Article on Lia Suzuki Sensei

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Posted 2006-02-03 09:07:54 by Jun Akiyama
News URL: http://www.independent.com/living/living003.htm

Here's an Aikido Kenkyukai International Santa Barbara ("]article on Lia Suzuki sensei[/url] of [url="http://www.akisb.com/). "Santa Barbaran Lia Suzuki has studied the martial art of aikido for 24 years. She trained under a renowned master while living in Japan from 1987 to 1996, excelled, and returned to the United States." She says in the article, "We don’t strive for that perfect punch or perfect kick. Instead we focus on the opposite side of the equation -- when to turn, when to move, the timing of the move in order to dissipate the conflict. Other martial arts claim to be self-defense-oriented, but a defensive move is still followed by an offensive attack.'"

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[SteveTrinkle]

Whoops - I'm a student of Lia Sensei and we wanted to note that the article in the Santa Barbara paper contained a mistake - Lia Sensei is still 5th dan, not 6th dan yet.

Hoping that confusion was avoided,
Steve Trinkle

Aikido Kenkyukai International, Pennsylvania Dojo

[liasuzuki]

Hello AikiWeb readers.

I wanted to make some corrections to an article which was inaccurate. I apologize for the mistakes. My busy schedule that week, combined with the interviewer's distance from me (about 300 miles), necessitated that the interview (for a local paper here in Santa Barbara) be conducted over the phone - my cel phone! - while I was driving down the freeway. This combined with the fact that the interviewer was a non-Aikidoka, challenged our communication.

I'm a bit embarrassed by the over-the-top "most talented in the nation" and such, although I'd imagine it'll help to promote the dojo locally to prospective students. As many of us have learned, there's a point in our training where we actually seem to LOSE confidence perhaps because we get good enough to see more and more where we leave ourselves open.

What really got my attention however, was the mistaken dan and also the paragraph about testing. Again, I apologize for this. I'm still 5th dan (I guess "fifth" can sound like "sixth" on a cell phone in a car with the windows open) and I realize that other teachers can test without a Japanese officiating.

When I first saw the article on Sunday, I called the author right away. I followed that with a call to the newspaper Monday morning. They assured me that the corrections would be made. So when it does go to press (probably this Thursday), it will appear differently from how it did on AikiWeb. By the way, I was amazed that Jun found it before it had gone to press and before I had read it. Lucky for me that he did, so I could get things fixed.

Thank you.

Lia Suzuki
Aikido Kenkyukai International
Santa Barbara Dojo

[Ron Tisdale]

Hello Lia Sensei,

Good to see you posting,
no press is bad press,
and

Best Regards,
Ron