What is Aikido?  How does it fit in with the world of martial arts?

Aikido is kind of like something that’s structured with no real structure.  What I mean by that is that it is a way of life; it’s a way of being able to refine and perfect one’s life.  As O-Sensei (Ueshiba Morihei, the founder of aikido) said, “Aikido is not a religion, but completes all religions” because it allows you to perfect yourself.  It relates to what you’re doing by allowing you to look at things differently—with a calmer state of mind.  So often in life we clash with things in life.  Ueshiba was a very spiritual man, and, as a result, Aikido is a very spiritual art.  Aikido, its philosophy and technique, is a very spiritual vehicle.  If, in the modern day, people don’t have this spirituality, and just learn techniques to hurt people, then the technique is empty.  To find the true essence of Aikido, one must look into their heart to find that spirit.  Each of us creates Aikido in their spirit.  O Sensei created the movements with the philosophy and then we each evolve it within our individual spirit and personality in our own journey.

What do you want your dojo to be about?

I don’t want it to be about money.  I’ve seen it too often with other teachers; “You’ve got to pay your dues!” or “Put your money where your mouth is!”  I understand that you have to pay rent, but I don’t want that to be the main reason we’re here.  I want this to be a place where people come to train, and, if they can’t work it out financially, I’ll work with them.  There are those who want something for nothing, and those are the ones we have to watch out for.  Sure, eventually, I’d like it to pay for itself.  But, if I’m around people enough, I know that they’re struggling, and I know what’s in their heart.  I know they’re struggling, and I may be struggling with the rent, too, but I always feel that God’s going to provide.  I just want this to be a place where people come to do Aikido.  We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to do and take care of here, but I have a vision and know what I want, and I know it will happen.   

People are generally more familiar with other arts, and now even mixed martial arts.  People understand kicking, punching and wrestling.  Where does Aikido fit in?

With Aikido, we don’t focus on destruction, and we avoid clashing.  It’s like rain.  Rain falls from the sky and hits a roof, blending with its shape and rolling down.  It rolls off, hits a rock & rolls off it.  It flows into a stream over a waterfall and into a pond blending naturally.  What happens in life is we clash all the time, and that’s limited.  How would someone who’s 110 pounds go to stop someone who’s 190 pounds if they’re going to go toe to toe, muscle to muscle?  In Aikido the smaller person is not going to resist.  This is not to say they’re going to do nothing.  They allow things to take place and then manipulate the situation to their advantage.  It happens in how they stand before the attacker.  With that, they control and manipulate what’s coming.  They don’t try to stop the attack and they don’t try to redirect it.  They just let it continue on its path and move out of the way.  If a train is coming, and you’re on the railroad tracks, you see it coming; you just step off the tracks, because you don’t want to be dead.  It’s that philosophy of not trying to stop it from happening.  Sooner or later you learn to just get off the railroad tracks.  If some guy is coming after you, & you say, “Please, Stop,” and he keeps coming, you’ve got to get out of the way.  You have to move!

We practice our techniques not to learn to hurt people.  They become a vehicle to refine ourselves.  Basically, you’re learning how to work with other people and yourself, which is the most difficult thing to deal with.  You’re learning how to move and adjust to deal with aggression.  We learn effective evasions, locks and pins without hurting someone.  We do our best to learn these things while understanding that it’s a life-long process.  You can’t study this stuff for a few classes and be effective.  If we focus on the commitment it takes to come in here and work on these things to improve ourselves.  While this may not change the problems of the world outside, it can definitely change the world inside you.  I think that’s what Aikido helps you to do.  It gives you a different way of dealing with life’s problems whether it’s losing a job or in relationships—anything. 

How does the practice of Aikido help people to grow and heal?

There are a lot of organizations and practices that talk about improving yourself through this or that method.  Many of them work for people.  On the mat, many things are brought out.  The biggest thing is the truth that lies inside of us that we often try to hide.  Whatever issues we’re having, they find their way out onto the mat.  Then, we either run away and never come back, or we turn and face them.  Most of the time, we can face them here in the dojo.  It’s not just hanging out with the guys, get sweaty, beat up on each other, laugh, go home, and come back & do it again.  There’s so much more that goes here.  The way we do it here in this dojo, I try to conduct it in such a way that you discover who you are.  You discover so many wonderful things that you probably wouldn’t otherwise.  So much comes out of you, and the reason is that Aikido is spiritual.  So many people, I think, may be lost spiritually.  I don’t push these ideas, but people find them on their own when they begin to experience certain things.  They begin to look at these things and before they know it, they’re in the middle of it.  They start to see the truth and it hurts but they stick it out.   I take off my hat to those who stick around to keep practicing.  They find something out about themselves.  They can take this experience and apply it in the rest of their lives. 

It’s about commitment.  Commitment is one of the most important things. The physical part is in the sincerity of your attack and ukemi (falling).  That’s why I like to think of it as, “training in the spirit of bushido.”  It’s a commitment to compassion, love, and honesty. That’s what I want to instill in people in this dojo.  It’s a level of commitment; no matter what—how high or low things feel—I’m going to commit myself and go for it.  And, in doing so, you discover something really wonderful.  That’s not just in Aikido; it’s in your job and relationships.  It takes a lot of work—a strong commitment.          

What it really comes down to is finding a practice in something that helps you refine and perfect your heart and body in the face of your fear.  It helps in all these different ways.  If we face our fear on the mat—a particular technique or fall, perhaps, or even getting on the mat at all—we are practicing to face fear in other areas of our lives.  Courage is not being fearless.  We all have fear, and that’s normal.  Courage is being able to act in the face of fear whatever that fear may be

I have often said, “You must take what you learn on the mat and apply it in your daily lives.  Also, bring that heavy load you are carrying with you into this dojo.  When you leave, you will find it not to be such a heavy load after all.  The training is more than a refinement of our physical self.  Through simultaneous physical and spiritual training we manifest the physicality of the technique into our spiritual movement and vice-versa.  If you only see physical technique, then that is all there is, and the road is dark and comes to an end.  But, if you see simultaneous refinement in the physical and spiritual being, then and only then will you have clarity, and your path will be brighter and calmer. 

Why do we attack with honesty and sincerity?  What does that mean?

Sincere attack is a mental and physical exercise in commitment.  You make a mental commitment to be physically committed in your technique as the uke (attacker).  We talk about love and compassion in Aikido a lot.  We talk about moving is such a way that your attacker doesn’t get hurt while you put them to the ground and we all get to go home to our families happy.   But we live in the real world.  I would love to be able to be kind to an attacker, & that’s why I train in Aikido.  However, when someone is attacking you, & all they see is red, you have to do what you can to protect yourself or others.  Hopefully, no one gets hurt, but if someone does, hopefully it’s not you.  We do train to minimize the damage to the attacker.  That’s why sincere training is so important. 

When I ask you to punch me, you need to do so.  If you’re trying honestly to punch me in the face, you’re going to hit me if I do not move.  That is compassion and sincerity on your part for my benefit.  You may ask, “How do you mean?”  “How can trying to hit someone you’re training with be compassionate?”  If you care about your training partner, you’ll strike with sincerity.  Of course, you do so within you partner’s skill level.  A slow attack can mimic full speed by its focus on the target.  When we attack slowly, we imitate full speed by not veering off-course.  You could easily veer off when attacking slowly to track your partner, but that defeats the purpose of imitating a fully committed full-speed attack.  If your skill level is high, my job as your partner is to attack full-speed, and, if you don’t do a correct evasion and move properly, you’ll get hit.  That’s my commitment to you as a partner.  That is actually an offer of compassion and love so that you get an opportunity to execute technique under the conditions of a full-speed attack that’s actually aiming for you.  If I do not offer you this experience in the dojo, you’ll probably be surprised and struck in another setting should such an attack ever come at you. 

It’s true; people sometimes get hit in this type of training.  It happens regularly in our dojo.  Getting hit in training is good for you.  You instantly realize that your technique didn’t work.  You also don’t want to get hit again and use that experience.  You learn when and how long to be still and when to move.  I would hope you’d rather be hit in the dojo and learn from it than on the street.