Blog Feed: AikiThoughts

Trust Your Training

Published on 2011-10-18 18:56:51

(Reprinted from www.everettaikido.com) It seems that every month or so, I get asked about whether aikido is “effective” as a martial art. I don’t particular care for this question, because you can define “effective” in so many ways. Effective on the street? Effective on the field of battle? Effective in a school? Effective because anyone [...] > read more

Aikido and Sample Code

Published on 2011-05-04 17:04:33

The other night, I decided it was time to work on tsuki kotegaeshi again. This is not an uncommon thought that runs through my head when I’m teaching. In Kokikai Aikido, we have four techniques that are part of the first test a student might take: > read more

Acknowledge

Published on 2011-04-05 09:33:26

Those who have read my blog for a while know that, for the past several years, I have been trying to find ways to improve my level of physical fitness. While there may be many who think it strange, even insulting, to think of a martial arts instructo > read more

When it’s time to move on

Published on 2011-02-11 19:00:53

Before you begin reading: This is, probably, a terrible post to write after such a long absence from this blog. So allow me, if you will, a moment to say that I am still here, and I still deeply enjoy my aikido training and my dojo. My absence has ha > read more

Day 10: Fight!

Published on 2010-09-07 10:55:09

An unexpected bonus today on the mat: not one, not two, but three guest instructors arrived on the mat! The first two were not unusual. Greg and Shari are two instructors who live in Yakima, WA. They are great folks, and deeply knowledgeable about ai > read more

Day 9: An Old Friend Returns

Published on 2010-08-20 09:26:46

Earlier in the day, I got an instant message from one of my friends/instructors: B: You teaching tonight? Me: Yup. That’s the plan. B: You might have a visitor. Me: New student? B: No. Some guy. I think he used to train with us.  Stopped by lo > read more

Day 8: Don’t get hit in the face

Published on 2010-08-11 10:54:21

Don’t get hit in the face. One would think that this is a pretty basic, intuitive idea. One would think you don’t have to train in a martial art to realize that getting hit in the face is a bad idea. One would think this, but one would be > read more

Day 7: Warm Ups

Published on 2010-08-07 09:45:50

Warm ups in Kokikai Aikido have two phases: general warm-ups and ki exercises. I’ll get to ki exercises some other time–it’s a broad topic that just about any Kokikai practitioner has thought through any number of times. Today IR > read more

Day 6

Published on 2010-08-05 09:39:10

(Apologies to earlier readers–wordpress and I were not getting along when I tried to publish this initially.) Today we had a prospective student get on the mat. She’s a student, and was very upfront when she arrived with her friend (who i > read more

The Invisible Role Model

Published on 2010-08-03 10:22:18

When I train in aikido, I rarely get a chance to be with my peers. This is the downside of being an instructor; you spend more of your time teaching than you do training. Compounding my role is the fact that there are only a handful of dojos that stu > read more

Day 5

Published on 2010-07-31 18:34:23

Several months ago, I had the honor of training with Sensei in a small seminar in Hanover, PA… (Let me take a quick aside here. As a long-time resident of the West Coast, and of the Northwest in particular, I was a little surprised at just how > read more

Day 4

Published on 2010-07-31 12:10:47

Tonight, one of my students asked us to work on kata-tori ikkyo tenkan. This technique brings back a lot of memories for me. When I first started teaching on my own, one of my students was a police officer. One evening, we worked on kata-tori ikkyo t > read more

Day 3

Published on 2010-07-29 03:13:08

Resistance with purpose. Sometimes, it takes me a few days to finally articulate what I’ve been thinking about. For the past few days, we’ve been working on how to resist, when to resist, and the consequences of resisting. For many studen > read more

Day 2

Published on 2010-07-27 13:33:49

On the way into the dojo from home, I saw one of those electronic signs that businesses use that display the time and other information. The relevant information this time around was the temperature: 91 degrees. For the Greater Seattle area, 91 degre > read more