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Old 08-13-2007, 10:29 AM   #32
Ellis Amdur
 
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Location: Seattle
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 934
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Re: my sensei "video clip"

http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=178

Quote:
Hard training in those days meant blood, sweat, and tears, and I am rather ashamed to admit, included doing your best to slam the other fellow into the mat. If uke's head hit the mat in shihonage, that was a good, hard technique! I learned this from Day One, when I first applied to be accepted as an uchideshi.

Shioda Sensei asked me whether I could take ukemi, and I made the silly mistake of saying I could, based on a relatively low rank in judo at the time but no experience of aikido whatsoever. While Kancho watched, I was then told to grip the wrist of Takashi Kushida who, with Kyoichi Inoue, were the other two live-in students in the dojo at that time. Kushida slammed me down with shihonage and my head hit the mat with a thud. This process was repeated many times and each time I got up I was flung down again, until I ended up crawling around the mat, not quite sure who or where I was. I was concussed and had a headache for some days afterwards, but apparently I had passed the "entrance examination" and was allowed to enter the dojo.

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