View Single Post
Old 12-12-2010, 08:58 AM   #8
Ketsan
Dojo: Zanshin Kai
Location: Birmingham
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 865
United Kingdom
Offline
Re: Tales and Phantasies of Aikibunny

Quote:
Nicholas Eschenbruch wrote: View Post
Aikibunny is a ubiqitous yet most elusive creature; apparently, he (she?) makes up the large majority of aikido practitioners, yet, when have you last seen one in the flesh, that is, in the fur?

According to many, Aikibunny is a Californian rodent. He smoked too much pot in the 70s, took aikido to Esalen and then downhill from there. (Yet I once got palmsmashed in the throat and koshi-ed into oblivion by one of those Esalen pioneers, no fluffy feeling there...) Aikibunnies seem to have congregated around that Dobson guy, too, yet it would be hard to say why, after all he broke fingers and was a little rough, they say.

According to some, Aikibunny is an obese, passive aggressive intellectual: male, middle- aged. OK, those exist, but then, what is so bunny about them, sounds more like aikiwalrus. According to others, Aikibunny is probably female, emotionally all over the place, the touchy-feely neurotic who screams abuse in the midle of technique. I have only met one in more than fifteen years. Was I lucky?

Where does Aikibunny really exist? Is (s)he only a phantasy?

Is Aikibunny the dance teacher with the flowery aikido who we vaguely suspect will get off with that attractive beginner after the seminar? Is Aikibunny quite sexy in a sort of forbidden way?

Maybe I am Aikibunny myself; after all, I meditate and I do burn incense sometimes; I have not been in a physical fight since the age of fourteen. How tough do I have to be not to be an Aikibunny? Is an occasional nosebleed in my training enough or do I have to be out on the streets arresting people who may carry weapons?

If you used to be tough, but not so much anymore, would that make you an aikibunny or are you immune?

Were there any Aikibunnies before, say, 1970?
Did Aikibunny study with O-Sensei? (After the war, of course...)
Does liking the second doshu make one an Aikibunny?
Are there Shihan-Bunnies? Yoshin-bunnies or Shodo-bunnies?

Does „real aiki" give a whole new dimension to aikibunny? The dark side of the fluff?

Aikibunny's aikido could be improved, that's for sure.
Are we all Aikibunny then?

Aikibunny could be Freudian rabbit.

Do you socialise with Aikibunnies on a regular basis? Do you have a bad conscience about it?

Inviting your stories about Aikibunny, real and imagined....
An Aiki bunny is easy to spot: they thump the mat in alarm. You're cutting down to make ikkyo and just as your knee gets into ukes arm pit there's this "thump thump thump thump." And you look behind and your uke is hopping around like some mad hare-like ballerina with one leg alternating between waving around all over the place and thumping the mat.
  Reply With Quote