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Old 01-30-2006, 06:35 PM   #21
Edwin Neal
Dojo: Ronin
Location: Henderson, North Carolina
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 597
United_States
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Re: Self-defense art?

thanks for your input guys... i don't have a camp yet, just one small tent...
i consider self defense in a relatively broad context i guess... i really like the nononsense site it is big, but he has an analytical style that appeals to me... too many MA think self defense equals fighting... i never have, its just part of it... i served in the navy in my younger days... started aikido on the navy base in yokosuka with Parker shihan of the Yoshinkan... while there i had the opportunity to also train with Terada shihan... lucky me... it was awesome I wanted to do kendo so i went to talk to the sensei and she told me how much armor and stuff cost and that kind of took the wind out of my sails, she then suggested i try the aikido (never heard of it) class until i saved the money... i went to aikido class the next night and never went back to kendo... the first aiki SD moment just involved ukemi what could have been a really nasty fall on ice coverd concrete shocked me when i just fell the aiki way... my next was after i had left japan and was assigned to a submarine in Charleston SC... a shipmate decided to horse around and as i'm walking down the pier he comes up behind me to a rear bearhug... without even thinking it just happened... you know the Ushiro tori undo exercise right into a tai no henka pivot, hand on his wrist to do a nikkyo, he let go and stepped back looking really surprised, but not as surprised as me... turns out he had studied some hapkido so he knew what was happening too... we became good friends and practiced together alot... this was with about a year of practice and not very intense as the navy kind of keeps you busy...
mostly i avoided bad situations as i got into the habit of really being aware of where i was and my surroundings and what was going on, and kind of "projecting ki" that i was ready if someone wanted to cause trouble... which i kind of got from aikido...
that's my moment anyone else wanna share...

Edwin Neal


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