In praise of (not yet, but should be) famous men

One thing this blog has given me the oportunity to do is occasionally highlight individuals whom I admire. So here are a couple more. When I first started aikido in the states, and in my years in Japan, I had little contact with Yoshinkan aikido. One heard of it as being “hard,” “stiff,” etc. In addition, when I did see films or demonstrations, the vast majority of the practitioners looked, in their movments, to be mere reflections of Shioda Gozo. So, in my mind, it was an art in “regress” from the level of the head teacher. And honestly, I didn’t like the way Shioda Sensei treated his uke on occasion - a couple of gratuitous concussions inflicted to Shioda sensei’s apparent amusement particularly sticks out in my memory.

But over the past couple years, I’ve taken a far more careful look. I became friends with David Rubens in Great Britain. David is a very solid fifth dan, who runs a dojo in London - a very open dojo which also has excellent classes in san da (adaptations of Chinese martial arts for free-fighting), Goju-ryu karate, and also the London Shootfighters. I trained in his class one evening, and the Yoshinkan drills initially drove me batty - particularly the requirement for tori to grab the inside hand. But what I found remarkable was this. The night I trained there, there were two newcomers. again visited a year later, and they were still there. I was jaw-dropping amazed at how well they had mastered the basics of aikido movement, with a precision and solidity that I rarely see in one-year practitioners of Aikikai dojos. The repetitive basic drill, the demand for accurate placement of the feet, a solid posture with an erect spine - all this imbue beginners with excellent basic technique. So first of all, if you are ever in London, visit David’s school. The training is strong, he’s an excellent teacher and the dojo is non-doctrinaire and open-hearted.

Inspired by this contact, I started looking more carefully at films of Shioda Sensei, and although my dislike of how he treats uke’s, at times, has not changed, I find his technique truly remarkable. He is not “hard,” or “stiff” (though it is fair to say that some of his imitators can be). He is explosive - maintaining a stable base, posture erect, body relaxed, and then snapping into tightly focused movement. And I also began watching videos of Takeno Takefumi sensei, who is among the best technical practitioners of aikido I have ever seen - someone who has taken his own teacher’s skills, made them his own and then from that, created his methods - loyal to his teacher, but something more.

Which leads me to my second individual - Robert Mustard - who is, I believe, Takeno’s leading student. Robert is a quiet man, who runs a dojo in Vancouver, British Columbia, and despite a rather fearsome reputation engendered by the sometimes funny, but often puerile book, Angry White Pajamas, has never had a serious injury in his own dojo. About two years ago, I watched Robert put on a thirty minute demo, which was enthralling. He did some very subtle movments which resulted in his uke falling, but unlike how that usually looks, I had no sense of collusion - the young man HAD to fall. There was something very clean about all of his techniques - he used just the level of power and timing to take his uke to the outer edge of his skill, without taking off that edge. Robert demonstrated at the first Aiki Expo, and I’d urge those of you with a video to take a second look. There is no flash, no grandiose waving of arms or ego - just some of the best aikido you will ever find anywhere.

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Ellis Amdur — July 1^st, 2004 (add comment)