Peter Goldsbury

On the very few occasions when I have used aikido outside the dojo, on reflecting what happened afterwards I saw that I entered deeply and used a sharp atemi at the throat or face, rather like irimi nage without the taisabaki. The attackers were on the floor before they realised what had happened--and I did not stay around to discuss matters.

I really do not think that the Friendship demonstration at the Aiki Expo was a 'life or death' situation. There was a huge mat area and all the ukes I saw in the aikido demonstrations were doing their best to cooperate with nage. You know, good 'clean' attacks, so that nage could demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques. My own ukes were no exception.

Why do I think this? Well, on my way home from Las Vegas, I sat in airplanes for several hours and on the longest stetch (Los Angeles - Tokyo) my seat was the aisle seat on the first row upstairs, directly facing the captain's compartment. This would have been a crucial spot for dealing with any hijacker and I had ten hours of leisure to consider 'life or death' randori in a confined space.

I really have no idea what I would have done had the plane been hijacked, but I think I would have tried very hard to throw any hijacker backwards down the staircase. And this could be done in the space available only by entering and very hard atemi.

In aikido, I think ta-ninzu-gake against four attackers is most difficult (left, right, front, rear). If you have more than four, they get into each other's way. My instinct, probably based on experience, is to enter continuously and bisect large circles, and to try to throw one uke directly in the path of the other(s).

I was once counselled by an eminent aikido shihan that when confronted by a determined attacker with a knife, the best course would be to run, but on a plane, this would be impossible.

Best regards to all,