it be countries or martial arts systems. Sometimes it is good to gather with our fellows, sometimes it is time to separate. Here is an excellent example of what to say when it comes time to go out on your own.

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

Tomiki Aikido - Junana Hon Kata (17) In Japanese

Here is the list of the Kenji Tomiki's 17 kata in Japanese. Often I wish to research the characters and they can be hard to find. As the KyuRyu AikiBudo blog develops I plan on doing in depth translations of all the technique names and explanations of the characters.

For you non Japanese folks this list might come up on your computer as a bunch of question marks, or some sort of scrambled eggs. You have to mess with your settings somehow.




１７本

当身技（５本)
・正面当て ・相構え当て ・逆構え当て ・下段当て ・後ろ当て

肘技（５本)
・押し倒し ・腕返し ・引き倒し ・腕捻り ・脇固め

手首技（４本)
・小手捻り ・小手返し ・転回小手捻り ・転回小手返し

浮技（３本)
・前落とし ・隅落とし ・引き落とし





From the Shodokan website