An art not bound by logic.
Aikido does not always have to make sense, defying logic is what makes the deeper understanding of O-Sensei’s art work. Those who find and accept this understanding can advance. It is contradictory to what one thinks should work. One removes the angles that are thought to be seen by those watching on or by the person attempting to push the Ken or Jo.
These techniques are created from inside Nage’s mind.
Here shows that application. How we deal with a person pushing with ALL their body and spirit against our “non resistance” should be part of our universal thinking and not just when training on the tatami.
O-Sensei would show this same action with Jo and with many students pushing against the “Non resistant power of no power“ which is required.
Many students in UK, Greece, Holland, Russia etc have seen me perform this Ken application (not being able to be pushed) or throwing without touching students, who I have never met before, and if it works, then no one can say it is because I used my own students. Even saying this, many still think it’s a trick and that it does not work. I am sure they think I am mad. Did they also think O-Sensei was mad when he achieved these feats of what is supposedly NOT possible?
I know I am not him but if we practice with a truly clean, open heart and mind we should be able to access many of the subtle treasures he gave us.
Weapons and whiskers.
(Why proper weapons training benefits the body.)
Most Aikido students should be able to recognise that aiki weapons training is training for the body and not training for the sake of weapons alone. To optimise the value of such practise, consider maintaining narrow postures wherever possible.
For example, in the sword cut, during the entire movement keep the elbows within the boundary of the shoulder width. A cat’s whiskers tell it when it can safely pass through a space. There is no waste. Think of your elbows like a martial artist’s whiskers! This way you will encourage a body posture that has no restrictions to its flow.
(When keeping the elbows in, keep the alignment relaxed. Avoid overdoing it and creating tension which is not necessary or wanted.)
By keeping the elbows in close, you maintain a powerful strike for the full duration of the movement. A strike with wide elbows results in a scissor action and has power only at the end of the strike.
Try both methods of cutting with aiki ken to feel the difference. Wide elbows will surely sound alarm bells and if you watch someone else do this you will see their vulnerabilities immediately. If you are body aware, then it will be immediately obvious to you that a better whole body connection arises from a narrow posture. Relaxed connectedness is a quality you should seek in aikido. Keeping elbows within the confines of hip width helps maintain the extension of spirit in a smooth flow and that has neither rigidity nor slack but maximises natural power. This is aikido at work.
Narrow posture with weapons equals, smaller target for the opponent, greater reach for self and delivers more relaxed and connected power.
Still on the path? 2016.
In my teaching I have always used analogies, short stories in order to illustrate an important learning point as I saw it at the time. Often, it is these short stories that spark the student’s imagination and they still remember them many years after I have long forgotten what I said.
This is a case in point and what one student remembers of a lesson in the Orwell Dojo, seventeen years ago!
Tony Sargeant.
“Tonight, (31st January 1998), my Aikido teacher, (Tony Sargeant) went to great lengths to explain the theory of the path. His explanation was rich in practical techniques to demonstrate his ideas on some of their inherent problems.
My recollection is – ‘the path there is and many seek it, the map there is and many hold it. As we progress, more of the map becomes clear. Sometimes a tree (problem) will bar our way, if we detour then we must remember why we did so, or if the tree is later removed, we must return to the old path. The detour was not the true path, merely a convenience of the time.
Eventually we will neither seek the path nor will we ever know that we are on it, for then we will be the path.’”
In my teaching I have always used analogies, short stories in order to illustrate an important learning point as I saw it at the time. Often, it is these short stories that spark the student’s imagination and they still remember them many years after I have long forgotten what I said.
This is a case in point and what one student remembers of a lesson in the Orwell Dojo, seventeen years ago!
Tony Sargeant.
“Tonight, (31st January 1998), my Aikido teacher, (Tony Sargeant) went to great lengths to explain the theory of the path. His explanation was rich in practical techniques to demonstrate his ideas on some of their inherent problems.
My recollection is – ‘the path there is and many seek it, the map there is and many hold it. As we progress, more of the map becomes clear. Sometimes a tree (problem) will bar our way, if we detour then we must remember why we did so, or if the tree is later removed, we must return to the old path. The detour was not the true path, merely a convenience of the time.
Eventually we will neither seek the path nor will we ever know that we are on it, for then we will be the path.’”
Sensei Sargeant draws the attack from Dan Hopkins . . . it looks like it could be a disaster.
What happens next ?
Scroll to bottom of page for the answer.
“Until a person practices,
ponders and draws the meaning out of their own depths
it will remain a secret no matter how well explained”
About New Year resolutions, about my wishes for others to enjoy and benefit from a good life and about commitment . . . . to yourself !
(As best I can I am writing this to express my wishes for you the reader, it comes simply from the heart)
We often use the beginning of a new year to express our hopes and wishes for others. Often these same hopes and wishes are actually there every day and have been for many years. I’m writing this not just for our own organization’s students but to all in the world of Aikido. I have a sincere desire to encourage others in the world to explore the wonders of the Aikido path.
If as I have done, we travel the world meeting like minded people we soon realise that our wishes and dreams are so alike in what we all hope will come to improve and help us. I would like to think that my thoughts here can help us all become a greater force in helping mankind to grow into a better connected world and not the damaged one that we see so frequently on News channels.
Should we not strive to better our self and help others also to see and improve? Couldn’t we all benefit from better fitness, better thinking?
As teachers it is our destiny to teach better than we were taught, to show and use the knowledge we gained and remove the parts that we felt did not help us in growing.
A new student once came up to me and said he had been doing Aikido for two weeks and he knew it was what he would do for the rest of his life. My reply was, ‘let’s see if you are here in two weeks.’
Perhaps harsh words but many teachers have heard the same and have seen the same results. I never saw him training again and was told he had left the club and went on to practice Karate.
My message is the same as before but for those who make the normal New Year resolutions you might consider adopting some ideas from my words today; To seek a better way, to strive and to continue on a path that will pay dividends in happiness . . . if only you keep going.
Those who have read my book will know my personal journey and after 40 years I can say that I did carry on, I also trained in many other arts and had several hobbies, I brought up a family, struggled many years in running my own business with up to twenty employees to worry about and at the same time trained Aikido three times a week and regular seminars.
I am told that things are quite different now and people have more commitments than before. Really? Sorry, I do not see this. If we do not maintain active lives we will not experience the fullness of life that could be. We are made up of a body that performs best under activity, it is the ‘home’ in which we live and once developed properly will enhance us in ways that nothing else can. Staying healthier and flexible for longer is a must and is not gained in a brief work out. It is year after year we need to consider. Yes it may be hard but our bodies are designed to be worked and kept to a high degree of performance, then and only then will it work at its best and give us the best return one could ever hope for.
It appears that what has caused a decline in numbers of Aikido students and what it entails is the current technology. Easy, quick communication to anyone around the world is constant; no time is left for hobbies or training in one’s life that require unbroken time. Mere mind stimulation does not keep us physically fit.
Take Olympian athletes, with a ‘normal’ body or with a disability. They have overcome the petty, “I don’t feel like it or I can’t do it syndrome”, that most of the population find is an easier path to walk. They who have struggled for many years aiming for all they hope they can achieve, they vibrate energy and health in every way. In the UK we have seen a large number of new Cyclists since we became world champions, but how many went out paid loads of money on the best bikes and equipment, then found it hard work or just not for them?
This will always happen and my message to you all is think before you try and try before you buy. It is not how much you spend or how much energy the mind has to sacrifice in the sport/art, it is how easy you will give up.
If you can answer this question you have the opportunity to try this year and find out who you really are in life.
Two people decide to meet at 6am and run before going to work, one has all the latest running gear, the other has what they found in their home as they do not know yet if they will like running. They start the run, one will normally talk and one will listen, they both will have their mobile phones, they both get mail or messages, the beeps keep coming. They both have to stop to see what communication has arrived. After a few times of disturbing the run it will be shortened or just take longer to complete. This happens day after day until a decision has to be made. One will say that it is not working and they need to run and ignore the phone to allow the run to fulfill its purpose. It may even bring the twosome to an end and one will run each day and the other stay at home.
Out of the two that started who did you think would be the one who carried on?
In life the list is endless of what and who will let you down. You have the choice to do nothing or to try lots of stimulating projects, just to move on from one to another, or you may try that hardest path of them all.
Find what you would like to try and set a date on which you will decide to carry on or give up. This will show your true strength. It is called commitment, but it is to yourself and no other, so the cause is truly worthwhile.
By not setting a reasonable time limit it tells me you should not bother to start it as you are in need of an excuse before you start. Setting a fixed time that determines your practice without finding excuses, then you will perhaps one day be the ‘Olympian’ in your own right as you will have overcome the greatest challenge one can have in life. “Yourself”.
Life and other people will always demand more from you than you may have time to give. From my life journey my training has been the ONLY thing that has never let me down and the demands have been great but all driven by what I wanted to achieve, the joy lasts a day or a year, but it never has given me joy without struggle, happiness, tears, love, passion. All the elements one can only find through strict pushing of one’s mind and body. Only a few heroes are heard of but many are silent.
Please be a silent hero to yourself and enrich your world, as you only have one chance this time around and only when you are old and look back on life will you know if you used your time wisely or not.
It is your life, please do something with it for your physical body, the home in which you live, so keep your ‘home’ in good condition. Beware the brain; that all communicating ‘phone’ and the very thing which will every day come to challenge us.
Own a phone, yes, but don’t let the phone own you, just like the rest of the demands in life you have the power to control them if you wish.
Tony Sargeant 1st January 2015
(As best I can I am writing this to express my wishes for you the reader, it comes simply from the heart)
We often use the beginning of a new year to express our hopes and wishes for others. Often these same hopes and wishes are actually there every day and have been for many years. I’m writing this not just for our own organization’s students but to all in the world of Aikido. I have a sincere desire to encourage others in the world to explore the wonders of the Aikido path.
If as I have done, we travel the world meeting like minded people we soon realise that our wishes and dreams are so alike in what we all hope will come to improve and help us. I would like to think that my thoughts here can help us all become a greater force in helping mankind to grow into a better connected world and not the damaged one that we see so frequently on News channels.
Should we not strive to better our self and help others also to see and improve? Couldn’t we all benefit from better fitness, better thinking?
As teachers it is our destiny to teach better than we were taught, to show and use the knowledge we gained and remove the parts that we felt did not help us in growing.
A new student once came up to me and said he had been doing Aikido for two weeks and he knew it was what he would do for the rest of his life. My reply was, ‘let’s see if you are here in two weeks.’
Perhaps harsh words but many teachers have heard the same and have seen the same results. I never saw him training again and was told he had left the club and went on to practice Karate.
My message is the same as before but for those who make the normal New Year resolutions you might consider adopting some ideas from my words today; To seek a better way, to strive and to continue on a path that will pay dividends in happiness . . . if only you keep going.
Those who have read my book will know my personal journey and after 40 years I can say that I did carry on, I also trained in many other arts and had several hobbies, I brought up a family, struggled many years in running my own business with up to twenty employees to worry about and at the same time trained Aikido three times a week and regular seminars.
I am told that things are quite different now and people have more commitments than before. Really? Sorry, I do not see this. If we do not maintain active lives we will not experience the fullness of life that could be. We are made up of a body that performs best under activity, it is the ‘home’ in which we live and once developed properly will enhance us in ways that nothing else can. Staying healthier and flexible for longer is a must and is not gained in a brief work out. It is year after year we need to consider. Yes it may be hard but our bodies are designed to be worked and kept to a high degree of performance, then and only then will it work at its best and give us the best return one could ever hope for.
It appears that what has caused a decline in numbers of Aikido students and what it entails is the current technology. Easy, quick communication to anyone around the world is constant; no time is left for hobbies or training in one’s life that require unbroken time. Mere mind stimulation does not keep us physically fit.
Take Olympian athletes, with a ‘normal’ body or with a disability. They have overcome the petty, “I don’t feel like it or I can’t do it syndrome”, that most of the population find is an easier path to walk. They who have struggled for many years aiming for all they hope they can achieve, they vibrate energy and health in every way. In the UK we have seen a large number of new Cyclists since we became world champions, but how many went out paid loads of money on the best bikes and equipment, then found it hard work or just not for them?
This will always happen and my message to you all is think before you try and try before you buy. It is not how much you spend or how much energy the mind has to sacrifice in the sport/art, it is how easy you will give up.
If you can answer this question you have the opportunity to try this year and find out who you really are in life.
Two people decide to meet at 6am and run before going to work, one has all the latest running gear, the other has what they found in their home as they do not know yet if they will like running. They start the run, one will normally talk and one will listen, they both will have their mobile phones, they both get mail or messages, the beeps keep coming. They both have to stop to see what communication has arrived. After a few times of disturbing the run it will be shortened or just take longer to complete. This happens day after day until a decision has to be made. One will say that it is not working and they need to run and ignore the phone to allow the run to fulfill its purpose. It may even bring the twosome to an end and one will run each day and the other stay at home.
Out of the two that started who did you think would be the one who carried on?
In life the list is endless of what and who will let you down. You have the choice to do nothing or to try lots of stimulating projects, just to move on from one to another, or you may try that hardest path of them all.
Find what you would like to try and set a date on which you will decide to carry on or give up. This will show your true strength. It is called commitment, but it is to yourself and no other, so the cause is truly worthwhile.
By not setting a reasonable time limit it tells me you should not bother to start it as you are in need of an excuse before you start. Setting a fixed time that determines your practice without finding excuses, then you will perhaps one day be the ‘Olympian’ in your own right as you will have overcome the greatest challenge one can have in life. “Yourself”.
Life and other people will always demand more from you than you may have time to give. From my life journey my training has been the ONLY thing that has never let me down and the demands have been great but all driven by what I wanted to achieve, the joy lasts a day or a year, but it never has given me joy without struggle, happiness, tears, love, passion. All the elements one can only find through strict pushing of one’s mind and body. Only a few heroes are heard of but many are silent.
Please be a silent hero to yourself and enrich your world, as you only have one chance this time around and only when you are old and look back on life will you know if you used your time wisely or not.
It is your life, please do something with it for your physical body, the home in which you live, so keep your ‘home’ in good condition. Beware the brain; that all communicating ‘phone’ and the very thing which will every day come to challenge us.
Own a phone, yes, but don’t let the phone own you, just like the rest of the demands in life you have the power to control them if you wish.
Tony Sargeant 1st January 2015
Just what is the art about?
Teaching recently, going slowly so as to point out weak points where uke could escape, I was asked why bother with looking at such detail in Aikido techniques. His words were, ‘why would I worry about detail when the attacker is eating and spitting out grit when I put him down?’ I asked if he thought that his Aikido will work every time with this attitude. Reply was, “I hope it would.” I feel saddened by his lack of understanding of the true art and journey to find it.
So my thinking is, if you only want to disarm your attacker and have the confidence that your techniques will work every time, then you must be deluding yourself. This art is all about locks and pins (without harming) and to be a professional one must know detail and be at one with the attacker.
To my mind, both young and old Aikidoka who think they have enough skill to beat whoever attacks them, need to think again and more deeply study O-Sensei and what he stood for while developing his art and his spiritual life's goal.
Teaching recently, going slowly so as to point out weak points where uke could escape, I was asked why bother with looking at such detail in Aikido techniques. His words were, ‘why would I worry about detail when the attacker is eating and spitting out grit when I put him down?’ I asked if he thought that his Aikido will work every time with this attitude. Reply was, “I hope it would.” I feel saddened by his lack of understanding of the true art and journey to find it.
So my thinking is, if you only want to disarm your attacker and have the confidence that your techniques will work every time, then you must be deluding yourself. This art is all about locks and pins (without harming) and to be a professional one must know detail and be at one with the attacker.
To my mind, both young and old Aikidoka who think they have enough skill to beat whoever attacks them, need to think again and more deeply study O-Sensei and what he stood for while developing his art and his spiritual life's goal.
The Forge and Misogi
O-Sensei had great hopes for his followers, way beyond merely training in physical techniques alone. O-Sensei gave us many physical techniques to forge us in mind and body in the hope that we would later transcend to this higher understanding.
The transition to this understanding is not difficult to make but it is we alone that will determine if and when this will happen for ourselves.
It may not be something sought or required by all, but those who wish to reach other levels and search this path will find great benefits if they commit the time and effort.
Reaching our body’s maximum physical potential, combined with understanding techniques, should have at the same time taught us much about ourselves and how to think of and react with others.
The world around us can seem a very different place from the one we experienced before we started our Aikido journey.
With our mind and body as one from the struggling, pains and years of questioning, we arrive at the real beginning; the place where we can blend our soul and universe together, truly becoming as one.
Becoming one with others may be a much larger task but we have made a start, perhaps unaware of realization or intent.
The understanding, often missing in our Aikido, is that connection with the attacker – a connection of oneness.
As a test of understanding, O-Sensei asked of us to ‘Forge ourselves’. This forging can only take place once we understand how to find within ourselves an experience of what we really are and not isolated as individuals; simply, no more or less than being naturally part of this great universe.
O-Sensei had great hopes for his followers, way beyond merely training in physical techniques alone. O-Sensei gave us many physical techniques to forge us in mind and body in the hope that we would later transcend to this higher understanding.
The transition to this understanding is not difficult to make but it is we alone that will determine if and when this will happen for ourselves.
It may not be something sought or required by all, but those who wish to reach other levels and search this path will find great benefits if they commit the time and effort.
Reaching our body’s maximum physical potential, combined with understanding techniques, should have at the same time taught us much about ourselves and how to think of and react with others.
The world around us can seem a very different place from the one we experienced before we started our Aikido journey.
With our mind and body as one from the struggling, pains and years of questioning, we arrive at the real beginning; the place where we can blend our soul and universe together, truly becoming as one.
Becoming one with others may be a much larger task but we have made a start, perhaps unaware of realization or intent.
The understanding, often missing in our Aikido, is that connection with the attacker – a connection of oneness.
As a test of understanding, O-Sensei asked of us to ‘Forge ourselves’. This forging can only take place once we understand how to find within ourselves an experience of what we really are and not isolated as individuals; simply, no more or less than being naturally part of this great universe.
Progression from the individual ‘I’ to the Universal ‘One’. (From the separate to the combined.)
To discover something deeper within self we often use ‘mechanisms’ with words to create images. When we use these images they allow something in the body to be created that would be difficult to come by, by any other means. This is such an imagery mechanism.
We can imagine fire and water as they are in nature. Imagine fire with flames, light and rising within our body, then imagine water, heavy and falling within our body.
Even without adding your own external physical activity you should feel that some physical sense of the lightness and heaviness has acted within your body. Fire and water together give steam. It is the sense of steam we need to cultivate, much harder to do than the separate elements of fire and water. It is even harder to maintain the feeling so that it is constantly available.
Lift the Jo above your head, just as you may have seen O-Sensei doing.
Using your imagination and with rising, cone like, circular movements of body and Jo, think of fire moving upwards within your body. As you spiral down again, think of water within your body swirling downwards as a heavy volume of water would. Sense, feel, imagine, use all the senses with which mankind is blessed.
The hard part is trying to bring these two elements together inside of you and be as one with them both. So to create the image of steam; then you can experience the Misogi within you. Fire and water generate steam, a power greater than its individual creators. Misogi is then yours. The sense and imagery of steam creates a power, awareness, which promotes peace and comfort within; this maximizes your potential..
Training with this in mind, you can instantly transport to a new place within yourself, a place where you can sense others and know what is within them. When the attack comes you will already have met it, blended and become one with it almost before it started. It ceases to be an attack anymore.
**********************
To discover something deeper within self we often use ‘mechanisms’ with words to create images. When we use these images they allow something in the body to be created that would be difficult to come by, by any other means. This is such an imagery mechanism.
We can imagine fire and water as they are in nature. Imagine fire with flames, light and rising within our body, then imagine water, heavy and falling within our body.
Even without adding your own external physical activity you should feel that some physical sense of the lightness and heaviness has acted within your body. Fire and water together give steam. It is the sense of steam we need to cultivate, much harder to do than the separate elements of fire and water. It is even harder to maintain the feeling so that it is constantly available.
Lift the Jo above your head, just as you may have seen O-Sensei doing.
Using your imagination and with rising, cone like, circular movements of body and Jo, think of fire moving upwards within your body. As you spiral down again, think of water within your body swirling downwards as a heavy volume of water would. Sense, feel, imagine, use all the senses with which mankind is blessed.
The hard part is trying to bring these two elements together inside of you and be as one with them both. So to create the image of steam; then you can experience the Misogi within you. Fire and water generate steam, a power greater than its individual creators. Misogi is then yours. The sense and imagery of steam creates a power, awareness, which promotes peace and comfort within; this maximizes your potential..
Training with this in mind, you can instantly transport to a new place within yourself, a place where you can sense others and know what is within them. When the attack comes you will already have met it, blended and become one with it almost before it started. It ceases to be an attack anymore.
**********************
One of my students wrote a while back that they had just been on a seminar and had 'A light bulb moment' Looking back I have had my fair share of them, but recently i had one major 'moment'
Teaching on a mixed styles seminar with many different teachers taking one hour teaching slots; I had some 4th and 5th dan teachers come up after my slot and asked me to explain how and why i taught a very common basic movement differently than the standard. They were so impressed that I was truly surprised by their reaction. These high grade teachers wanted me to explain my reasoning to how I came to see it differently than others. Out of my mouth came the words 'I go out side the box of normal thinking' (This was my moment, until I said, it I had not yet realized it myself). I explained that doing techniques year after year and still having so many questions still haunted me, I knew that I must re-look at what I had been taught by Saito Sensei. It was not that he did not show it, but like many I just did not see it. By looking more at the basic principles of how the body works and what it can and cannot do allowed me to change my postures and shapes. It takes many thoughts before one dare leap but with time and experience after such high quality teaching it can be seen by us all, if we have the eyes and bravery to try it. |
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What happened next. . .
A neat blending and 'passing by', leading to an ikkyo pin.