Rocky Izumi

Thanks. George. I understand your point, and it is well taken.

I also so David's point but don't necessarily agree.

By the way, the answer to my questions were no, no, no, and no. I believe that martiality is in the spirit or the practice and not in the intent of practice. A martial spirit is like my Kendo student who came to me with hydrocephalus and spina bifida to an extremen degree so that he could not walk normally. He practiced with a martial spirit so that now you wouldn't know of his "disabilities" and coaches kendo for a girl's school in Okinawa. A martial spirit is like that of my son who practiced his cuts until the skin of his hands all pealed off and only stopped to ask if he was doing it right and have me yell at him to clean up the floor of his blood before some slipped on it. A martial spirit is like one of my students who did his gokkyu test after I immobilized one arm that had just been broken during practice, and passed. A martial spirit is like that of the young girl I watched doing Cha-no-yu serenly for a large public demonstration only to learn that she had broken her foot the day before.

You can take any one of these people and if you attack them you will never defeat them -- kill them maybe -- but not defeat them. That is, to me, martial spirit. And it is training for that martial spirit which makes an art martial. To me, it doesn't matter if the training is Kendo or Aikido or Cha-no-Yu or Ikebana. That is why for the samurai, Bun-Bu-Ryodo, was important. It didn't matter if the training was of the fine arts. If that training was done with a martial spirit, for them, it was still part of their martial training.

I think where George and I ended up getting confused with each other is that in my dojos, I expect nage to initiate all attacks, at least after Nikkyu level. So, for Shomenuchi Ikkyo, Nage initiates by attacking with Shomenuchi and continues (henkawaza) to Ikkyo. The same goes with most of the techniques. This may be an anathema to some of you more polite people but sorry, that is the way my Shihans taught me and expect me to grade anyone in the higher Yudansha levels (Sandan and Yondan). Either nage initiates or it is done as ai-uchi so that nage is not sitting there waiting for an attack. Sometimes the attack is only in spirit and not in body so it may look like uke is attacking first but nage is still initiating so that uke MUST attack or respond in some other way. Rather than waiting to control after uke has started, nage begins before uke can think -- Katsu Haya Hi -- and is still susceptible to attack. If uke is good, they will try and attack before nage. It then becomes a battle of spirits to see whose is stronger. If they are equal, it should end up in ai-uchi.

Granted, it is difficult for mudansha and impossible for shoshinsha to practice this way so, in the beginning, allow them to have the uke attack and nage defend. This is just kata training, not waza training. As you learn and strengthen both your reading of and use of your ki, you can then get into waza training (I think in what Larry Camejo and others call randori practice -- not the way I use the term but sounds okay to me).

What others consider martial training may be different and I am willing to accept that. I also understand that many others would never have nage attack (I've been criticised in my own Federation and own ryu for that but I take my orders from my Shihan, not my federation). It all depends on how you look at Aikido and what you want from it. That is the wonderfulness of having so many different style, instructors, ryus, and whatnot -- requisite variety. You can choose what type of Aikido you want by changing jobs and moving to a place where you can practice the way you want and what you want. Yes, I have heard there are people who have said "I can't move because I have a job and a family here." This is always the problem isn't it? To balance your life and needs? Time to make choices.

Rock