"Battered Briton Survives Aikido Ordeal"

Posted 2010-04-28 20:56:21 by Bernard Kwan
News URL: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0100427zg.html

This article entitled "Battered Briton Survives Aikido Ordeal" highlights Andrew Carter who went through the Yoshinkan senshusei program in Tokyo, Japan.

From the article: The Senshusei course is famous - some might say infamous - for the severity of the training. Injury is not just possible, it's seemingly inevitable. The first training session of the course, says Carter, was "interesting." "It was an hour of nonstop, difficult exercises. Out of 10 of us, one guy's legs gave out and he collapsed. I collided with another guy and he went to hospital with a cut to his head; I got a black eye out of that clash. One guy's nose started bleeding due to too many press-ups."

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Great article.

Onegaishimasu. This is silly macho posturing. Reminds me of the book: "angry white pajamas".... This definitely not the vision of the whole world as one family aikido of Morihei Ueshiba O' Sensei.

In gassho,

Mark

Sorry I disagree Mark. That course is also an express course used by Tokyo Riot Police. If I'm not mistaken, completion of that course entitles them to a black belt in Aikido.

Whatever it may be to foreigners joining in, there is no posturing or 'macho' posturing as you put it for the guys and gals in the police force. They do this because they use it day in day out in their daily job. They can't wait 5 years to get a semblance of aikido preparedness before hitting the streets.

Ahmad of course you are right - there is a difference between Japanese police officers who need to be confident in a confrontation (and it is very rare for a gun to be drawn or used in Japan) and the kind of experience Mark is talking about. By the way the funny part is at the end of the article when the 'battered Briton' Andrew Carter says, "I will take the course again..."

Have you read Angry White Pyjamas? There is an unpleasant macho ethos running through it kind of like a memoir of joining the foreign legion. One episode I remember from it is a teacher deliberately and sadistically causing an injury. That's related to Mark's comment but it goes beyond macho posturing to bullying. Maybe deliberately causing injury has been talked about in other threads. It isn't confined to Yoshinkan. I know of teachers or instructors who have deliberately hurt an uke also at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo and at the Tendokan in Tokyo. In aikido there is a phase of the technique where you are in the hands of the tori and really you need to be able to trust the person doing the technique to stop when you signal maitta. Perhaps we're on to the theme of ukemi.

I liked the comments on shugyo - something Twigger didn't seem to catch on to from my recollections of AWP.

I did manage to flip through that book a long time ago at the local bookstore. Didn't care to buy it from what I've read.

Niall, I've been put in a similar position from a senior Student of Nishio sensei myself (not that I see his practice as being remotely similar to Nishio sensei at all). Injuring a willing uke is not classy at all not to mention painful and irritating when you carry the hurt for months at end. Sometimes though, you carry those injuries for life. Case in point, how many famous shihan's have attributed their bad knees and back from taking too many 'vigorous' ukemis back when they were young?

Although, I've been told time and time again, good uke's can keep from being injured if they train correctly. I believe I haven't reached that level yet. My sensei always said, good aikido practice will strengthen you not destroy you. Someone also said, you don't learn to drive by crashing through walls.