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OK, if you were in class for the past two weeks you got a deep understanding to my 5 steps to better Aikido, if you couldn't make it, it's OK, because I'm in the process to writting a book about it.
This week we are focusing on Tenkan. So, let's call it Better Aikido through Tenkan. That's going to be the title to my next book.
Tenkan.......Step in, pivit, Step back all while you are turning.
Three basic movements to my Aikido - Omote, Ura and Tenkan.
I remember in Japan, how often people would ask me, how do you do it? How can I do this technique? Which hand goes where? Where am I supposed to move my feet.
I usually always tried to keep silent and push them by attacking a bit harder.
Today, I find my self having to teach, when all I want to do is learn and become better.
I want to become the best I could ever be.....and the only way to get there is to have honest sincere training partners. People that will push me further and further the same way I would keep quite and push my fellow students a bit harder.
At some point in your training you may reach a point when you say, "Aikido is boring! I don't want to do this anymore."
I've reached that point many times throughout the 16 years I've done Aikido. I've even quit several times; but there is just something about the way I learned Aikido and from whom I learned Aikido that completely changed my life.
For some reason, I keep doing it.
While in Japan, I remember a very good friend of mine, photographer, Mr. Sasaki, once counseled me. When you reach a wall, you have to find a way to climb over that wall. In everything you do, no matter what it is, you will usually hit a wall. That's what separates the quitters from the conquerors.
When you get to that point in Aikido when you start to think it's boring, you've hit a wall. A wall that shows how limited your thinking is. Can you get out of that "box"? Can you climb over or go through that wall? Are you going to make something out of Aikido?
A wall gives us a choice: #1. Do I want to quit? or #2. Am I going to learn something here? It's up to you to make the choice.
Last Thursday ended the 12 day seminar I held for the dojo. It's amazing because the more I do Aikido the more I learn.
I guess it could be very confusing for everyone, because as I learn, my technique changes.
As my technique changes what I did yesterday is no longer what I am doing today. I guess this is the part that makes Aikido very Zen like.
Zen is something you can never grasp. If my students are trying to grasp what I am doing today, and tomorrow I am doing something different, it will be very confusing.
Well, the seminar had a wonderful turn out, and it was amazing how many students stuck with it and came just about everyday.
12 days is pretty demanding, especially since we all have lives outside of the dojo.
Now that the basics are out of the way, we can spend the rest of the year training!
05-07-2008 08:12 PM 