Before Zen crossed the shores into Japan, the students of the Tendai school would study meditation, as part of their daily practice. Four of them, close friends all, promised one another to observe seven days of silence.
On the first day, no words were spoken, and the students took pleasure in their auspicious beginning. When night came however, the oil lamps grew dim, and the room slowly darkened.
One student, named Hoshin, called out to a servant: "Servant! Attend to the lamps, so that I might better observe our accomplishment!"
The second student was surprised to hear Hoshin speak. "We are supposed to keep quiet," he chided.
"But you also spoke!" declared the third. "You are an idiot!"
"I am the only one who has not talked," concluded the fourth, as he settled into seiza.
I spent the morning reading Debra Crampton’s blog, Riding Between Heaven & Earth. For those who may not know, Crampton Sensei is an Aikido 5th dan and instructor at New York Aikikai.
The blog is a great read; what particularly drew my attention, however, was this post: the weaker sex.
Don’t mess with Miss Whitley.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Conversation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
if i could possibly get a copy of the test on a dvd i would appreciate it. my cam had some malfunctions
I’ll ask Dee.
So far, Dee, myself, Lyndon and Anastasia are going to Lane Sensei’s Christmas seminar. If anyone else is interested, let me know.
What did you think of Miss Whitley and the Bandit?
She’s doing it in heels… don’t think I could do that.
that was hot…
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!
The video is interesting. The first technique is ude-kiminage, without the cut to uke’s center. I’d classify it as jujutsu, rather than Aikido. (Miss Whitley doesn’t maintain hanmi, for example.) Seems effective, though.
Mike and Dee sometimes teach the sacrifice throw. I can’t remember the technique’s name….
Check out these videos, also from Crampton Sensei’s blog: Endo Sensei and Yamada Sensei.
Awesome.
do aikido people really have to maintain hanmi to be performing aikido? i think i’m re-opening a semantics argument.
Technically, I think so, although some instructors teach otherwise. Remember, Aikido is based on / influenced by the sword, and hanmi is fundamentally a sword stance. In Yoshinkan, IIRC, this is even more evident, as their training stance (kamae) is with raised hands, like holding a bokken.
Our techniques involve a cut / strike to uke’s center, generally by moving perpendicular to uke’s stance during the throw. This was missing in Miss Whitley’s technique.
Look at the video of Yamada Sensei. Notice how he moves at angles to Donovan?
I’ve heard those throws sometimes referred to as suicide throws.
In Aikido, the power of the techniques comes from the hips and the feet, so if you are breaking hanmi you are taking power away from the technique. It would be like punching while jumping up and down on one leg. You can do sloppy Aikido without hanmi, but why?
from where i come from…they are called suicide takedowns…
instead of throwing, we did (if master called for it) a roll over on top of the opponent and thereby in position for a killing blow…
**pauses to think** Sacrifice throw. Sutemi.
Just saw Aladdin (again). What a great movie.
Worth noting that Kanai Sensei performed technique with both feet pointed forward. I’ve been told that this was due to his Iaido background.
