George S. Ledyard

I have met and trained with a number of very high level people who were trained very strictly. In a number of cases they felt that the training they had been put through was too hard and they have chosen not to duplicate that training with their own students. I have noted however that none of these teachers has turned out any students who are as good as they are or look as if they will get there.
Can there be a relationship?

O-Sensei was very strict and very hard. He would sit in his office and he could tell by the sound of the class whether they were training hard enough. He would come out and scold them if they were slacking. The Japanese perspective on what is abusive is somewhat different than ours. But even by our term of reference I would differentiate between what is merely severe and what is injurious.

When I first got my guitar when I was a kid I played until my fingers were bloody and then I kept on playing. It was painful but I wanted to play. It didn't hurt me to have done that as it didn't hurt Saito Sensei and his fellow students to train until their knees were bloody.

Most people do not have the slightest idea of what their true limits are. they give up well before they need to. Outward Bound training was started for just that reason by a merchant seaman that had seen many of his fellows drown after their ship had been torpedoed. Some gave up and died and some didn't give up and survived.

What is the point of your training? If you are doing Aikido as a social pastime or as a fun source of exercise then of course you find these things far too extreme. But the Founder of Aikido and the students whom you are discussing did this art as Budo. Budo is a matter of life and death. It is serious bsuiness and hard training is a part of that preparation.

I have done a two hour class with Ikeda sensei in which I didn't do a throw. His turn to throw, I fall down; my turn to throw, I fall down. I was never injured nor was I humiliated in any way but I was pushed past my limits and was embarrased that I didn't hold up better. Told me a lot about myself.

Saotome Sensei once said "Some of you were asking for HARD TRAINING so we'll do some really hard training." Whereupon he had everyone stand in Seigan no Kamae for 35 minutes. Never did anything on the mat that hurt that much. Once again, no injury or humiliation but you find out how easy it is to give in.


People make excuses for not training as hard as they might by saying that it is macho or doesn't represent peace and love. They have to belittle the training of the people who did train that way so that they can feel ok about the way in which they have trained. The fact is that many Aikido people are weak. They are physically weak and they are weak in spirit. Hard training is intended to develop the strong spirit that is required for real Budo. With that strong spirit one might choose to emulate the Freedom Riders who endured beatings without lifting a hand in defense or Gandhi's followers who did the same. People equate severity with violence and that is not necessarily true.

That said it should also be clear that hard traiing alone simply makes one tough. Mere toughness just means you are a thug. So it is important to have other elements in the training as well. But don't belittle hard training. Every one of the great Aikido teachers that we strive to emulate went through very severe training and we should consider that there may be so e relationship between that and the depth of the knowledge and skill that they developed.