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Old 01-13-2007, 04:04 AM   #30
Kevin Leavitt
 
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Dojo: Team Combat USA
Location: Olympia, Washington
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 4,376
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Re: Article: The Elusive Aiki by Lynn Seiser

My training over the last 3.5 years has been very interesting. I was discouraged at first because I am at a remote army training area in Germany where we are very busy and it is essentially a martial wasteland for good instruction.

On top of that I had nobody to train with, and the guys that I did have to train with were soldiers and aikido was simply not going to be the thing that floated there boat.

Anyway, I did find a way to train. It required me to be very creative and change some of the ways I did things.

I found the Army Combatives Program, embraced it, sought to understand it instead of fighitng it, as it was so different from what I did study.

I hooked up a BJJ purple belt, and a black belt from Brazil trying to get a school started.

I ran my own program and got a group of guys together on a fairly reqular basis. Some mornings I show up and there is no one there...very lonely and discouraging. That might happen for weeks on end....but I keep showing up. Seems like everytime I get ready to quit, something wonderful happens and we have guys come.

I do travel some what. I usually go out on the internet and find who is in the area that I am going to, and email them and ask to train with them. This has been wonderful! I have met many, many wonderful people doing this!

Yet, I still have yet to train with my friend Chuck Gordon who is an hour up the road from me!

With the Brazilian Black Belt, we basically have to support him like a patron. That is, we fly him over here, we find him a place to stay with some of the students, he stays for a few months, we collect up donations etc, and support him so we can train.

This fall did not go so well, he was flying back to Germany throught the U.S. and got detained for three weeks by immigration because of a computer disconnect on visas. So, he exhausted all the money we gave him, and had to go back to Brazil until this summer.

Anyway, it has been challenging to continue my training over the last 3.5 years. The majority of it, looking at the same smelly training partner that knows you like himself, hating each other because you are just damn tired of rolling and training with that one person!

having to wake up each morning, think about what you are going to work on. Going home at night, surfing the net and Youtube for new ideas and thoughts, of how to do this.

Wondering about if you are improving or are you developing affects because you are training with the same people with little or now feedback from a more experience person.

Feeling like Bill Murray in the movie Stripes...completing training on your own.

You know though, I think I have grown in many ways though. I think there is something to be said for training on your own, and seeking out instruction.

I am looking forward to returning to the states this summer where I will have a steady and consistent dojo filled with lots of people. One where I can show up, not really have to worry about what we are going to do that night. Having an instructor that can guide and assist you in your development, to tell you how you are doing.

That said, I would not trade the last 3.5 years. That and I am definitely taking a different approach to training when I return. One that will consist of me practicing in my "home" (hombo) dojo, but with my perspective focused on a much larger community of practice that consist of several dojos and people that I would have never considered from a traditonal standpoint!

Thanks all for the wonderful thread, and allowing me a place to share my thoughts.
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