George S. Ledyard

Mary,
I haven't met you guys... I am not saying no one has it who is doing Aikido. I have not met you nor have I trained with you. I am certainly not saying you guys don't have it. It's quite possible you do. And if you do, it's more than likely you can explain it better than the Japanese teachers I have encountered.

If you guys have the skills I am talking about, then you already know how rare they are in general. There are all sorts of little pockets of great talent out there. My objection is that, often, these folks are not terribly prominent compared to far more famous and influential teachers who are. frankly, not terribly good.

A great example is Tom Read Sensei who has sat in Aracta, CA for decades developing a ridiculously sophisticated Aikido. Hardly anybody knows about him, yet he is as good as anyone I have ever been on the mat with. I am perfectly willing to believe that other folks are out there, just like that.

I know the tone of thee discussions often seems to disparage Aikido. I think Aikido is amazing. I love it, I eat it and sleep it. I have spent my entire adult life pursuing it. I want Aikido to be for everyone, what I experienced from my teacher. I want my own Aikido to be that good. But when I say most of the Aikido I see being done isn't what I want for my Aikido nor do I think that many years of training the way most folks currently train will get them to what I think is high level Aikido. The fact that I think the transmission in Aikido as a whole is broken doesn't at all mean I think that no one out there has great Aikido. It's just that it's fairly rare. And the folks that have IT, as you put it are not necessarily in a position to influence the larger community.

You are right that I am unlikely to come to your dojo to check things out... not because I have the least resistance to the idea, but rather, I have limited time, and limited money, and I have spent that developing a support network for my training. I've always been willing to try out new teachers, regardless of style or affiliation. But there are more people to check out, more teachers who are wonderful, that I'd like to support, than I can possibly do so.

Seriously, Mary, if I had the resources, I'd invite you guys to my dojo and we'd have you do a seminar. My problem is that I have a backlog of wonderful folks I'd like my students to see... That, coupled with the fact that I have tapped into certain people, like Howard Popkin Sensei, whom I have out regularly because he can help me and my students get where I want us to be, leaves me with about one, absolute max, two seminars a year in which I get to support other teachers from outside our existing circle.

The folks I do bring in I usually meet based on word of mouth. Someone tells me that so and so is great and I need to check the out. Although I will, if it's possible, attend a seminar that teacher might be doing, typically the expense is a bit much for traveling and training just on somebody's recommendation, so I try to bring that person in for a seminar. That way the "risk" is shared, so to speak. That's precisely how I got to know Howard Popkin Sensei... my friend started training with him and said he was awesome.

The Aiki Expos helped a lot on making great connections... I met some fabulous Aikido people like Chuck Clark and his son Aaron... I met some amazing folks from outside Aikido, like Toby Threadgill. There was a reason why Stan Pranin invited the particular non-Aikido folks he did. Each one was extremely high level and each had totally ridiculous "aiki" skills, in one form or another.

I can't believe that anyone thinks that any particular teacher, style or art has everything. The IP guys have high level IP but they don't even do Aikido. My only point is that Aikido would be better if the knowledge they have would be more common. If, as you say, you feel you guys have IT, whatever we mean by that, I certainly wouldn't argue with you that you don't, not without seeing you. But if you do have those kinds of skills, you can't be going about thinking they are common skills in our art. If you think that, you aren't getting out enough. On the other hand, if you really have a practice going that is that good, and once again, I am DEFINITELY not saying you don't, I think that you really should get out. Not for your training but to share what you are doing. There simply are not enough folks out there who are capable of taking the art in a better direction than it's been headed.

Many of the folks I know, whom I believe would be capable of making a difference, either don't wish to or don't know how to go about doing so. It doesn't matter if one is the "second coming" in Aikido if no one knows who they are.

In my own case, I have a lot of ideas and strong opinions, I am sure you've noticed... I think I have the ability to effect the art positively in a collective sense, not just on my own dojo level. But to do that, I have to have "access". Ten years ago, I was a not very well known person within my own organization and pretty much unknown outside it. I started using the internet to connect with people. I spent a lot of time writing and posting, responding to other folks writings, etc. Through that, I received an invitation to demo at the first Aiki Expo, which put me on the map with a huge community of folks I would probably never have met.

Through some of those folks I met other folks. I taught at a few places outside my own organization. I started putting some of my stuff on video and selling them on-line. I have now sold these videos all over the world. Most of my video business is repeat business. So not only have the videos generated much neede income but they have made it possible for me to reach out far beyond any range of actual face to face contact I might exepect to make over time.

At some point, and I mean after years and hundreds, if not thousands of hours, contributing to material on the net. After attending years of seminars and camps, working with people of all ranks and from all sorts of different groups. I started to develop a reputation. I am sure not everyone thinks it is a good reputation, but enough do that I teach moire and more seminars every year. I am developing blocks of instruction I offer at my own dojo and also outside my dojo, which are open to and attended by folks from beyond my own organization, even from outside the United States.

Anyway, my point is that, your posts feel a bit like you have some frustration with the fact that Ron, for instance, isn't recognized for having skills that these other teachers from outside Aikido are being recognized for, and you feel he does have them. I totally get that. I am the first one to say that a) American teachers of this art have a hard time establishing themselves compared to the Japanese teachers. b) any teacher who does not have the support of an organization behind him or her is even more likely to languish in obscurity, no matter how great they might be.

I think it is important to remember that five years ago or so. No one in the Aikido community had even heard of Mike Sigman, Dan Harden or Akuzawa. It's taken them a very long time to establish the fat that they have something to offer. Well, it's even harder for any given Aikido teacher to establish himself or herself as a recognized teacher. There are only 4 or 5 people who have the internal skills, are from outside our art, and are going out of their way to share them with the Aikido community. We can leave their various motivations for doing so out of the discussion...

But how many hundreds of just American teachers are there? Very few have the recognition it takes to be professional at it, really only a handful. The rest of the folks do something else to support themselves and use that to support their teaching. For someone not in an organization, lacking that support or the support of a major Shihan putting you forward, it's extremely difficult to get any recognition at all. And without recognition, no one knows you are there. And then, it doesn't matter how good you are, you don't have "access".

The only solution is to use the various tools available to develop that recognition. You guys are participating on the forums... I now know your names when I didn't a couple years ago. I think videos can be great put up on YouTube... just to get folks interested (although that has backfired for some folks when they put stuff up that wasn't very good). But I am taking you at your word that you guys have good stuff... so it's a matter of letting folks know that you do. In the end the real bottom line is getting face time. The Aiki Expos did that for me... I was treated totally differently after that experience, even by my own teacher, than I was before that. I continue to do things like attend the Bridge Seminars Ikeda Sensei is organizing, even when I am not teaching, because they allow me to meet and work wit folks I would not expect to encounter any other way. I train with Aikido folks, I train with non-Aikido folks. Doing this year after year has allowed me to establish myself as a recognized instructor, and that has given me "access' to a large enough community of Aikido folks that I feel I am starting to be able to make a difference. I am now traveling a lot of the time and also finding people coming from all over the world to events I do at my own school.

Anyway, I went on and on about this because I want you to understand that you could very well be correct that Ron has the "juice" so to speak. If so, it is all the more tragic that he isn't better known, that he isn't out there all over the place teaching because there aren't enough folks doing so who really are functioning at a high level. Most of what I see is either the use of movement to avoid an attack or application of a lot of physical power. Neither is "aiki".

It looks to me, based on your website, that Ron and I started Aikido at almost the same time. We both trained with students of the Founder. I have no reason to question you when you state he is very good at what he does. I hope we can meet and train together... you too. We are all serious Aikido people. That gives us more in common than anything we might have with folks from outside the art, no matter how good their "aiki" might be. Personally, I am committed to supporting any American teacher of this art who is trying to accomplish something better. We are not in conflict here about this, at least I don't think so, especially knowing the backgrounds you guys have.