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Szczepan Janczuk wrote:
He is taking for uke only his own students - at least at the seminar where I was present.
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Usually he takes his students as uke for demonstrating in front of the class. And even only some specific of his sutdents. But usually he is going around during seminars so that everybody can grab him.
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No explanation, no corrections at all, ...
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True. For most of the people.
He wants you to grab him and to feel him. Not his technique, but his body, his way of moving, the relation and connection between tori and uke. Things like that.
He wants you to watch him. Precisely. To let your eyes catch his way of using his body. That is why he is demonstrating in front of the class only with certain, selcted students. So you can get an image.
Umm, during the seminars I attended, sensei was talking a lot. A whole lot of explanantions! Be it technical, be it spiritual. How to step, to move your foot, e.g.. How to breathe through the soles of your feet, e.g. . How to practice for unifying stillness and motion or to connect to dao, e.g. .
When he was in spain last time, I think he was even lecturing at university? Not sure about that ...
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...only those weird movements.
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Those "weird movements" have a clear methodology. There is a "canon" of excercises how to learn those "weird movements" which he has taught for years. It's only in the last one or two years that he is teaching kata again.
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Vast majority of ppl was completely unfamiliar with his approach, so you can imagine a chaos on the tatami -- everybody did something different with no ressemblancy to presented "thing" (because you can't call it a ‘technique').
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True. It needs time, practice, learning to be able to work on his approach. When I decided to try to follow his way of aikidō, it was as if starting to learn aikidō again.
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What a sad change from 20 years ago when his seminars gave me a fresh taste of full energy and joy. Now it is becoming Watanabe-like BS.
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My direct teacher started to practice with Endō sensei about 25 Years ago. And I know some other students of his who followed him all those years.
This uke - shihan by now - is one of them.
When you ask those teachers about how sensei hast changed over the years, they usually answer, that is much stronger than he used to be back then. But that you don't see it from the outside, and - what's more I think - you don't feel it in your bones. It's just that he is easyly able to move you.
Endō sensei is well aware of the criticism you express - as is Watanabe sensei.
And I think even if he actually doesn't like that attitude, it is acceptable for him that he is challenged sometimes during seminars. When is talking about these situations, he states that it is understandable, regarding his very soft and unspectactular movements.
(Personally I sometimes think, he secretly likes "intelligent" challenges. Students who don't believe blindly but want to be convinced, want to get some evidence. Maybe it reminds him of himself being younger ...)
I've witnessed people challenging him quite a few times. He doesn't get angry. And he does not over-react. It is more that he "establishes clarity". Not by fighting back or something like that. It's more like letting loose - only a little bit, as much as "requested" by uke - was is contained in his way of practice. Not holding back too much the power his way of practice can evolve.
So, when I saw the Demonstration of 1995 which I have linked above, it was not new or different ot me. This same power is still there. But kind of tamed, cultivated. Which also means it hast become much more sharp since then ...
As to the energy ... : Endō sensei tries to practice in a way that calms you down. Your mind/heart. He seeks a way of practice that leads to stillness. So you can experience stillness and motion as one. This practice is full of energy - an full of joy. (And when the tatami is not that crowded also very physical.)
