graham christian

Ah Alberto. I see your still trying.

This past Wednesday evening I had a new student, a young (to me anyway) polish guy who works for a friend of mine. He's full of energy and what he can do and has done. In the past I have told him I only practice the art of no fighting as he always wants to fight so I tell him he needs something else.

However, I finally let him come to a class.

I showed the class what to do and told them I would be taking the new guy for I knew he would be 'trouble'

You should have seen the other students faces when he walked in, complete with gum shield. I asked him what that was for and he said 'we fighting no?'

As it was a test lesson for him I told him I would run through some basics with him and give him an idea what Aikido was about but meanwhile he could try different things against me.

He said he was a good boxer and knife fighter and I could see he couldn't wait for the opportunity to show me. By the things he tried I found he had some experience in groundwork which he said was brazillian ju jutsu, some flashy way of attacking with a jo, a real mixed bag.

The point is he was unpredictable, tried many things including kicks and staff verses sword and I even gave him a tanto as he asked if he could try using a plastic bottle so he didn't hurt me.

Suffice to say he didn't learn much Aikido yet he did learn what Aikido was. (and indeed what it wasn't) He ended up quite happy yet a bit bemused. He hadn't a clue how I did what I did and ended up telling me I'm a great fighter. Alas, I am not. I am a good no fighter.

He also concluded that he wanted to learn this 'Aikido' because it seemed to operate from different rules and yet for him he said it could be the perfect self defence and then he could use what else he knew for attack. Ah well, then it wasn't a waste of time then.

Now here's the thing. When training is done like this, like that guy, the person learns no Aikido. He learned the effect of it only. As a teacher I found the lesson boring. As a challenge I found it interesting.

You see there are no short cuts to learning how to deal with such 'real' opponents and trying to do so without enough training is indeed trying to take a short cut and thus you fail.

Regards.G.