Whenever we experience a particularly effective technique we notice nage’s presence immediately.  Like a tidal wave that suddenly appears out of nowhere, it can sweep us off our feet while we look on in awe.  Presence can be powerful yet subtle, and become the center of attention without being obnoxious.  Many people can be present but lack presence, and it is the difference between practicing Aikido with a limp arm and practicing with an arm full of energy yet still relaxed.  When we relax in Aikido it is not the same type of relaxing where you plop down into bed after a long and tiring day.  We need to keep relaxed during practice but with an energy and presence that lets whoever we train with know that we are there and in the moment, ready to be engaged.  Good presence lets our practice remain in motion like the ebb and flow of the tide, instead of feeling overly static like water trapped in a bottle.

With a diverse array of people come diverse types of presence.  People can differ stylistically in their presence, and people may also derive their presence from different sources.  Some people have a natural presence, and when they’re in a room everyone notices, while others cultivate it internally to bring out an energy, voice, and authority that had previously been eluding them.  One day, several years ago, I saw a person wearing a trench coat stride into the dojo with such a great deal of presence that I was convinced he was a yudansha.  Later on, to my surprise, I found out he was 5^th kyu.  A powerful presence doesn’t always come with rank or skill, but with the ability to project your energy so that the people around you can’t help but notice it.  A lot of energy flows in Aikido, and these lines of energy can move in so many different directions, that it can sometimes seem unwieldy.  A strong presence can bring order to these paths of energy that can result in freer and uninhibited movement.  Our presence places us in charge of guiding the movement instead of letting it drift aimlessly away.

In contrast to the presence emanating from within, are some forms of externally derived presence that have less to do with projecting energy and more to do with something to be avoided.  Just like not all types of attention are desirable, there are types of presence that we are better off without.  One time I was training with someone who had an extremely sweaty and stinky gi (reminder to all aikidoka: please keep your gis well washed and clean!!), and we were practicing iriminage.  As I was taking the ukemi and he was bringing my head towards his shoulder I couldn’t help but notice the dark sweat stains on his gi under his arms, and to avoid having my face squished into that abyss of sweat I took the fall before he technically completed his technique.  That type of stinky presence certainly made his iriminage effective; I was made to go down instantly after all.  This, however, is not the type of presence that would help us in our training.  A presence that repels people is very different than a positive presence that accepts and guides them.

Presence isn’t something strictly technical.  It’s more about attitude and how you use it to deal with the energy around you.  For those of us with pets, we know they can see it when we assert ourselves and demand their attention and respect.  Being energetically assertive doesn’t mean to be arrogant or obnoxious.  We can assert authority over a situation while retaining a sense of humility and a respectful demeanor towards others.  If nage is doing a technique properly he or she should feel in control.  An attack can create a potentially chaotic situation, and neutralizing that attack takes, in addition to the technique itself, an inner sense of stillness and presence that makes you and the attacker feel you are in control of the situation.  At more advanced levels of training it is the nage that initiates the technique.  Nage becomes perceptive enough to take the lead in resolving the movement by breaking the maai before uke moves in for the attack.  By initiating with a strong presence nage is then able to shape uke’s attack in a way that is more efficient to manage.  A good attitude doesn’t just make for a more pleasant practice, but also a vibrant presence in performing the techniques.

Both the giant tsunami and the relatively small wave that merely makes us stumble have significant presence.  One is more obvious while the other is more subtle, but in the end we acknowledge both of them, since they have entered our perception in a way we cannot ignore.  The inner presence derived from overt charisma or a more subtle inner cultivation can make others notice in a definitive way, the same way an assertive hand to the face would make uke definitively notice.  Some external types of presence like a strong odor can make people double take, but are not beneficial for a good practice as most people would rather that stay hidden.  Good presence calls for an assertive, but not overly aggressive, attitude that can initiate and control the situation at hand.  There are moments when we may feel knocked around by the tide as we drift; those are the times where we need to find stable footing, ground and center ourselves, and spark a presence that makes us truly present in life and on the mat.

By Andrew Lee, New York Aikikai

Mapping Aikido Training on a Continuum from Assault to Intimacy:

How Intention and Connection make Aikido a Spiritual Experience

I ask myself, what differentiates aikido from other martial arts?  Paradoxically, it is that the goal of aikido is to learn how NOT to hurt people.  This practice of non-harm, is the process by which we learn to become spiritual.

What does it mean to you to be a spiritual person?  Is it to be caring?  Or, to transcend one’s ego? To be “one” with everything?  Think about this, as you read.

Connection,  as Essential to Intimacy

How do we experience quality of contact with our partners?  It is something that is felt the moment uke grabs nage.  The quality of uke’s contact can be soft, rigid, engaged, limp, firm, present or absent.  Nage also connects, or not, with uke.  It is a two-way experience of engagement, or not.  In this sense, the quality of contact between uke and nage determines how each of them experiences the other.  If both partners are hard, then there is no feeling between them.   In aikido we do not:  “attack – defend”.  We “attack”, “connect,” (or blend), and “redirect”.

Mechanical Practice can Feel like “Assault”

In this version of practice there is an attack and a response.  It is characterized by no mutuality and no feeling, as the connect piece is missing.  Ask yourself:    do I see the “other” as an object, a thing that is just there for me to “do something to?”   Am I “grabbing an arm,”  “striking a head?”  Do I notice my partner as a WHOLE person?  Or, am I just thinking about the technique that I am doing TO my partner. Martin Buber, a religious philosopher used the term I-it, to describe this type of relationship.  That is a nice way of saying that the most objectified type of relationship can be described as completely lacking in intimacy.  It is tantamount to feeling assaulted by another person.   This type of relational contact is characterized as a lack of awareness of the other person.  There is no caring for the other.   As aikidoka, we all know those types of practitioners.  They are the ones, who after practicing, you say to yourself: : “avoid this person.” This type of practice is based in fear, and in an insensitivity to the other.

Connected, Purely Physical Practice Feels like “Sex”

I call this type of aikido practice energetic, fun, and mutually engaged.  Many aikidoka practice at this level – it is connected in an intensely physical way.  What is doesn’t have is subtle intimacy.

At this level of practice we are both still doing techniques to each other and it feels great.   There may be a sense of “orgasm in motion,” but not transcendence.   This is undoubtedly a stage in the practice of aikido that we all necessarily go through on our journey with aikido as a relational art.

Love: Transcending the Physical

The breath

I breathe in, you are coming.  We barely touch.  I breathe out.   You fly through the air.  I forgot where I begin and you end.  Am I nake?  Am I uke?  I do not know?  I am on the inside, with you.  We are together.  In losing myself, I find myself.  I am joy.  I have no doubt. No fear.  I see clearly why I practice.

Why I love this art is revealed to me in the practice.  I am harmony.    Moving together, we are joy.  I cannot reach the bottom of knowing you.

I call this the inside of aikido.  This place is the heart of aikido:  where we are open to everything, ready for nothing. It is relaxed, open, and receptive. It is not something that we experience, per se, it is something that we can be.  This.  A spirit, in motion.

by Kali Hewitt-Blackie, 4^th Dan

The meaning of Aikido varies among the unique and different people who practice it.  The meaning changes even for the same person.  The reason we start something is often different from the reason we maintain it years later.  Our initial purpose evolves and adapts to all that we have learned, our interactions with other people, and the gradual change of our overall environment and circumstances over time.  Aikido’s beauty lies in its process of change more than any goal we may desire through it.  We may start with goals such as learning self-defense or getting in shape, which can still stay with us over time, but eventually they turn into secondary reasons and something deeper moves into the forefront.  We learn how to do individual techniques through repetitively performing them, but once we understand the basic concepts we are able to play more with freestyle and adapting to the situation at hand by spontaneously making changes where necessary to complete the flow of the movement.

I started Aikido when I was eleven because my mom wanted me to.  She said that she wanted me to learn a means of self-defense because I was so quiet and she didn’t want people to pick on me.  Since the reason I started Aikido was not my own I went into it without any particular goal and my attention geared more towards the processes.  Once I got into training on a regular basis however goals did naturally emerge.  I was in the children’s class and seeing all the different colored belts around me made me aspire to earn those belts for myself, but like the ambitions of many children, and many adults as well, my ambitions for Aikido sometimes suffered from a short attention span.  There were many days that I wanted to stay home and watch TV instead of going to practice but my mom made me go anyway.  She had me train every weekend with the exception of dojo closures and family vacations, though there was this one time she relented and I went to an event at a park.  The event had games and activities for children but I wasn’t really interested in what they had to offer.  I missed Aikido and it felt strange not training.  Though there would be many more days to come where I would not feel like training, remembering that strange feeling of not going to practice for something less worthwhile made me attend much more often than not in the years to come.

My mom joined me in my Aikido journey when I moved on to the adult classes.  She started Aikido for me, so I would have company in my transition to train with the adults.  In my new classes I could sense right away that practice was more serious, and it was a welcome change for me.  I enjoyed the deeper practice with a relative increase in intensity.  I left the children’s class with a good foundation of the basics and a clear understanding of the terminology, which helped me in training at a more advanced level.  I still had my goals to continuously test for higher ranks, and I closely counted my practice days until I had enough to test.  The teenage years often bring with it a plethora of activities including extra curriculars and socializing, but that was not my experience.  My personality is introverted and there is a shyness I carry with me.  Socializing and talking to people are relatively difficult for me.  Aikido gave me a way to interact with others without necessarily talking.  As my proficiency in Aikido grew my confidence grew with it; I felt comfortable talking about Aikido even as I still struggled with small talk.  My focus stuck with Aikido because I was too shy to try other activities.  It seems I had turned a disadvantage into an advantage.

Aikido has become a constant in my life.  It helps me to center myself whenever I feel anxious or nervous.  It has provided me with a great window to interacting with a variety of other people on a regular basis.  I feel a sense of flow along with a sense of confidence when I train, and during practice I feel I can express my style and who I am.  Each Aikido practitioner brings his or her own unique perspective to the art, which enables Aikido itself to unify the amazing diversity that surrounds it.  It has now been over fourteen years since I started Aikido, and with every year that passes I learn to appreciate additional aspects of the Way of unifying energy.  It’s through the Aikido movements where I’ve found a voice to express myself in creative ways.  I also teach classes on a regular basis now which helps me with my confidence, pushes me to interact with people on a deeper level, and allows me to explore and innovate with my personal expression of Aikido.  At this point rank and pride have fallen to secondary roles, and the flow of everyday practice has moved to the forefront.  Aikido has and continues to guide me along a process of developing myself, in opening myself to others in spite of whatever fear I have, and in illuminating the creativity and flow within.

“Why did you start Aikido?” is a very different question from “Why do you practice Aikido?”  People are not static beings and their motives, desires, and sometimes even beliefs can change with the dynamism of practicing iriminage at full speed.  The reason I started Aikido was not my own, but the discipline I gained from enforced regular practice gave me a deeper appreciation for the practice itself, and the moments of contrast where I skipped practice instead showed me that I enjoyed going to practice more often than not.  Finding that enjoyment and the sense that I had the ability to do something of substance well kindled my ambitions in the art, and I was excited to advance through the ranks.  At an age where I could have been easily distracted, I instead deepened my focus due to my nature and a seeming limitation.  When one path is cut off another path broadens, and the path of Aikido has broadened to a point where I can extract even more meaning from the more subtle areas of the path.  Experiencing flow, learning about the minutiae of interacting with others, having a strong core to center myself, creative self-expression, and developing a sense of openness are among the various reasons I continue to train regularly.  For those who stick with it Aikido is a lifelong process that constantly evolves; it changes as you change.

By Andrew Lee, New York Aikikai

This is a summary of the Q&A Blog Series with some high ranking Aikido friends in the USAF & in Europe.  My guests include: Andy Demko, 7th Dan, Shihan, USAF Technical Committee; Steve Pimsler, 7th Dan, Shihan, USAF Technical Committee; George Kennedy, 6th Dan, Shihan, Joe Nemeth, 6th Dan, Shihan, Dennis Main, 6th Dan, Shidoin and Michelle Feilen, 6th Dan.

Dojo Cho: “Why did you start training in Aikido?”
Demko Sensei: “I was always interested in martial arts from my early youth and have practiced and self-taught many methods. When I first saw an Aikido demonstration on television, I was enamored with the techniques and philosophy and I knew that was the art for me.”
Pimsler Sensei: “I thought it might help me be less of a klutz. Then I watched a class at the New York Aikikai; the energy was electric and everyone looked they were having a blast. I wanted to have fun, too.”
Kennedy Sensei: “I was committed to non-violence but did not want to be a victim. I needed a path that required self-discipline and engaged my mind and body as well as my spirit. I knew I would be practicing Aikido for the rest of my life the first time I saw it!”
Nemeth Sensei: “When I first saw Aikido, I was impressed with the fluidity and grace of the practitioners. The concept of soft power was appealing to me. I had practiced Judo for many years, and I felt that a change to Aikido could take me down a path that I could pursue for life.”
Main Sensei: “I was a jeweler in Grove City, PA, a small college town. The chief of police informed my partner and me of some known dangerous burglars in the area. We were encouraged to carry a concealed weapon. I decided that I should study self-defense. I found Aikido to be a perfect fit for me from the philosophical to the physical point of view.”
Feilen Sensei: “I started practicing Judo when I was 10 and stopped at the age of 18. At that time my mother was practicing bokken and her teacher was also an Aikido teacher. On Saturday afternoons she used to practice Aikido with a group of friends and she asked me for months to come and join the class. Finally, just to make her happy, I joined them…. and thought “well this is fun!”

Read more of the interview here…

Link: http://aikidoofcharlotte.com/qa-series-with-some-top-usaf-instructors/

Click Here to Watch Video of Aikido of Charlotte’s 2 Senior Instructors discussing Aikido, the dojo, etc.

by Jonathan Weiner

Aikido of Charlotte

Ukemi can be many things.  It is a way to train and fall safely.  It is a sincere and committed attack.  And for some people it is even a sub-art within Aikido.  Some people like to take high-flying and super soft falls, while others stick to the basics.  Ukemi is adaptable and changes with each individual.  Proper ukemi ensures that you and your partner have a continuous and flowing practice.  There are people that may offer resistance at times as a so called test to see if the technique “works,” but techniques can often be easily blocked even with proper technique due to fact that during training the uke knows what the nage is going to do.  Even someone with lazy ukemi, who won’t really move with the technique, can stop a technique (although that would most likely leave the uke open to all sorts of atemi from the nage).  While resistance can have its merits it can also break the flow of practice, and for newer students creating a sense of flow is a great help in internalizing techniques.

The uke can play three different roles: the guide, the partner, and the challenger.  The role of the guide can be played by senior students adept enough in their ukemi to guide newer students through techniques by placing themselves in the positions that uke should be in when the technique is done properly.  This gives the nage a sense of how the technique should feel and encourages a cooperating sense of flow.  Constant movement and adaptability are essential in good ukemi.  The continuous give and take between uke and nage through the repetition of techniques create a steady rhythm where the mind and its nagging thoughts fade away, leaving only you and partner in the present moment.  It is a moment of stillness within the consecutive beats of movement.  Students who are just starting to learn the techniques are often stuck in their minds, thinking about the techniques before performing them, and this is natural.  But as they continue to practice, especially with the help of uke who guide them through it with their cooperative movements, the sense of flow they feel along with persistent repetition builds their muscle memory, and eventually the movement will supersede the thinking.

The role of uke as a partner builds off the role of uke as a guide.  The sense of flow continues, but uke follows nage’s lead this time.  This role is for partners who both have a sufficient understanding of basic ukemi and basic techniques.  The pace of the training can be slow and smooth, or quick and aerobic.  The worries and stresses of everyday life disappear for that moment as the partners are enthralled by the motions.  The focus for uke is still cooperative to maintain the pulse of the training.  Corrections may be made to one another, but they are short and brief, leaving the more detailed corrections to the instructor.  The partners revolve as equals in the round and circular movements of Aikido.  They are relaxed, but not limp, constantly feeding their energy to be circulated through the rotating system of throws and falls.  Their centers are coordinated, similar to how the gravitational centers of planets move and align with a sense of stability.  Uke becomes like the Earth revolving around the Sun.  Flow is kept like the consistency of the four seasons year after year just as uke’s role switches after every four techniques.

The role of uke as a challenger involves some resistance, but that doesn’t mean the sense of flow has to be tossed aside.  Some ukes like to “test” nage’s technique to see how effective it is.  If an uke stops a technique, he or she may follow with corrections, but sometimes even relatively new students stop techniques just for the sake of presenting a challenge.  Of course they can stop it; it’s not like an experienced nage would risk injuring the uke by adding some power to the throw if the uke stops the technique by placing him/herself in an unsafe position.  Some inexperienced nage try to muscle through a technique when they feel resistance, which takes away from their technique.  Resistance should not be used indiscriminately.  Students at higher levels can use subtle resistance to add to the nuances of their technique, but a guiding principle is needed for beginners.  Uke as a challenger does not just stop a technique to see how good the nage is.  The challenger adds some resistance at various points of the technique to allow nage to learn and practice how to add power from the center and through extension, or how to stayed relaxed.  The movement continues through the resistance.

People practice Aikido for many different reasons and each person has his or her own individual style of practice.  And while flow may not be everyone’s focus in training, it adds a significant dimension to Aikido as an art.  As uke, students need to adapt to the plethora of different nage they will come across.  Some nage move slow and soft, while others go fast and hard.  Ukemi can be used as a tool to teach, a catalyst for continuous flow, or as a challenge used for the sake of growth and improvement.  This multivalent approach to ukemi shows that it is much more than just attacking and falling.  It can whisk the practitioner off from daily life into an almost meditative state of mind where only uke, nage, and the training at hand exist.

by Andrew Lee

New York Aikikai

Open Sky Aikikai hosted its first Women Instructors Friendship Seminar on January 17 and 18, with Katie Haywood, Fukushidoin of Open Sky, serving as an instructor, photographer, and the main organizer of the event. The weekend was a joyful and fun-filled success, with lots of laughter and the opportunity for varied lineages to come together in a spirit of camaraderie. Close to 60 participants represented a diverse cross-section of aikidoka from North Carolina and beyond, and proceeds from the seminar went to benefit the Open Sky Children’s Scholarship Fund, developed in partnership with the N.C. Psychoanalytic Foundation.

Guest instructors included Leslie Kausch, 4th dan, Greensboro Kodokan Aikido; Takiko Noehl, 4th dan, Seibukan Aikido Dojo; Charlene Reiss, 4th dan, Triangle Aikido; Connie Truemper, 4th dan, Aikido Schools of New Jersey; and Cyd Curtis Bates, 3rd dan, Aikido of Northern Virginia. The generous spirit that each of these talented women brought to the mat showed that no matter how much the wider Aikido community may vary in style, we certainly share what is essential in the art we all love.

Instructors (left to right): Connie Truemper, Takiko Noehl, Cyd Curtis Bates, Katie Haywood, Leslie Kausch, and Charlene Reiss

Thanks to all of the guest instructors, and to the support of Open Sky Dojo-Cho Steve Kaufmann. For more photos and details about the event, check out the events page at https://www.facebook.com/events/758722367539864/?source=1&sid_create=2166910631.