o soto gari

I was practicing this throw the other day and was struck by the thought: "O soto gari is irmi nage."

Kato Sensei demonstrating September 17, 2009-part 1

Is O-Sensei Really the Father of Modern Aikido?

Is O-Sensei Really the Father of Modern Aikido?

by Stanley Pranin

Aikido Journal #109 (Fall/Winter 1996)

"After practicing and researching aikido for a number of years I gradually arrived at a hypothesis that went against conventional wisdom and the testimonies of numerous shihan who claimed to have spent long years studying at the side of aikido founder, Morihei Ueshiba. I had over the years attended numerous seminars given in the USA by Japanese teachers and also made several trips to Japan where I had seen and trained with many of the best known teachers. My theory was simply that aikido as we know it today was not the art practiced and taught by O-Sensei, but rather any one of a number of derivative forms developed by key students who studied under the founder for relatively short periods of time. This would account for the considerable divergency in styles, the relatively small number of techniques taught, and the absence of an Omoto-like religious perspective in the modern forms of the art. This was not meant as a criticism of these “modern” forms of the art, but rather an observation based on historical research that ran contrary to common perception."

http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=34

Bruce Bookman Sensei: Shihonage

Tissier Sensei SFAP 2011

Tissier Sensei uses the sword to breakdown ikkyo at the most recent SFAP

The San Francisco Aikido Project 2011

Here are some additional links of interest:
"Bruce Bookman's response to Stan Pranin's article, 'Virtues of Aikido'"
http://blog.aikidojournal.com/blog/2011/05/17/bruce-bookmans-response-to-stan-pranins-article-virtues-of-aikido/

Video Tissier Sensei at the SF Aikido Project 2007:
Part 1: http://youtu.be/DJgRWtlHXZ0

Part 2: http://youtu.be/S-oYhwgIltA

Part 3: http://youtu.be/KtJv_6-JglI

Frank Doran Sensei on Teaching

Training Notes on Weekend Seminar with Sensei Doran at Mateel Aikido, May 28-29, 2011

This past weekend we had a very intimate seminar with Frank Doran Sensei at Mateel Aikido in Briceland, Ca. There were only 20-25 people on the mat, which allowed for a great deal of individualized attention, including a chance for me to sit down with Doran Sensei and ask him about his approach to teaching.

I asked Doran Sensei about the challenge of being a good uke, and about how much resistance is appropriate. I acknowledged that my tendency is to be overly cooperative or “collusive” in taking ukemi. I expected him to offer some general advice on the importance of a  “sincere attack” and the value of staying with the technique long enough for nage to get a true experience of kuzushi. (A brief essay that I once wrote “On Kuzushi” promted this question. At some point I hope to edit and post that essay as well.)  

However, rather than emphasizing those points, Doran Sensei emphasized the opposite. He acknowledged that as uke, you want to avoid offering a “condescending attack.” But he was much more worried about his students “fighting and wrestling” with each other on the mat.  He told me that Tohei Sensei (from whom he received shodan, nidan, and sandan) always emphasized giving “positive resistance,” and never giving “negative resistance.” By this Tohei Sensei meant, only resistance that is designed to help your partner advance in their understanding. The object is never to reverse, defeat, or otherwise demonstrate the inferiority of your partners’ technique.

He compared the uke-nage relationship to that of “two parts of one machine” – the gears aren’t grinding or colliding, they’re humming together. He also drew another analogy to two actors in a play. He said that when he calls on me to take ukemi, it is because he wants to express something through my body. If I want to help him get his point across, I need to work with him and not against him. My role is not to resist or sabotage his technique, but rather to “play my part and read my lines.” If he goes out there and starts reading his lines from Shakespeare, and I respond with lines from some other play, or simply improvise, the demonstration won’t make any sense for the people who are watching and trying to learn something.

He compared this situation to that of two people going to the gym. One has been working out for years and can bench press 300 pounds, the other brand new and can barely get up 100. It does no good to put 300 pounds on the bar and ask the beginner to lift. The beginner will simply be crushed. He will not learn anything, and will not come back to the gym. True honesty is perceiving what your partner can do, and then helping them to accomplish that. Of course to be a good uke this sense, you have to be willing to forgo an ego contest – the part of your self that wants to say: "I can do 300, and you can only do 100. I’m stronger than you are."

Doran Sensei also related this point about the uke-nage relationship to a larger point about teaching in general. And again he emphasized what Tohei Sensei taught him about “positive ki.” He said that Tohei Sensei was a master at always offering positive reinforcement to his students. Tohei Sensei would never say, “No, that’s wrong.” Tohei would say, “Very good, now try this.” At one point Doran Sensei asked Tohei Sensei why he was always complementing his students’ technique: “What if they make a mistake, or are doing something wrong, shouldn’t you be honest and tell them?” To this Tohei Sensei responded with something to the effect of “honesty is not crushing your partner just because you can.” Honesty is about seeing what you need to do to help your partner advance in their understanding and development, and then doing it.

If you start with a criticism, then that is all the student will hear is: “I did it wrong, I’m no good.” That will then bring up a whole complex of emotions surrounding one’s self-esteem and relationship to authority.  The student will then be so mired in that complex that they will not be open whatever else the teacher has to say. However, by using positive reinforcement, the teacher creates an opening, or invitation in the student; the student becomes receptive to the teaching.

Related to this point about how to cultivate receptivity in one’s partner, Doran Sensei emphasized the value of non-verbal communication. He explained that verbal correction tends to generate a kind of subtle resistance that can be avoided by simply using your body to non-verbally express what you have to say. He said that this was particularly true when you are a student in someone else’s class. “There is only one sensei on the mat at a time,” he said. If one student starts offering verbal correction to another in the middle of a class, it sets up a counter-productive training dynamic. Not only are the two students “discussing” the technique when they should be training (and therefore getting fewer reps), but they are also creating an invitation for a contest of wills and a contest of egos… Doran Sensei said that when he bows into someone else’s class, he never offers verbal correction of any kind. If he sees something in his partners’ waza that can be improved upon, he simply performs that part of the technique very slowly and deliberately and leaves it to his partner to find the lesson. When it is his turn to take the ukemi, Doran Sensei simply moves his body in such as was as to illustrate how the technique is supposed to work. Again, the onus is on the junior student to find the lesson.

Of course Doran Sensei said many things. If I were a better student I would be able to recount more of them, and I would be able to recount them more accurately. Nothing in the above should be regarded as a “direct quote,” they are all simply my fallible memories – conditioned my own subjective perceptions. But alas, these are the points that I take away from a wonderful weekend with a truly great teacher.    They are of tremendous value to me, and I hope that they are to others as well.

More pictures from the weekend can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150209692072351.339308.729847350&l=0ecb8a7b19