Aikido is unique among martial arts in that it teaches calmness and creativity in the midst of aggression .... compassion and non-violent responses towards violence .... and resolution of conflicts without harming others.
Miles Kessler
Miles Kessler
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This "Story of Two Brothers" was meant to teach Japanese children about the responsibilities of the senior son to inherit the family wealth and support the parents for life. It's an interesting story of a kind of prodigal older brother who wastes his inheritance, but is sort of adopted by a wealthy woman, who allows him to stay at her home for free and learn more about himself. He shapes up and goes home, but the story has a magical twist in the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO_XUlZ-VTI 15th story needed some more editing of the map portion. This story is about wrestling in Japan in the early 1600's. Every year there was a Sumo wrestling contest that was attended by the Shogun, the military ruler of Japan. This one noble's wrestlers always lost, but one year, a number of wrestlers showed up from his province and won everything. It's another interesting story that they couldn't explain, so it goes back to the deities. I also show on the map and explain about the Tokaido highway and show where some of the places mentioned in the story are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzVmLu83dIk The 16th story is about the legendary competition between the thunderbolts. An excited young thunderbolt makes a mistake and gets trapped in the well of a temple. The thunderbolt pleads with the bonze to free him, but before the bonze will free the thunderbolt, he has to make a promise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz7b05Tc3_Q I'm not just putting up stories for the kids. I have also been making videos of the basics of Iaido. This is the Blocking (parrying) Draw. This sword draw is used for blocking and parrying a downward cut coming at you. The sword is turned outward when it is drawn and is turning back towards you as it rises. So when it gets up to the blocking position it is greeting the down swinging blade with the back of your blade. A number of people explained to me that when the draw was straight up, the blade would catch and cut the cheek. So they learned to turn the blade outward first and miss the face before the blade was turned back enough to block with. The controlling movement of your right hand on the handle (tsuka) of the sword, is the same condition of the controlling hand of a Shihonage throw in the Nishio Style Aikido. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XCG3mheTYo The 14th Story is titled The Challenge. This story is about two sculptors who made very realistic carvings. Seishichi made very realistic carvings of living beings. Heishiro did carvings of flowers and plants that were similarly realistic. Seishichi suggested that they have a contest that would be judged by the towns people. Heishiro's carving was a beautiful flower. Seishichi's carving was rather revolting, but it caused a reaction by another animal. It's an interesting twisting story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBBCWyB6eDo The 12th video is called The Dream. This story is about a carpenter who leaves his village on the western side of the main island, Honshu, to go to Edo (Tokyo before it became Tokyo) to find work. His wife expects him to be faithful to her. After a year or so another man from the village comes back from Edo and she suspects from inquiring about her husband that he is being unfaithful to her. She has a dream in which she sees two foxes playing. She chases down the male fox and it turns into her husband. I use the map again to show the area where the story is based. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q1EJegr5iQ This video refers to early Christianity in southern Japan on an island near Kyushu, the southern main island of Japan. The farmer and his wife are afraid of the authorities if they don't tell them the truth. They know which way the Christians went and tell the truth to the people looking for the Christians but when the buckwheat field changes and the visual appearance can't possibly fit the truth, the authorities don't believe them and go to check a different road. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1puW_EDaNk I uploaded this video last week, but didn't update the website or facebook. Mano Choja is about a princess from really ancient Japan when the capital was Nara. This was even before Kyoto had become the capital. The princess was plagued by a skin disease of ugly black splotches. An oracle at one of the temples told her to go to a far away province and marry a mountain man and she would be cured and have a happy rich life. When the princess finds the man she is to marry, he is so remote, he doesn't even know what money or gold is. But he knows where to find it once he does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxuqTVrMNHM&t=218s It's been a few days since the last video. I decided to add some comments at the end because there have been so many stories with religious connotations. I don't push any religion in the dojo. It's more a matter of accept the religions that families have. Religion usually doesn't come up in classes. Here is the url for the latest video entitled The Fated Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7hnNBdMPUw 4/1/20 A seventh video has been uploaded. The Crabs of Kanimanji Temple. This is another story about magical animals in Japan. This involves a snake that turns itself into a man to try and take the daughter of an old farmer as his wife. It doesn't workout so well for the snake-man, then even worse when the snake changes to a giant boa constrictor to try and crush the shelter she is in. This is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ye8ACWKVNg 3/31/20 The sixth video, The Gambler and the Goblin has been uploaded. This is about an unlucky gambler who meets a goblin who exchanges something magical for the gambler's dice. At first he thinks he will be lucky, but then the goblin may have reversed his luck. I also teach something about maps. The url is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaiuNIrtnj0 3/30/30 I just uploaded the fifth video, Icheimon the Fisherman. This man likes to drink when he fishes. He gets drunk and a water imp finishes his bottle of sake. When Icheimon catches him in his boat, the water imp offers to repay Icheimon somehow. In Japanese, almost always, all the vowels are sounded out. Sometimes they may be slurred together a bit, but over 90% of the time you pronounce all the vowels in the words. So listen to how I say Icheimon. Here is the url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut0KiTVnAvo&t=317s 3/29/20 The Old Man and the Fox was uploaded yesterday, but it was late and I didn't have a chance to post it. Foxes were considered magical in old Japan. This story as about one of the magical foxes. This is the url for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AfMxwRQmc4 I also uploaded the fourth video which is The Cherry Tree of Ankokuji Temple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKb0fUdxc1Q 3/27/20 I uploaded this video this morning, Zen & the Bonze or The Zen Dialogue as in the book. The author probably used a big dictionary for translating and there are lots of words kids won't know yet, so I interpret them to simpler words as a read. I also showed the map which is what I do while I'm reading to the kids. So just cause I'm teaching Aikido, it isn't just Aikido I'm teaching. Here's the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WEI58vYUsc. Since I can't teach, I'm working on the dojo and making some videos of Japanese stories that I will be reading to the kids during cooling down in front of the fan breaks during the hot weather. Here is the first one uploaded 3/25/20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsogv3uoBwQ I'm doing these so kids can have something different to watch. This is along the lines of my teaching of various things about Japan. The Governor of Florida has closed all gyms or any type of fitness center, so Aikido of Gainesville is closed for the time being. The Alachua County Commission has put out a stay home order that has some loop holes in it as long you are not associating with others. So my plan is to go to the dojo and make some videos reading kids stories from the Japanese Folk Tales book I picked up long ago in Japan. I probably bought it for my nieces and nephews but it didn't get sent and I forgot I had it. So it has set in my bookcase at home for 20+ years. There is an association here called Fun 4 Gator Kids that I think would love to host these different kinds of Japanese tales along with my inputs about what I know of some things in Japan. Monday, no kids for the morning class. The girl who comes regularly on Monday afternoons showed up and we did both Bo katas and Jo suburi (basic movements) and the 31 movement kata. Tuesday morning one 6 year old boy came. I was amazed at how fast he caught on to the 1st Bo kata. I teach it now in small bites 3 times then add some more to it 3 times and so on. When he made a mistake on which side of his body to move the Bo, I moved to that side and repeated the movements. It worked very well. I have learned these teaching techniques to help the dyslexic people who come in to learn. They will learn just as well as anybody else. Sometimes it takes a bit longer, but they get there. We played some dodge ball against the wall. This is not the same as what we played when I was a kid. I use soft inflated balls and deflate them some more so they are pretty soft when they hit and they can't roll very far. When the bigger kids play, I make them throw underhand so they can't throw hard or fast. It's all good coordination practice for everybody. He told me he has been playing soccer as the goalie, so I started throwing to give him practice on keeping the ball from getting past him and hitting the wall. Go with the flow. He was lonely for more kids, but overall he still had fun for 2 1/2 hours and he was going to sleep well that night. Because the schools have closed and Kids will need a place to go for the next two weeks, I am going to run classes from 9am to noon for the next two weeks. I'm not going to go all day. I'm 66 and I don't want to teach 12 hour days which is what that would work out to including the adult evening classes. So I am going to teach the mornings, then close from noon to 2:30 and have the regular afternoon classes from 2:30 to 5:30 on Monday, Thursday and Friday. I have the Sword classes on Mondays and Wednesdays plus the weapons class on Thursdays, then what are usually the empty hand classes from 7 to 8:30. Those are easy to go to weapons classes as well because ultimately I want to teach everybody disarming techniques. Saturday, Mar. 14th, 7 kids and 2 adults showed up. All the schools and the churches with more than 250 people are closing up because of the virus scare. To address that but stay open, we decided to go to no touch stuff. I teach lots of weapons things here which keep people apart from each other for quite a while as they learn the basics and learn the empty hand techniques that will ultimately go to disarming techniques. I also teach Bo Kata's that enhance coordination and muscle movement. So I started teaching people the first Bo Kata which they will need to learn as they advance to future tests. Saturday, Mar. 7th, it was 8 kids with 2 new and 1 adult. One of the boys has been bullied at school. I asked how the bullying has been happening. Much of it has been verbal. That's not really my forte, so I asked the mothers for their input on what to do. Celeste came up with a wonderful explanation. Much of this bullying is searching for a reaction. By just walking away without any reaction, the bully may get bored and go to someone else. We all agreed that not giving a reaction is VERY hard and it may take some time with a lot of self discipline to not react. I shoed them a few of the anti-bully techniques to use if the aggression goes physical. They liked those cause they are simple and effective techniques. We did some Tehodoki, wrist extractions with the new boys which also educates the kids who have been here for a while about these quick grab break-aways. I'm leaning more and more towards making these my initial teachings when anyone comes in. These simple techniques may be just enough to stop any aggression before the physical conversation gets to serious conflict. Saturday, Feb. 29th, we had 6 kids and 1 adult. 2 of the kids who play sports came back cause the sports have stopped for a break of a few weeks. It was the February birthdays party morning, but the February birthdays kids didn't show up. Sorin had his birthday at the beginning of the month and Rafa had her's close to the end of the month. Since they weren't there we sang Happy Birthday to Braydon cause his birthday was at the end of January and he missed the January party. After we cleaned up from the party, they wanted to do the balance run practice on the rolled up mat. Then we set up the obstacle course, played some Samurai Hockey and then practiced some more advanced techniques for the Blue with a White Stripe test. It was a good morning. Perhaps the low turnout is due to the cold start for the beautiful day it turned out to be. Saturday Feb. 22nd, we had 9 kids and 2 adults. Feb. 15th, we had 6 kids and 3 adults. On Feb 8th, we had 5 kids and 2 adults. The numbers fluctuate from week to week. We had 3 new kids on the 22nd. They came in around 10:30, so I stopped working on the more advanced kids tests and we started practicing some tehodoki, wrist grab escapes. This is what I am focusing on for the first test out at the Queen of Peace Academy for a number of reasons. I have noticed over time that when there are no senior students, new students don't get to see or understand working together with each other. They also don't understand relaxing and not putting up hard resistance to techniques being put on them. Tension and hard resistance can lead to injuries, which nobody wants. The tehodoki techniques help them understand the wrist warm-ups, simple get-out-of-the-hold movements, working together with a partner, simple responses to aggressions on the playground and how to respond to the technique as the effect of the technique comes on. They are also seeing pretty quickly that these responses can be pretty effective with minimal efforts. So the first test is made up of 1st, 2nd, 3rd techniques plus simple Kotegaeshi. I'm seeing reasonably good results from this path, so I will probably change my whole repertoire for how I run the Kyu rank tests. Just today, Sunday the 23rd, I'm thinking I could develop a simple Hiji Kime, elbow focus technique. This would cover all the wrist warm-up techniques. The test would have 5 same side wrist grabs and 5 opposite side wrist grabs. A good start. Thursday evening, Feb. 12th, we had 17 young ladies, college women, from the UF Women's Empowerment group, in for a Women's Self Defense class. Along with them, we had 4 guys from the UF ROTC come to help with registration and we also used them as fall guys to demonstrate techniques we were teaching the girls. There was a lot of laughing and surprise as to the power of the techniques we were showing them. Judging from the amount of laughter and responses I think they all enjoyed the night immensely. Keith and I certainly I received this awesome message from my friend Mike Fowler about a night with Nishio Sensei after practice. This was Nishio Sensei's deep philosophy. In Tokyo, one night after class, we all went out to Nishio Sensei's favorite yakitori place for dinner. There were 5 or 6 students with us; We ordered some things and after a while Nishio Sensei looks at me and said "Michael, I'm one of the best martial artists on the planet, if you have a question for me, you can ask it now!” That's called “Front Street.” It's an unusual, direct way of Japanese speaking. I thought about it for a second and said, “Sensei, when you practice Ken Tai Ken, What do you feel when you meet your Uke without hurting them?” Sensei answered me in a deep voice, "Forgiveness.” “Most people have a hard time to forgive even once. I'm an aikido man. I must do better than that. In the Aikido techniques we practice, there are many points of reflection where we have the chance to learn forgiveness for others and ourselves, even when they want to harm us!” "Sensei, How many times do we need to forgive in one technique?" Sensei said, “At least 3 to 5 time's is good, or until they feel the sharp part of my sword, after that it gets repetitive!” "Sensei, What do we think about when we practice cutting with our sword?" "We should think that we are cutting out the bad parts of ourselves, or our character that we don't like. With every cut we go deeper. The Aikido sword cuts in the correct way for people to follow and develop good character and spirit to become strong and to help others to do the same.” “But first, we must work on ourselves!" “I believe in myself!" He said, “1000 Sword cuts for your heart!” “10,000 sword cuts for your spirit!” Sensei looked at me deep in the eye's for a minute and said, "Most students would not ask this kind of question of me Michael-san.” I looked at the other student's at the table. We all had tears in our eye's at that moment. We all said, “Kampai Sensei!” I always tried to pull things out of him in this way. Thank you Nakamichi Sensei, for reminding me of that moment in time. I feel AIKIDO is the physical expression of love and compassion. I miss you Sensei!” Michael fowler 5th dan Nishio sensei. Ronin, This is a video of Saito Sensei teaching a seminar in Japan. Maybe it's a university aikido club or perhaps multiple universities cause the average age looks like college student ages. Probably you won't be able to understand the words, but you can still understand the teaching cause it goes more by demonstration than exactly what he says. I linked it, so you should be able to just click on the url address here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzNa_7uufAs&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR16mgTh9-FqDmg1OPowQDP-lUQdXF0CRs8BNq0CbNwYm5rhjcD9VLwAGN0 I stumbled onto an old demonstration by Nishio Sensei. It's the 11th All Japan Aikido demonstrations. I think they are up to around 57 now so this must be back in the 1960's I'm about 85-90% certain the Uke's are Nishimoto Sensei and Masuda Sensei. Everyone is so much younger than when I practiced with them. Nishimoto Sensei was my Uke and tested me for Sankyu at the old Matsuo Dojo. He just called me up near the end of class and had me do techniques. I didn't even know I was being tested. How many white belts have a 7th Dan test and Uke for you at the same time. That was special and I didn't even know it at the time. I was still pretty clueless at the time. This is the link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/senseiaikidocom/videos/544548876016792/UzpfSTEwMDAwMTA0Njg4Njk3MzpWSzoyNDQ4NjUxNTQxODE2OTQw/ Sensei Keith was up in Virginia attending a Fukushidoin (assistant instructor seminar) in April. To expand on Sensei Keith's experience of the weekend, he already knew much of what was being taught while many 2nd and 3rd Deg. blackbelts were seeing things as new. It is always so gratifying to me when my students go somewhere and see that what I am teaching is spot on or even advanced to what others are teaching at the higher levels. I know I'm a good sensei, but it's better when my students really recognize it for themselves. Others may take my attitude as arrogant. No, it's self awareness of what I was taught in Japan and what I continue to expand on and pass on. I received this wonderful Thank You from the woman who requested and coordinated bringing the children with Tourette Syndrome to the Saturday morning classes. She said posting this was great with her. Simpson, Heather N. Mon, March 2019 to Sensei Tom, Thank you so much for welcoming our group this weekend. I know that the children loved it and really enjoyed learning the activities. In particular, while the kids were learning, the parents were bonding and connecting, which was a real bonus to Saturday. I have taken your flyer and will hand it out whenever possible. Your program is truly remarkable and I appreciate your kindness to the group. Most sincerely, Heather Simpson, OTD, MOT, OTR/L Tourette Clinic Coordinator Southeast Regional Centers of Excellence UF Health Rehab Center at Fixel Center for Neurological Diseases I received this great email complement from Nathaniel after his first class in Jodo, walking staff, last Thursday evening. It's so nice I asked him if I could post it on the website. He said he would be honored. Dear Sensei, Thank you for writing and for teaching a wonderful class. Having dabbled in various martial arts and numerous dojo’s over the years I have developed a good sense for quality instruction and found it in abundance on Thursday. And I feel very fortunate to be able to receive such a level of instruction within a small class (although I do not expect the class to remain small for long). The commute is a challenge but is what it is. I look forward to seeing you again on Thursday. Best regards, Nathaniel This video explains how to perform the first kata of the Aiki Toho Iaido developed by Shoji Nishio Sensei. I also explain about the cutting draw I was taught right from the start of my practice of Iaido. I did not need to change anything when I was introduced to Tasaburo Tokutomi Sensei, master of the Morinaga line of the Toyama-Ryu style of batto-jutsu, cutting of rolled rice straw matting. Here is the URL of the first Aiki Toho kata https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBuEw99f3CE The senior Kids students are not asking to play games at the beginning of class anymore. They now realize that the Aikido is the "play" and they have graduated to a higher level of play. I'm hearing "I love this technique." or "This is my favorite Bo kata". And just a few months ago the statements were "This is hard." Now it has become "This is fun." I have decided to offer extra discounts of extra classes for parents or students who help clean the dojo while their kids or teens are in class. I'm swamped so much of the time with keeping track of the dojo financially, keeping up the websites, doing maintenance, processing new videos and such that the cleaning is not up to snuff. I think this can work out as a win-win for the dojo and the parents. The Aikido of Gainesville Dojo will be closed on Tuesdays during the day. I might be there to do maintenance, but I will not be teaching on Tuesdays. There will regularly be a Free Community Service Aikido Class on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 8pm. Tuesday Evening practices may not always be open. Please call ahead of time to determine if there will be a class that evening. Call first Jun Evangelista 352-222-0872. If no answer or Jun is not teaching, call Keith McInnis rd352-258-4725. |
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The primary question: What constitutes a good dojo? How do you recognize a good dojo?
1. The Sensei (instructor) is knowledgeable, helpful and safe. 2. The techniques work and can be powerful, but don't always need to be powerful. 3. The senior students look out for and help the junior students and keep things safe. 4. Everybody is learning a lot and having fun. |
There are Dojos that stand a lot on visual image and ritual because they can't stand on knowledge and there are Dojos that forego a lot of ritual and may not look like much but they have an abundance of knowledge. We are in the latter group.
TEST US! There is an overwhelming abundance of knowledge here.
TEST US! There is an overwhelming abundance of knowledge here.
To see and learn more about the dojo, go across the top menu to "About". On the drop down menu click on "Location". On that page there are 10 videos showing the dojo with explanations of what I have on the walls.
Under the videos menu I have added instructional videos for both Iwama Style and Nishio Style. I will begin showing how I teach the techniques, as time allows. You may find them very informative.
If you want to get in contact with me, email; sensei@aikidoofgainesville.com or 352-494-7816.
Under the videos menu I have added instructional videos for both Iwama Style and Nishio Style. I will begin showing how I teach the techniques, as time allows. You may find them very informative.
If you want to get in contact with me, email; sensei@aikidoofgainesville.com or 352-494-7816.
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The more time spent in class becomes more learned which means the faster the advancement.
Free Saturday classes will remain in the mornings until further notice. Kids 9am to 10:30am and Teens 10:30am to Noon AOG web sites with information about Kids classes are; Aikido Kids of Gainesville, Stop the Bully Using Aikido and Bully Defense Using Aikido These sites have more information about what to expect in Kids and Teens classes and Anti-Bully techniques. Thursday Free Class times are 6:30-8:00pm. There is now a weapons class from 8:05 to 9:00pm following the free class. |
The Nishio Sensei videos shown above here are advanced techniques. I start practically everybody in the Iwama Style to build knowledge and a foundation of basic techniques. After you have the knowledge to pass the third test, then you will better understand and appreciate the Nishio Style techniques which are strong and fast.
Calendar of all Aikido of Gainesville Events
Classes will be tracked by the use of a punch card. The number of classes purchased will be written on the punch card and when the number of punches are completed a new card may be purchased. There will be no time restrictions on the cards.