Random thoughts on O Sensei's Rules/Guidelines for practice, #1

I had been training for several years before I bought my first copy of O Sensei's Budo. There was a one page list of called Precautions for Training that I had not seen before. Later on, I found the same list of six items in Kisshomaru Doshu's Aikido, this time called Rules for Practice.  It's the term I became most familiar with, so I'll be referring to the Rules from here on even though Precautions might be the better translation.  Eventually I started to think of Guidelines.

The dojo where I train now has a third version of the Rules from an Aikikai Hombu newsletter with similar items worded differently.  The current Doshu has published a fourth version. I don't see the Rules getting much attention, and every copy I find seems to have the second Doshu's name closely associated with it.  Budo itself was written very soon after the split between Morihei Ueshiba and his Daito Ryu teacher, but well before any of the fractures in Aikido itself developed, and before the name Aikido was even coined.

The Rules were of limited benefit for me to give to beginners for practice.  It's not a "no chewing gum in class" kind of list.  It didn't touch on any of the long list of things like who sat where, or how to wear a gi, or when to bow, or how to hold a weapon.  While Budo itself makes extensive mention of swords, spears, tanto, and firearms - weapons are not discussed in the Rules.

I am unilingual and therefore divorced from the Japanese source material.  I did what I do when I read the Five Rings or the Yi Jing - I put all the different translations together rather than just picking the one translation that I like the best.  I like to think it gives me a chance of catching nuances and deeper understanding.  For example, when comparing the translations below, some talk about killing with a "blow," something that English speakers associate with striking or atemi.  Two versions explicitly say we practice lethal techniques (much more general term).  With the one translation, the implication is that Aikido can be safely practiced just by omitting the strikes.  When I teach an Aikido version of O Goshi, I have to make the point to the class that this isn't true as some Nage get really low to the ground as they don't want to give Uke a hard fall.  This is how to break Uke's neck or skull by slamming it into the ground.

For all that I knew of the Rules for years, I had a little epiphany the other night.  These aren't so much rules as a description, a definition of Aikido.  I'm tentatively breaking up the six Rules into separate entries.  This one deals with the first item, which discusses Aikido's lethality.  As this is one of six, this is not the only reason to train nor the only defining feature of aikido.  I don't just train for combat myself.

"The original intent of bujutsu was to kill an enemy with one blow; since all techniques can be lethal, observe the instructor's directions and do not engage in contests of strength."  Budo

 

"One blow in Aikido is capable of killing an opponent.  In practice, obey your instructor, and do not make the practice period a time for needless testing of strength."  Aikido

 

"As Aikido is practice by using techniques which are capable of inflicting fatal injuries, practitioners should always heed what their instructor says, and should never participate in contests of strength."  From the 1997 issue of "The Aikido" by Aikido world headquarters in Tokyo.  Volume 34, #4.  Really, from the walls of the men's change room at our dojo.

 

"Aikido techniques can be instantly lethal so it is essential to observe the instructor's directions at all times and not engage in contests of strength." Best Aikido: The Fundamentals (Thanks to Peter Goldsbury for pointing out this fourth source to me.)

 

While not in keeping with our warm fuzzies, it is a historically valid question to ask a senior student.  Do you know how to kill someone with Aikido?  Or at least hurt them?  Do we know at least enough about how to hurt each other, to keep each other safe in practice?  There is some online talk that Aikido is not capable of inflicting injury, or that there is something special about Aikido movements like Shihonage that make them harmless but this is not what is written here.  

The rule states to obey the teachers (In Aikido, Kisshomaru Doshu expounds on the first Rule with a brief dissertation on the importance of obedience and never goes further into discussing lethal options) and implies this is for safety, but do teachers automatically know how to injure or kill people with Aikido?  Many groups don't teach this.  I have known some teachers who are almost proudly uninformed.  If the teacher is uninformed, then the safety margin created by obedience is not a guarantee.  

How is the Daito Ryu Shihonage different from the Aikido Shihonage and can I communicate this to a student in clear enough terms to keep the class safe?  Daito Ryu presumably has no problems communicating what makes the movement safer or more dangerous as there is no hangup and no emotional baggage associated with the potential for injury.

While Steven Seagal has earned some criticism in recent years, his Aikido choreography in Above the Law, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice offer some valid insights regarding combat applications.  I don't object to his Aikido - there are so many other things to object to.

Shioda sensei's Dynamic Aikido also has some great insights for combat in the one chapter - a Sankyo throw projecting someone down a stair case, Nikyo with Uke getting kneed in the face, Kotegaeshi and Ikkyo both slamming Uke into the restroom wall.  Sound ideas, and a valid lesson that there is nothing different being done.

I've heard about simply avoiding violence.  I get irritated by people discussing "violence in the real world" who have sustained little more than paper cuts and eye strain.  Violence isn't real to such people, but it is still real.  Some students that I thought were divorced from violence turned out to be ex-military.  Even in health care I come across plenty of ex-military.  My wife and I had to face the reality of violence in our own home from an intruder.  One student works in a jail, another in law enforcement. I've become less critical of people who ask questions about violence. If I am going to be a teacher, maybe I should know some answers.

 

In any event, from the horse's mouth - Aikido is described as an art capable of being lethal, the implication being that martial ability is expected. Maybe this feeds into the "Looking Back to Look Forward theme I find myself thinking of lately. Martial competence has become a common criticism of Aikido today, with every association lumped together erroneously. I wonder how many people told Chiba Sensei, "Aikido doesn't work in a fight, it is too gentle?"  Lenny Sly and others are doing some modern interpretations. Kenji Tomiki was a military trainer.  Gozo Shioda and Robert Koga were law enforcement trainers.  Martial competence is part of our history.  

In search of Bansen Tanaka

I was told years ago that I was in Bansen Tanaka's lineage.  I was never told this by my own dojo or Shihan, (it was more of a shut up and train environment) but by other sources.  Until very recently, there was no information available on him.  I went looking up this man's history in part because it has now become a part of my history.

Bansen Tanaka was a Judo student before he became an Aikido student, as was Morihei Ueshiba himself.  He met Morihei Ueshiba in 1936 (some English sources say 1935), around five years after the Manchurian Incident.  Kano Jigoro would die at sea two years later, but multiple Judo students had already come to train with Morihei Ueshiba.

Bansen Tanaka's Wikipedia bio also identifies him as a student of Ueshiba's nephew, Noriyaki Inoue.  Noriaki claimed the title of co-founder of Aikido.  He had been raised in the Ueshiba home, and had been present for all of Takeda's instruction from the beginning.  Inoue was additionally a very devote Oomoto Kyo believer, and he had also been present for the meeting of Onisaburo Deguchi and Morihei Ueshiba.  He lived in the Oomoto compound with the Ueshiba family.  The second Oomoto incident in 1935 led to the arrest of several Oomoto leaders, but a police chief in Osaka was able to warn Morihei so that Morihei personally escaped arrest.  Noriaki was critical of Morihei for not sharing the same fate as the Oomoto Kyo leadership.  The Inoue family was also very wealthy and had been the main financiers of Morihei's adventures up until this point.

Tanaka built a dojo for Inoue in Osaka, and his biography states he followed the teachings of both Noriaki and Morihei until he was drafted in 1939.  The falling out of Inoue and Ueshiba worsened and the two eventually broke ties.  Tanaka is still identified as a student of both men after the event that precipitated these two innovators separating.

The name Aikido was coined in 1942, right around the time Ueshiba quit his military training posts and moved to Iwama.  Conversely, Inoue continued to teach his art as Aiki-Budo until 1956, and after a few name changes Inoue's art is now known as Shin'ei Taido.  Wikipedia makes no mention of students of Noriaki Inoue at all.  It is Bansen Tanaka's Wiki entry that connects him to Inoue; not the other way around.  Noriaki Inoue around the 1:16 mark doing a technique Kawahara taught on several occasions - that I haven't seen since.

Tanaka was a student of Ueshiba who started when the certificates handed out were for Daito Ryu under Sokaku Takeda.  Takeda and Ueshiba broke ties not long after Tanaka started - 1937.  A famous incident where Takeda showed up in Osaka to announce he would take over instruction of the Asahi news group in Osaka happened in 1936.

Gozo Shioda had been training since 1932.  Kenji Tomiki was more senior (starting in 1925), and would leave for Manchuria the same year as Tanaka started.  Kiyoshi Nakakura (Ueshiba Morihiro) was married to Morihei's eldest daughter, adopted into the family, and was expected to succeed Morihei.  The marriage ended with divorce the year following Tanaka's starting training.  

A good friend of Nakakura's was the photographer for the Noma dojo photo shoot in 1936 that would come to be Ueshiba's book, Budo.  Gozo Shioda and Kisshomaru Ueshiba would both appear as uke, though several sources say Kisshomaru only started to officially train in 1937 - after the schism of Takeda and Ueshiba.
 

(I'm not saying Tanaka played a role in any of these events.  There is so much talk about how messy Aikido politics got in the mid-1970s, and those events sound so much more straightforward!  I chose to believe it is a comment on Tanaka's determination and character to continue to train throughout this events.)

Tanaka was drafted into the army in 1939, where he served as a bodyguard.  The war ended in 1945, and Aikido was outlawed until 1949 (though famous students like Morihiro Saito and Hirokazu Kobayashi both date their start in training to 1946).  Wikipedia says Tanaka resumed his aikido training a year "after" (I think they mean a year after the war ended, not a year after he left).  I don't know how it worked out, but eventually Tanaka was asked by O Sensei to open Osaka Aikikai in 1951.  Tanaka stayed in Iwama until the dojo was opened in early 1952.  O Sensei arrived and taught in Osaka for several weeks, and made very frequent trips to Osaka.

Shioda started a dojo in 1950, gave a career changing demonstration in 1954, and didn't start his own style until 1955 officially.  Morihei Ueshiba looked to be in retirement, and Shioda was Tanaka's senior.

Hirokazu Kobayashi was a judo, kendo and karate student who relocated to Osaka in 1954.  A 1964 copy of Kisshomaru's Aikido lists two Osaka dojo, and lists Kobayashi as a Hombu Shihan - the title was not applied to Tanaka, though he was more senior.  While Kobayashi's Wikipedia makes no mention of Daito Ryu, this discussion is interesting.  Kobayashi became prominent in Europe, and is well known for a separate system of Aiki Shin Taiso or a set of solo exercises for developing Aiki that to my knowledge is not the same as Koichi Tohei's Aiki Taiso.  He is also known for inviting Tomiki Sensei to teach in Osaka and for working closely with the Shodokan aikido system after that schism had happened.  The Shodokan Aikido headquarters dojo was built in Osaka in 1967.


It's finally gotten to the point that I can go to YouTube and search for video of Bansen Tanaka.  There is an interview with Stanley Pranin (you need an Aikido Journal membership, which I can never recommend enough anyway), and Ellis Amdur's It Had To Be Felt had a meeting that seemed to show some frustrations between Tanaka and the Aikikai Hombu.  So many of the pre-war students had been closely associated with Tanaka it seems.  The one name that doesn't come up in association is Koichi Tohei, and Kisshomaru Ueshiba would have started at the same time - without Tanaka's Judo background.


I don't think I feel any better informed as to who Bansen Tanaka was, but Osaka sounds like a very rich budo environment.  I wish I had known as much of the history now as I did when I first travelled there with Kawahara sensei.  There are many questions I wish I could ask him.

Sacred Thoughts

Coming across zero humidity hot dry desert, two days after seeing snow in a land known to have less than 10 inches of rain a year, I was abruptly standing in a sheltered area with permanent water.  The cenote is still of undetermined depth and water source.  Montezuma's Well in Arizona - an oasis named by a bunch of white guys who knew good and well that there was no evidence that Montezuma ever visited the area.

Year round, the water is 74 degrees.  In the 115 degree summer heat, the pool is 74 degrees.  When the area is freezing, the pool is 74 degrees.  Natural warmth during below freezing days, natural cooling during the summer's heat.

There is a cliff of about 40 feet surrounding the water, with many limestone overhangs that let the people coming there build walls and doorways to close the home in.  Agriculture is possible as the pool is constantly putting out a large enough volume of water to fill hand dug canals all around the area.  Many plants of known food value or medicinal value are all growing around the area including walnut trees and prickly pear cactus.

Where the well's outlet comes out, there is a deep shaded area with sycamore trees, including one that is the largest in Arizona.  The pale white and green bark with it's huge canopy less than 30 paces from a virtual moonscape had an other worldly appearance that brought back memories of Cameron's Avatar and the Elven forests of Rivendell.  How could such a tree in such a place not be sacred to someone?  Strikingly beautifully a thousand times taller than most of the nearby vegetation, so out of place while providing such rare welcome shade

Thank you nameless somebody as my camera is not synced with my iPad.

Indeed, the Montezuma's Well National Park service notes the area has religious significance for several tribes and is part of several tribal origin stories.  Not to discount the native religion, but guaranteed temperature control, shelter, food, and water in a desert with some impressively medicinal and nutritive greenery in such an isolated patch alone has many obvious important concrete advantages over the surrounding area.  The area is blessed with an abundance in stark contrast to the surrounding...starkness.

Did religious significance overshadow the reality of arsenic in the water, or that the CO2 count in the water is so high that fish do not live in this water, or that blood sucking leaches are very plentiful?  The people who lived here still left abruptly, with ceremonies still happening on occasion.

Dad and I had been discussing what makes a site sacred, and I came back to thinking about what made a practice sacred - that's what I know several people tell me their Aikido practice is for them.  The Guidelines for Practice say that Aikido should be martially effective, intelligent and strategic, endlessly creative, introspective, and life affirming while improving an individual's body and character.  That's a lot right there!  Many of these areas, I am somewhat comfortable taking and giving criticism on.  I am uncomfortable judging the sacred-ness of practice, or assisting a student to find the sacred.  I have my beliefs, but as a teacher maybe I'm just the guy who sees water in the desert and thinks, "I'm thirsty."

How many techniques are in Taiji?

When I studied Yang, Chen, and Wu/Hao Taiji I was shown forms that would take hours out of my day just to practice.  One long form took 35 minutes at speed, and I was often assured other forms were longer.  The number "108" apparently has some sacred connotation for Buddhism, so I was always told I was learning 108 or 88 movements.  One teacher told me to just do the whole form as one count, and I found this easier than remembering which was movement 73.

When I actually got into Taiji theory, I was told there were only 13 techniques.  Moreover, movements like Single Whip, Cloud Hands, Brush Knee, or Repulse the Monkey were not part of the list of the list of 13 techniques.  While movements did repeat, the most common movements were not representative of the 13.

Except, it is actually a list of 13 ideas.  Eight hand movements, which can also be eight torso movements or eight different ways to issue power; and five ways to move the feet.  The eight trigrams are from the YiJing which has 4019 distinct mathematical relationships when they are spread out into the 64 hexagrams.  Ultimately, this is just an extrapolation of Yin and Yang, but the YiJing is supposed to represent "the 10 000 things" (infinity).

The five elements are used in Chinese acupuncture, feng shui, and other martial arts.  This is not a list of five things, but a framework for interpreting multiple relationships between five different ideas that represent energy flowing cyclically, and eternally between five states.  The two main relationships, the Creation Cycle and the Destruction Cycle are both never ending, infinite cycles.

So, the 13 things are a way of saying Infinity times Infinity.  That's how many techniques Taiji has.  A handful of ideas are used to lead to an enormous number of ideas, much as the alphabet eventually leads to language.

  

Tenkan

        

I remember traveling to a seminar, and being asked in front of the class what Tenkan was.  I reflexively replied "Blending."  I earned a glare; the instructor was looking for "Leading."

While the Tohei lineage does have a solo practice of 180 degrees and the hips bladed to the forward arm, in application there are several variables in play.

The initial shift - the distance and the direction.

Which leg is weighted at the start.

Which leg is weighted at the end.

Do the hips blade or stay neutral.

Sinking, rising, expanding, shrinking, pulsing

In partner practice, these variables get even more messy.  All the variables above mixed with my timing and placement in relation to Uke.  

How deep is the shift, In front/behind/neutral.

Collapsing Uke's strength from the inside, moving to the outer edges of Uke's strength, not affecting Uke's strength at all.

How many degrees, how much of the circle, is the turn.

The main English words I hear to define Tenkan are Neutralize, Join, Lead, Follow, and Blend.  I linked to a thesaurus.  Just as these English words are not the same thing, (lead and follow are even opposites) I have come to think there are different basic Tenkan.

Every moment is a gift

I had a background with mental health and young offenders.  I had been bullied as a kid, and I learned to strike back.  A friend was killed in a robbery at the store where he worked.  Twice people broke into my parents home, and no one was hurt.  Dad had received death threats as a politician, and Sensei helped.  I had a background in violence more than most martial artists I encountered.  I enjoyed teaching combat oriented classes, but knew I had nothing to do with combat in my life.

A sheriff's deputy showed up at our house, asking my wife for me, but offered no insight as to why.  Police showed up at my old job, and a coworker thought I must have some money problems.  A cop eventually reached me to let me know I was "safe."  In the middle of my nursing shift.  Dr K was asking me to get Ativan for one of his patients as this cop on the phone was sounding beside herself with relief, "I'm so glad you are alive!"  Then, told me she couldn't tell me why.  Ongoing investigation.  An interview was scheduled, then cancelled.  I notified my colleagues at work, and went about my life mystified and certain an error had been made.  I went about my life, but it's not every day multiple law enforcement agencies mount a search for you, worried that you're dead.  Our acreage with no visible neighbors usually felt like insulated solitude; now I found myself feeling isolated.  I started to play out scenarios in my mind, and I reached out to several old friends around the world.

A month went by.  After a few requests for information I was referred to another law enforcement agency.  I was told, "You probably don't know these guys, but they had you under surveillance."  And then the name.  I knew them.  I had celebrated weddings and birthdays with them, eaten at their dinner table, slept in their house, drank their beer.  I had good memories of them.  I had lots of pictures but I had lost touch living so far apart.

Time had not been kind.  Drugs and mental illness attacked my old friends and destroyed them.  Hunted, and hunting; desperate and murderously angry they watched our home.  And I never saw them.  They spent days researching me, my jobs, my hobbies, my work, my friends.  And I never knew.  They broke in to our home, stole some stuff.  And I never noticed.

They didn't kill me.  They killed other people instead.  Just a few hours after leaving me alive, and clueless.  What they did to someone else was horrible, cruel, and thorough punishment.  I was briefly aware of the news cycle ramped up for shock value.

I was just left alive randomly, and other people weren't.  Did my friends think of me as a friend still?  Or was I too intimidating?  Did I seem too on guard in my obliviousness?  Or not worth the effort?  

Why the hell was I alive?  Armed to the teeth, my old friends had broken into an isolated home, attacked while people were still in bed and killed all witnesses.  Why them instead of me?  There but for the grace of God...

What did I do wrong?  What did I do right?  What else did I need to do now?  More weapons?  More guns?  More alarms?  More push-ups and chin ups?  Maybe a fence and a dog?  I have been sedate, enraged, grateful to be alive, and riddled with guilt and in shock for being alive.  I have trained until my hands bled, then eaten an entire tiramisu in one sitting.  Unable to respond to violence with violence, "I see your violence, and I raise you violent indigestion..."  I have cried and laughed at myself, and most days I just forget about it because life didn't stop for me or anyone I care for.

I have my training, but I don't know if I had been tested that I would have survived.  Of course, some local K.MMAga suckered in an impressionable student, and his new acquaintances promise to make anyone indestructible.  Some days I shrug, some darker moments I have darker day dreams.  I am certain martial artists who promise the moon are clueless.  I do notice the stupid debates and the crazies online who promise they know what violence is.  As close as I was to being a victim of violence I was completely blind, deaf, and dumb to the threat.  If my old friends had walked up to me, I still wouldn't have seen the threat - they were friends.  Good people died instead of me.

I pray for them.  For the dead, for the living.  For those left behind, and for those who are still being punished.  For my family and friends still here.  For those who shouldn't have died.  I didn't save myself.  I had no say, there was nothing I did right or wrong.  I just went to bed, and someone else randomly never woke up again instead of me.

Every minute of the rest of my life is a gift - from a murderer.  I don't know why.  I probably never will.

The Fifth Guideline: Aikido should be healthy.

         Thank you to Stanley Pranin who gave his permission for me to use this image.

 

"In daily training, begin with basic movements to strengthen the body without overexertion.  Spend the first ten minutes warming up, and there will be no fear of injury, even for old people.  Enjoy yourself in training and strive to comprehend it's true purpose."  Budo

"In daily training, begin with basic movements to strengthen the body without overexertion. Warm up properly, and there will be no fear of injury, even for older people. Enjoy yourself while training and strive to comprehend its true purpose." Best Aikido: The Fundamentals

"Daily practice begins with light movements of the body, gradually increasing in intensity and strength; but there must be no overexertion.  That is why even and elderly person can continue to practice with pleasure and without bodily harm; and why he will obtain the goal of his training."  Aikido

 

When Kisshomaru Doshu expounds on this in Aikido, "The fifth rule is not to contradict nature.  Excessiveness is to be avoided in anything.  Moderation is the key.  No matter how little the excess is, the whole posture and the condition of the body will be unbalanced.  Young, lively students are apt to have the idea that they will not be strong unless they force their power.  This is not true.  Natural practice creates true strength.  For this reason, it was possible for Dr Niki, a man of more than 80 years old, to practice Aikido."

From the 1997 issue of "The Aikido" by Aikido world headquarters in Tokyo.  Volume 34, #4.  (Really, from the walls of the men's change room at our dojo):  "Daily practice should commence with Tai-no-Henka (Turning), and should proceed gradually to stronger techniques without placing undo strain on the body.  Practice should be performed in a joyful manner in which even the most elderly can participate without suffering injury.  In this way, training will enable achievement of the ultimate goal."  

As a long time health care worker, I didn't expect this to be the most difficult of the guidelines for practice to write about.  Is Aikido healthy to practice?  I found great examples of longevity here, here, and here.  Some days I have my doubts.  I have had other teachers say as much.  I know many Aikido people who were injured on the mat.  As Aikido became very codified and fractured after these guidelines were written, any drift from this guideline is not really something to lay at Morihei Ueshiba's feet in my opinion.

Does Aikido promote health?  I have seen more than a few people who are moving stiffly and slowly, or have sustained injuries that are aging them before their time.  My one arm never healed properly from an injury sustained in an Aikido class, and I have seen several students quit following shoulder and neck injuries.

Yoga and Tai Chi are well accepted as complimentary classes in hospitals and clinics; Aikido is not.   Janet Rosen's work with at risk patients teaching them how to safely fall is the closest I have seen to Aikido performing a valuable service to the medical establishment.  She also has a great article on knee health.

Not every Aikido practitioner is automatically a paragon of mental, emotional, and physical health.  Some Aikido can be health promoting, some is probably not.  I like this article by Pat Parker on performance standards.  "Are club members sustaining avoidable injuries?"  Not every dojo where I have trained has this mindset to evaluate their practices, and no dojo I have been to has this explicitly in writing that I am aware of.  At the minimum (in my experience) most dojo pay at least lip service (often more) to machismo instead.  I have met people who sustained significant enough chronic injuries from routine practice that causes me to doubt their remaining martial ability. The majority of instructors I meet aren't trained health professionals (Pat and Janet are), able to evaluate the training in an informed scientific fashion.  I started in a dojo with several health professionals.

I would love to say everyone who ever taught a class was worthy of the level of praise found in this poster - but not even close.  The poster itself is just about money, insulting students who question their fees with the justification being claims of abilities equating to certified medical professionals.  This myth deserves to be seen for the garbage it is.  Anyone claiming to be a dietician or psychologist who isn't is breaking the law.

                               

Warm ups
Stanley Pranin has an excellent video on supplementing warm ups for health, and this article touches on the politics of suggesting it.  I like what he says about Yoga and Aikido.  While I have had teachers decline to lead stretching, another of Mr Pranin's excellent blog entries has photographs of O Sensei stretching.  This an example of O Sensei's warm ups courtesy of Aikido Journal.  (Some of them, I do not do anymore particularly sitting in seiza and laying back).

Kawahara sensei didn't always lead warm ups.  It was expected for a weekend seminar that one of the dojo sempai would be leading warmups before Sensei arrived on the mat.  The head instructor for the dojo would be assisting Kawahara sensei.  Sensei would observe what we taught for warmups, and I always had the sense that I was being tested on my teaching ability and my warm up exercises.  Sensei would walk around the mat and watch how we performed movements like Kokyu Ho and Tai no Tenkan; we needed to have done both before class proceeded.

It was the Summer Camp, or some other major seminar when Sensei ran the warm ups himself.  This was a special time.  He had dozens of exercises that were very powerful supplements to our training.  This is when the "recipes" would come out - "If you want to be good at (some technique or skill), do (Some specific exercise) A.  100x/d for 100 days or, B.  Ten minutes a day for 100 days."  Far from not valuing warmups, he kept the treasures for these times.

Training

Kawahara sensei also made several comments that sounded like something I heard in Yoga classes.  Just as a Yoga class has back bends, forward bends, and twists follow each other, Sensei would often vary the techniques taught.  Kokyu Ho back stretch might be followed by Ikkyo.  Shihonage back fall would be followed by Kaitenage forward rolls.  Sankyo and Kotegaeshi in the same class.  Koshinage was a once a seminar technique.  Hijikime was less frequent; I seem to remember him saying only once a month.  In the old CAF test requirements Ikkyo to Yonkyo, Shihonage, Iriminage, and Kotegaeshi appeared for every test.

 

There was a different pin for each technique. A Nikyo kneeling pin that twisted the arm down and back, for example, might follow a Shihonage pin that lifted the arm up in the opposite motion. This was in part to promote shoulder health. My shoulders miss the variety some days: I have had teachers spend the entire class on Nikyo, and I needed time to heal afterwards. Another school ended nearly all movements with the same standing pin and I remember looking around the room with many senior students having the identical shoulder injury.  I have trained where Nikyo pins are common and Shihonage pins are not done, and shoulder injuries seem more common.

 

Unpopular techniques are trained less often, leaving students less prepared to practice them. A technique that is seldom practiced but needed for a grading results in students attempting marathon sessions of unfamiliar movements in last minute desperation.

 

The downside is that Sensei had a long list of basics, which was daunting for beginners.  I still prefer this approach and I think it leads to a more balanced development.

Following on warm ups exercises, there is also a huge amount written on the importance of cool down stretching - something I saw in most high school sports, karate, and Tae Kwon Do classes, but very, very rarely ever see in an Aikido class.  Many dojo now seem to have a 60 minute class format, and warm up and cool down exercises take up time. Kimeda Sensei in Toronto, when I met him a 60 minute lunch class had only 3 techniques.  Most instructors in my experience seem to try to teach more. This leaves little time for repetition, preliminaries and cool down. 

Basic Technique
By the late 1990's, Morihei Ueshiba had been dead for decades.  The stricter definition of basic techniques in the 1997 version would have come from Kisshomaru Doshu probably, and might have been a little political - the Koichi Tohei Ki Aikido Aiki Taiso; the Tomiki/Shodokan Aikido Tandoku, the Hanasu/Releases, and the Junana kata, the Yoshinkan Kihon of Hiriki no Yosei Ichi and Hiriki no Yosei Ni, Tai no Henko Ichi and Tai no Henko Ni, Sumatsu Doza Ichi and Sumatsu Doza Ni, and many other basic empty hand forms from different teachers were not taught to me as a beginner.  Weapons work is even more disparate, and certainly not uniformly part of the basics of every style of Aikido.

With Koichi Tohei setting the stage for the Aikikai early on with his own exercises and then separating in 1974, the basics some early Western Aikido pioneers learned were then disavowed.  The politics associated with the various practices seems to supersede the health or utility of the practices.  While the Guidelines were written prior to any notable schisms, the 1997 revision specifically defines basics away from other traditional branches.  By 2002 in Best Aikido, the third Doshu has left the concept of basic techniques more open again. Certainly during my brief time in Hombu Dojo there was a very wide variety of techniques.

We are told to start with basics, but the larger Aikido community very much does not agree on a list of the basics.  Some movements and practices carry less risk of injury than others.  Some can be practiced for extended periods with high repetitions with little risk for relatively new students or students who are injured.  Some practices carry relatively high risk for injury.
 
Seiza
We all do ask for seiza, which is not a healthy practice for absolutely everyone at every time.  Nor is the related practice of Shikko, the importance of which is often predicated on the prevalence of Seiza.  It is not a posture that we build our way up to, nor warm up for.  Some articles point out that Seiza is a relatively new practice, and that Seiza is not the only traditional way for Japanese people to sit.  

The lessons to be learned from seiza eventually should transfer to standing and walking - so why not progress to standing?  Marathon seiza sessions are not health promoting whether the issue be venous stasis or joint pressure.  While most Aikido schools meditate in seiza, older meditation systems like Yoga, Taiji, and Qigong will use a variety of positions as well as the use of cushions or benches for extended periods of meditation.  Hours spent in seiza are likely to cause damage, hours spent in the corpse pose carry far less risk.

On a related note, while I had needed to learn a variety of pins for grading, I came across schools that said I had learned less traditional Aikido.  I was told by some teachers that traditional Aikido only did seated pins, with live toes and both knees on the ground.  Not only is this a very one note control game, but a cursory look at Daito Ryu, Yoshinkan, Shodokan/Tomiki, Judo, and really any of the early teachers shows otherwise.  Saying all traditional pins resort to the one position, seiza, simply isn't true.  Older schools contain a wide variety of controls. Kawahara sensei also referenced the Yogic practice method of doing opposite movements.
 
On the other hand, seiza is a good posture for teaching structure and moving with power.  Ukemi from seiza is also less likely to result in an injury when practicing a technique that leads to a more awkward throw.
 
Ukemi
We do all require a variety of falling practices.  While this is the most useful martial skill in my opinion, and it can prevent deaths and injuries, this is also probably the source of many Aikido injuries.  I do think there are many worthwhile skills that can be practiced with no falling, like exercises for kuzushi and control.  It is interesting for me to go over the list of basics from other styles of Aikido - many of these basics are solo practices, and the many do not require the student be able to roll from the very beginning.  Some falls, like falls for Ikkyo or back falls, can be done slowly and cooperatively.  From there, the falls can get more advanced and can carry a higher degree of risk.

In some styles, a falls-free class sounds like cheating, or fake practice.  I have known students who thought it wasn't possible to teach Aikido without falls.  Between weapons, kata, Kokyu Ho, and Aiki Taiso there is a huge curriculum in Aikido that is not completely dependent on the student's ability to fall.

Adapting for challenges
A friend of mine who was a Judo student blew out his one knee prior to an extended trip to the Kodokan.  He was ordered to do newaza or ground work classes by the instructors and not allowed to do any weight bearing throws.  He benefited hugely from his time in Japan.  He did not get marginalized.  He learned a ton of material that made him a far better Judo player.  Is there an obvious shift in the curriculum in Aikido for people with knee injuries?  I usually see people with sore knees made to feel second rate.

I have known several high ranked Aikidoists with undeniable skills, people whose ability I personally had the pleasure and honour of experiencing, who would not be able to do all the requirements for a USAF sixth kyu test.  Two men in particular I trained with had acquired severe back injuries, both in motor vehicle accidents after they became yudansha, leading to chronic pain and restricted activity.  The spinal damage made falling painful and risky to practice for both of them.  Both of them are capable of tight solid control and frighteningly fast power, and they are both good and powerful examples of the of the art and it's benefits.  But, neither could do all the elements on a beginner's test for all that any black belt would find either of them to be a wealth of information and skill.  I find myself critical of the test and not these two accomplished teachers.  These two people had already acquired sufficient rank as to be able to teach, or participate on their own terms before their challenges.  What would happen if they were beginners starting tomorrow?  I am not sure they would be allowed to train. Stanley Pranin theorized that Saito Sensei modified his practices for his own painful challenges (check the comments, not the article this links to).

There is such a thing as Wheelchair Karate, and Wheelchair Tai Chi.  For sheer authenticity and volume of material, there is no beating Ninjaxtx.  Molly Hale is a yondan under Hombu Aikikai and her work on adaptive Aikido and her determination is something inspiring.  When I was asked to bring a woman using a wheel chair into my cancer center Taiji group, I spent hours on the net researching the idea without finding Hale Sensei's name.  (I was doing research not because I had any intention of declining to have a person using a chair, but because I wanted to do well by this new student.  Three years later, I have a 45 minute long all seated class that is more popular than my standing one).  It is still my experience that someone with personal challenges - challenges much less than a chair - are more likely to be turned away at the door of a dojo.  I am so glad that there are more sources of information out there now.  As I spend more time sitting on a chair than sitting in seiza in my daily life, this practice even feeds back into being more martially prepared in everyday life.


I would feel badly if I aged a student before their time and robbed them of a good quality of life.  When am I being unfaithful to the art and to the training?