Benefits Of A Diverse Aikido Population

As Yamada Sensei succinctly put it “He been teaching at his own school too long. He’s starting to believe his own sh*t.”

Lol.  I apologize for the almost swear in my blog entry, but this comment was too funny for me to let it pass.  Sensei said this after watching a former student teach who had started his own school and been away from NY Aikikai for a while.  He’s basically saying, in an extremely blunt way, that isolation causes Aikido to deviate from its main base and become stagnant.  Several points of view are necessary for an Aikido school to remain strong.  Isolated Aikido schools or even individual people often develop strange habits and ideas that remind me of defects caused by inbreeding.  To keep your Aikido strong it is good to see other styles and to attend seminars with instructors different from the usual ones at your home dojo. 

The nice thing about NY Aikikai is that different instructors and students from all over the world visit there and train together, which constantly refreshes the dojo and brings in new ideas. Still it is good to go to seminars, even with a wide instructor base.  Seminars tend to give you enthusiasm for Aikido, sort of like how going to Church refreshes people spiritually.

At the moment I don’t have the energy it takes to invest in attenting lots of seminars.  I think once my time here passes I will try to go to a lot of weekend seminars, maybe some from different federations.  It could be exciting.  I just missed the chance to go to a seminar taught by Wee-wow and Lorraine DiAnne because I was busy that weekend.  I hope they have another one sometime.  I’d love to take attend one of their classes.

Published By
Categorized as Aikido

30 comments

  3. I agree, seminars are key. One advantage we have at our dojo is the diverse background of our instructors. Mike Sands is a student of Lorraine DiAnne Sensei, who is a senior student of Chiba Sensei. John Miller is a student of Clyde Takeguchi Sensei. Dee, of course, is a student of Yamada Sensei.

    Of course all of us can be said to be students of Yamada Sensei, directly or indirectly.

  4. “people often develop strange habits and ideas that remind me of defects caused by inbreeding.”

    I hear banjo music…

  6. Nice practice, tonight. Thank you MM and incogneto for helping out Sam and Kevin with their 5th kyu tests. It is greatly appreciated on my end.

    I’m also excited about the demo the UNF students are organizing. Incogneto, have you confirmed all this with MM, DK, Anastasia and Sam? I assume Sensei gave you the go ahead. Keep us up to date. (And take pictures for the newsletter!)

    Lastly, we have a new student lurking around on the login page….

  10. Incogneto told me about the demo for UNF. I’ll be there.

    Sorry I have been out of it for the last week. My uncle passed away and i needed to go to texas. should be back in the game this week.

  15. Hey Jerry,
    I just sent you a message back. School has come hitting me hard. I won’t be able to get away from my school work tonight to make it out. I’ll be around for every class but today’s. 🙁

  17. You know speaking of banjo music, I heard yesterday that Mike Jones’ (ny aikikai dojo manager) great uncle wrote Deliverance. It seems fitting because his relatives all come from Georgia.

    I remember the last demo I did. Me and Patrick loaded some of our older mats on top of his car and held them steady with one hand each and drove from the Arena to the Green.

    There was another demo that was requested specifically by a professor at UNF. Me and Jerry and Dark Knight did that one. There were some other people there that assisted and gave support too. Those were good days. I remember all the fun we had together training and going to seminars on the weekends. Hopefully I can convince Luke that Florida is the best place for an Aikido school and we’ll get to go to more seminars together.

  21. James Dickey was the author of Deliverance. He had a bit part in the movie as the Sheriff that greets the survivors at the end of the movie.

  22. I know who bough the cokes into the dojo. Guess who. I’ll give you a hint, they have been training for the 5th kyu test very devotedly.

  27. Have you asked Dee? I’d be surprised if she lets us use the mats from the dojo….

    edit: Just spoke to Dee. Incogneto, are any 3rd kyu’s attending the demo? If not, I can make myself available. (Normally, we’d have an instructor or senior student there).

    (BTW, you are doing an awesome job at UNF!)

  28. Tonya,

    Blog post idea: “A Letter to Myself, One Week Before NY Aikikai”

    Maybe in the form of a letter, about the things you wish you knew, or some sage advice, or perhaps an encouraging word, from your wiser self?

    “Dear Tonya,
    ….
    Sincerely,
    Tonya Mochocki, 1st kyu”
    😉

  30. Posting from St. Petersburg, FL.

    James Dickey also wrote the screenplay for Deliverance which is probably why the movie was almost as good as the book.

    Lane Smith was my dad’s first cousin. Not sure what that makes me, really.

    Buck

Comments are closed.