Spetsnaz Tea Ceremony

Every time I hear people talk about the utility of Hanmi Handachi or Suwari Waza, it was because samurai sat in seiza all the time, and the tea ceremony is held up as an example of this.  

http://youtu.be/3NeMkL9qdD4

Russian martial arts do Hanmi Handachi and Suwari Waza?  Check out this video from 3:30 to over the five minute mark.  Maybe this isn't just for the Japanese tea ceremony after all.

Chicken Goulash

Served with gnocchi, this is awesome cold weather comfort food.  It also goes with egg noodles, spatzle, rice, potatoes, and even over perogies.  I found recipes with dumplings,which I would like to try someday.

I use a large cast iron enamel pot.  My wife doesn't eat red meat, so I used chicken.

2 onions. - I like to use sweet Vidalia

1 head of garlic

4-8 tbsp Butter

1 red pepper

Cook until the onion starts to dissolve

Add:

1/4c of paprika

1/2tbsp Cayenne (you can do less, but this is supposed to be spicy)

Salt and pepper

4c of Pacific mushroom broth

2 can of tomato paste

I used a hand blender to purée this the rest of the way, but it could be left chunky.

Add a bay leaf

1tbsp of dried Marjoram

2tbsp or more of caraway seed.  I did crush them a little first.

Lightly flour 2-3lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs and quickly brown in a pan with butter.  Don't cook it all the way through, just a couple of minutes a side in a hot buttered frypan.

After browning the chicken, put it in the pot with the onion and pepper mixture.

Slow cook the chicken.

After a couple of hours, stirring ocassionally add:

Mushrooms - I like Shitaki, about 2c diced

After the mushrooms are cooked through: (about 20-30 minutes)

2c of sour cream.

Sprinkle cayenne or paprika on top as a garnish.  You can also garnish with sour cream.

When I had only a small amount left, I thinned the sauce into a soup consistency.  Other things like carrots, potatoes, or peas could be added to the stew.

Kendo examples of timing

http://youtu.be/TPT751RQC3s

When you watch it, Can you see who is attacking first?  Can you see who is moving in response to an attack?  If the attack has started, and then the defensive motion begins, this is called Go no Sen.

Can you see when the attacker and defender are moving at the same time?  If both bodies and Shinai are moving and blending together, this is called Sen no Sen.

Who is moving in response to an anticipated attack?  A Shinai moves slightly, a minute change in the shoulders or the posture, a coiling preparation to strike...and suddenly the other Kendo player cuts through with Sen Sen no Sen.

Who is thinking about dodging, or trying not to get hit?  Who is trying to be sneaky?  Who looks startled?  Who is moving decisively?  And, how well is that working for them?  

I think this is part of Morihei Ueshiba claiming to know where bullets and sword cuts were coming from - at least as well as I can process.  It sounded like he claimed to be reading auras, or some flash of light would appear where the cut or shot was coming from.  

I can't do that.

If the sword is the extension of my training partner, then I am not responding to the sword.  I am responding to my partner.  If I can read my attacker well, I should have some sense of what is coming next, and from what angle.  Muscles clench, postures change, knees and hips shift and so on.  I should know something of their state of mind by looking at them.  After years of training with someone, I should have some sense of their psychology.  Their timing and movement is the expression of their own internal process.

Where have you gone Knowlton Nash?

Knowlton Nash was the anchor of the CBC's National for all my childhood and well into my adolescence.  He was an old school journalist, with no flash or sensationalism.  He took his duty to inform the world seriously.  My parents always trusted him.

"The Art of Peace is not a religion.  It perfects and completes all religions.  The world has 8 million gods and I cooperate with them all."  Morihei Ueshiba, O Sensei.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/14/teen-felt-degraded-after-teacher-divided-aikido-classes-by-gender-following-male-students-religious-request/

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/17/halifax-aikido-students-request-not-to-touch-women-because-of-his-religion-not-an-issue-instructors-say/

A young girl spends 11 years under her Sensei and is close to getting her Shodan.  She is offended by a belief system of one of the students in the dojo, and her Sensei does not throw this student out.  She holds a press conference and sets out to destroy her Sensei in an international forum.  Her instructor is vilified and targeted internationally, and the former classmate is now a target for hate groups as well.  The national media is getting comments from every coast.  People who were never there at this dojo and never studied Aikido are saying, "Go Home!  We hate Muslims and we don't want you here!"  There is an active cyber bullying campaign going on against this school and this teacher, and some prominent Aikido teachers who spoke out against gender segregation would not support the level of hate found online.  This is a harsh way to end an eleven year relationship, and one hopes there is more to it than a teenager's intolerance for a long time instructor's recent choice to tolerate a beginner's request.

I would probably not accommodate the request to not touch women, though I have many times allowed women to not train with men.  The Muslim students I have trained with have trained with my wife as well, so I have not been in this situation.  I doubt my now deceased Sensei would have accommodated this Islamic student at all - he wanted us to experience Japanese culture and he did insist on bowing.  We don't use English terminology, we don't wear sweat pants and we don't wear shoes.  We wear dogi and hakama, and we train barefoot on tatami mats (though most dojo now have foam mats and not rice straw).  We bow to the Founder, Morihei Ueshiba O Sensei.  We do this out of respect for his creation and his beliefs, though the Founder was Shinto and this ritual is tied to Shinto practice.  

O Sensei did have to change his own belief systems.  His original six rules for practice said, "Don't teach anyone that isn't Japanese."  Everyone involved in this scenario in Nova Scotia has benefited from his change in practice and accommodation of other cultures.  He was a military trainer on the side of Japan - North America was very accommodating as well and the growth of this new martial art has been exponential because of various cultures choosing to move forward.  Today the rules for practice say something like, "Only teach people of good character who will use this information to a good end."

I have only met a handful of Yoshinkan students, and only one teacher.  Kimeda Sensei in Toronto was amazing, and I was grateful for his hospitality.  I enjoyed the day I spent in his dojo, and I left with profound respect for what I saw.  Shioda Sensei had died a few months before, and I share the belief that his passing was a great loss.  This one system of Aikido is more concerned with combat effectiveness and much less with O Sensei's spiritual teachings than the Aikikai system I am a part of, and I respect that too.

Online comments from people claiming some knowledge of the situation:

(From salttheskies on Reddit, and reposted to Aikiweb by Christopher Li):  I am a student and assistant instructor at East Coast Aikido, and this story has not been accurately or fairly reported. The class was never segregated along gender lines, and the muslim student's request was accommodated by taking care not to partner him and him alone with any of the handful of female students in the class for training. Female students do not train separately from the rest of the class, and continue to train with each other and with male students as they always have with the exception of the one muslim student. If during the regular rotation of training partners, the muslim student was paired with a female student, the instructor managing the training would simply have him switch places with another student so that he would be with a male training partner. This request was accommodated with minimal impact on the flow of training, and it's disheartening to see the situation has been so unfairly misrepresented in the media.

Furthermore, this would not at all have impacted on Sonja's black belt training as she would not have been training with the newer muslim student on the advanced material anyway. I never saw any literature on Islam distributed in the class, and I imagine that if this did happen, if she had brought the booklet to Steve with her concerns, he would have asked the muslim student not to do it again.

Steve handled this situation in about the best way I can imagine any instructor handling it. He saw a way to easily and fairly accommodate the student's request so that he would be able to train with us. If the request had been refused, the news story would be one of Islamophobia instead of sexism. I hope Sonja eventually comes to realise this and comes back to train.  (Posted on Aikiweb)

Todd Fleck:  Once again the press is only reporting one side of the story. I am a student of Sensei Nickerson as well as my Dojo-cho (chief instructor) of my own dojo. I know all parties involved in this and this situation. The press are saying that the women in the class were forced to train on one side of the dojo while the Muslim student was there. THAT WAS NOT TRUE! And never happened. The women were told that due to his religion, and for his respect of women, he was not permitted to touch them and to respect his beliefs. There were lots of other men in the class to train with so why is this an issue. The Muslim, (and I am protecting his name) is the gentlest, kindest, humblest man I have ever met and I am proud to consider him one of my friends. I challenge the media to actually report the real story!!! P.S. Look into how many time this mother has brought false claims against other institutions and you will then understand the real situation.  (Posted on Canoe.ca)

I have never met Todd Fleck, nor am I a student of Yoshinkan Aikido.  A quick Google on his name shows him to be teaching Yoshinkan Aikido on a Canadian Forces base.  So, possibly he and/or at least one of his students have likely fought in Afganistan, and likely known soldiers killed there by predominantly Islamic enemies.  He and his students play a role in the maintenance of our rights and freedoms (Even in Canada, Freedom isn't Free). In spite of this, he is speaking up in support of this Muslim student and Nickerson Sensei.  And taking flack for it.

In regard to his comments on the family:  http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1180530-online-posts-intended-for-radical-islam.  This is evidence in the public record that her family, for all their talk of social justice, has intolerance for Muslims.  This evidence is easier to find than the handout that has taken the bulk of the media coverage.

I see comments saying, "Go Home!" (And worse.)  But, we don't know if this is a third generation Canadian Islamic teenager who has been bullied at school and is turning to the martial arts out of concern for his safety.  We know nothing of the student at all, but he is now a target.  The attraction to Aikido is that we do have a choice whether or not to cause serious injury, which appeals to a certain type of person who is opposed to violence and interested in promoting peace.  This is a meaningful value.  If this student or his teacher are harmed or killed, or the dojo faces harm; should we hold Sonja Power responsible?  

I met my wife on the mat, and I have many good friends in Aikido who happen to be women.  As an instructor, I of course routinely give physical corrections and feedback to every student on the mat, and I expect the same of any teacher.  So, this belief system means the Muslim student should never become an instructor or Shihan in my opinion.  There is an advantage in applying technique to a wide variety of body types that he is missing out on - for example women tend to have greater flexibility and they are forced by necessity to learn better mechanics than a larger male who might just bludgeon their way through a technique.  I am forced to learn to be more accurate, and that is a good thing.

As a male nurse, I routinely get told I am not welcome to assist in the care of a female.  I say "routinely," because I chose to accept this is just a routine request.  I also accept that some smaller female students find me intimidating, and that they might be more comfortable training with someone else.  In a grappling art, pelvises rub up against each other (or any other body part), chests get grabbed and thighs are frequently in contact.  Some female training partners are not comfortable with this.  I would probably be careful who I matched up with a 17 year old girl for grappling practice.  Discriminate on the basis of gender?  In my world the answer is, "Of course.  And it's frequently the right thing to do, and the socially acceptable thing to do."  

The irony of this for you non-martial artists out there is that most martial arts if not most sports are indeed segregated by gender.  If this student had chosen to study Boxing, Judo, Kickboxing, MMA, Wrestling, Tae Kwon Do - all of these sports have gender, skill level, age, and weight classes in competition.  Even Kata competitions, which have no physical contact at all, are serrated by gender.  Skating, running, hockey, softball, and archery are all segregated Olympic events - even Curling and Half Pipe, though I can't imagine why.  I believe the only gender neutral event is the open water long distance swim.

Aikido is a unique art in that women have trained with, and along side the men from the very beginning and this is a fact that should not be discarded lightly.  This student picked "The Art of Peace" instead of something far more focused on effective violence or physical dominance - where he would indeed be expected to exclusively train against men.  Aikido is not necessarily a superior art or sport to any other, but we offer options to avoid causing injury to a degree that other arts do not.  If the student wanted to practice pounding someone into bloody submission MMA style, he would not probably even be given the option to train with a woman!  He made a choice to learn an Art that specializes in restraint, control, and minimizing injury.  I chose to believe that says something about the student.

To accommodate a religious requirement to not bow is not onerous.  I have had Muslim students in class with me, and they are uncomfortable with bowing.  A Fundamentalist Christian student of Kanai Sensei has also decided to not bow because of his own faith, and now has created his own system.  For that matter, the first time I went to a karate class and bowed to In-Yo, my open minded Dad became upset.  There are other ways to show respect, and intention matters.

The handout sounds gross, but this also crossed a line for Nickerson Sensei.  I was not able to find a copy for myself to read.  (Hopefully I have not been tagged by the NSA for Googling it.)  Nothing to judge the Sensei for there.  While this pamphlet seems to take up most of the article and has the most egregious content, the actual students involved don't mention it or don't seem to know of it.  The dojo seems to be supporting their Sensei.

I doubt I would have gone as far as Nickerson Sensei did in supporting this student.  I still want to voice my support for Nickerson actually trying to make this work.  There is no greater challenge ahead for the Art of Peace than to continue the work of Morihei Ueshiba - an enemy soldier and military trainer who opened his heart and his art to the world.  Morihei Ueshiba talked about his creation being an art of reconciliation.  To throw out someone because they are different is not O Sensei's example nor his vision, nor should exclusion of a minority of any description be the policy of a community center.  The Art of Peace and Reconciliation should be open to other belief systems and religious practices.  The Islamic world has proscriptions against our routine practice format.  While North America has gotten used to Catholics who use birth control, Jews who like bacon, public schools no longer praying and Hindii children eating Big Macs, do we really want all religions and peoples to discard all their history and customs?  

I firmly believe that we are called by Morihei Ueshiba O Sensei to be better people than to yell, " Go Home!"  He told us, "The Art of Peace begins with you."  I don't have the answers, but 1.57 Billion people on the planet practicing Islam are not going away and we need a vehicle for reconciliation.  

That vehicle is definitely not the National Post.

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I finally figured out how to fix some links, and I expounded on a few points above.  I took the time to fix this, as Knowlton Nash's death was just announced.  While Memorial Day is usually reserved for soldiers who fight to defend our way of life, I am reflecting on how this man's mission to preserve integrity in Canadian journalism is something we should also remember.  He defended truth without passion, bias, or flash.  He believed in our right to be informed accurately over ratings, and that defined a generation of Canadians.

Lessons from the Sword

Daito Ryu taught many things.  Aikido borrowed some things from other arts apparently, but mostly I think we are Daito-Ryu that has been whittled down.  We don’t practice umbrella retention techniques or many other traditional Daito ryu practices.  We don’t practice how to be lethal.  Our syllabus is much smaller and has much less detail.  We still keep some unusual practices that look esoteric and outdated while we discarded so much.  One of those practices is tachidori.

Some of the more oddball and less apparently martially applicable things:

Hanmi handachi – how to deal with attackers with a longer stride, superior uphill position or just generally taller.  Useful for trench warfare, or in a building or on stairs.  Useful for a tall instructor to figure out how to teach a certain movement to a much shorter student.  Also, useful for a short person to experience being tall – I had to throw someone in seiza while I was standing to understand how to make a Kokyu Ho technique real for a 6’8” student.

Morote Dori is useful for any joint lock reversal or handgun/weapon retention, as well as providing feedback for strikes and general alignment for power.

Kokyu Doza - while the exercise makes little apparent sense martially, everything we do is Kokyu Doza.  This foundation is part of every technique.

So, I feel Tachidori has to serve more purpose than just pretend highly improbable and questionable sword play.  I've started to think the weapon is incidental, because by all accounts our weapons work is not impressive.

Lessons for every Aikido student:

1.  Get off the line.  In time a student gets comfortable with their blocking and redirecting skills.  The feet become planted.  Students stop moving as much in jiyuwaza.  There is no blocking a bokken with your forearm, so students get their bodies moving again.

2.  A little fear back in the practice.  Just watching a moving object coming at you without flinching or freezing is a reflex that means more than most of our techniques.  Every movement has to count.

3.  Maai is far more challenging.  I have heard from several people that a Kendo student can tsuki from much further away than I might think.  Irimi is harder as your partner's arm just got three feet longer. 

4.  Timing gets more challenging.  Your partner is only 5 feet tall?  Give them a bokken, and they can reach like a seven footer.  They can swing that bokken faster and with more power than many can kick without much practice.

5.  "Don't fear the weapon, fear the attacker."  Find the human's balance and weak spots, and don't focus on the weapon.  Read your partner's timing and intention.

6.  Don't get too far off the line.  Miss the first attack, a second attack comes.  A bokken is only an inch wide, so you do not need to cover much ground.

7.  Move from where you are.  If you dodge to the left side of the blade, do a technique that starts on your partner's left.  Enter and act.

8.  In Tanto, we control the knife by controlling the attacker.  In Tachidori, we have an option to control the attacker by controlling the weapon.  We can throw our partner without specifically touching them.

9.  Your stance is stable and poised while the attack is pending.  Your ability to move and react depends on a well integrated mind and body.  You have to be balanced and relaxed.

10.  Accuracy.  Unlike the Jo, the bokken is not manipulated by grabbing anywhere on it's length, only the handle or sometimes the back of the blade.  From several feet out, you have a very small target to control the handle.  (Not all Tachidori retains the weapon.)

Tachidori is all about learning to control spacing and timing.  It is about movement and accuracy in the face of unforgiving attack - something that cannot happen with a panicked mind.  

 A training partner gets an advantage, and I learn to work at a bigger spatial disadvantage than I did with the Tanto.  Partners I might have a physical advantage over now get to be equal or superior.  These are things that can benefit every Aikido student.  

I am reminded of a story I heard once:

A young student came to a sword master to study the sword.  He was disappointed that he wasn't given a sword to train with; his teacher just repeatedly slapped him.  Eventually the student got the idea and started to move out of the way.  The teacher had to get more inventive, quicker, more sneaky in his attempts to hit the student.  Finally, the day came that the teacher was unable to hit his student.  The student was then given a sword and a modicum of training in handling it.  The student went on to become a sword master with the foundation he was given.

Bokken Etiquette Part 2

I had briefly touched on how we hand a bokken back and forth, and gave an example of a video of one of the most recognizable Aikido sword experts in the world.  I respect the Saito family and their style.

Most Aikido people have not been taught the full scope of the very complex systems of martial etiquette.  I expect different clans and schools even had their own variations of doing the same task.

What was the "correct" traditional martial etiquette to "I disarm someone trying to kill me with a lethal weapon, and then I say, "best two out of three" and give them their weapon back and another chance to kill me."  Probably there wasn't one.

How much I put myself in jeopardy when giving a sword to another person can be a statement on my regard for their character.  If I bow and offer the blade in a position that could result in my instant death, I am showing a huge amount of trust ie leave the blade facing me.  This is fine if this is a close friend or a high ranked teacher with whom I have a relationship.  It could look reckless or clueless, and might lead to accidents.

If I protect myself, I am maybe putting my training partner in jeopardy and acting more threatening ie leaving the blade facing my partners in a position where I could instantly attack and kill them.

If I place myself in potential jeopardy with a stranger, I might be insulting their ability.  I could be seen as saying that I don't believe they could hurt me anyway.  Think early Steven Seagal sitting on the floor to call out an attacker and make them out to be a coward in Out for Justice.  "You suck so badly you couldn't hurt me even if I..."etc, etc.  Also, this person may well not be worth the level of trust I am showing. 

How much effort I put into protecting myself can be a compliment to another person's ability.  Backing up ten feet, putting a weapon on the ground, backing up another ten feet or more, and never taking my eyes off the opponent shows respect for their ability.  It also shows a huge lack of trust, and possibly insults a person's character.  It also slows a test or class situation down, which I think is why our dojo doesn't do this.  Too busy acting respectful to actually acquire or demonstrate any skill.  If you were told to do this one way by your teacher, but a testing or visiting instructor asks you to behave differently, respect the teacher in front of you.  Then, when you go home, respect the different teacher in front of you.

As it was explained to me, any particular action could be viewed as very respectful or very insulting. Anyone can be grateful for the compliment or enraged over the insult from a single action.  So, we look for a balance.

If a high ranked teacher asks me for something, I do it, as that is polite.  I personally do not use minor points of etiquette as a flimsy excuse to get enraged and harsh.

I do get irritated when an entire class cannot train skills because someone wants to pontificate.

Decades ago, a young psychiatric nurse I knew had to disarm and contain a patient who was attacking  her coworkers with a snow shovel.  She just entered and did what needed to be done.  It's one of the very few real life longer weapon disarms I ever heard about, and she was successful and likely saved lives.

She didn't bow, and she certainly didn't hand the shovel back and no one cared if her actions were insulting.

I some times wonder if a circus of rules breaks out in a class to avoid actual training.  Maybe the discussion of the rules of engagement is a barrier to O Sensei's dokka:  "facing the point of a sword, your whole life comes into focus."  If class is time for talking, you're not looking at the point of the sword.