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Old 11-29-2013, 10:46 AM   #15
Ellis Amdur
 
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Join Date: May 2003
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Re: It Aint Necessarily So: Rendez-vous with Adventure by Ellis Amdur

Scott - thanks for the reference. It is always funny when Tohei or Ueshiba are described as small and frail.
BTW - this calls for a Terry Dobson story. I'd tell it in his voice:
Quote:
For a couple years, I was Tohei's guy. He actually offered to 'give' me America. I had only been studying a couple of years, but he said that I should go home and he'd make me the head of American aikido. I told him I didn't think I was ready. . . or maybe I thought America wasn't ready (heh heh). Anyway, there was this one time, Tohei took me along to a presentation he was giving to some ladies society--I don't know, flower arranging or something. So there I was, and Tohei, he had a little spiel.
"With the power of ki, I am undefeatable. Even a giant foreigner like this one is helpless against the power of ki. Stand up. Stand up. Shomen-uchi! Don't hold back. Nothing you could do could harm me."
And I was thinking, "You are my teacher, and I love you more than anyone but O-sensei, and I know you are invincible, and I won't hold back" and I came charging off the floor and I hit him right between the eyes. He stiffened like a poleaxed steer and fell over. Out. Eyes rolled back in his head.
I was just standing there, wringing my hands, thinking, "I just killed my teacher." and the ladies were all whispering and staring at me. I think he was out for thirty seconds.
Then he woke up, got to his feet, and he yells, "You idiot. Don't you know anything? You did it wrong. Hit me again!." So I tried, and this time, he threw me some way or other. Tohei was great that way. Just acted like nothing happened at all.

Last edited by Ellis Amdur : 11-29-2013 at 10:48 AM.

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