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CAN THERE BE SUCH A THING AS A "PROFESSIONAL" SENSEI?

For those of you who are interested, the actual quote from the Bible is "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." I Timothy 6:10 NIV.

It is not productive to live one's life based upon poorly conceived philosophies. What is valuable is to learn from those who not only learned Aikido philosophy from the Founder, but, who understand these philosophies from practical day-to-day experience.

In Japan, it is the rule, rather than the exception, for teachers to make their living from the teaching of Aikido and the operation of a successful school. Lest we be misunderstood, there are some teachers in Japan who view Aikido as a hobby. These teachers are in a minority. The view of Kurita Sensei (who is a direct student of the Founder) is that Seikikai instructors must be professionals. Professionals in every sense of the word.

That having been said, we need to understand what is meant by "professional instructor."

Seikikai's instructors make no distinction between everyday life and life on the "mat." Kurita Sensei often says that, as a student, you must always seek to elevate your thinking. The thinking of the "masses" is not what we should seek to emulate. Just because something is popular, does not mean that it is correct.

Seikikai's instructors are always motivated to teach with kindness and understanding, yet, to never back down from "correctness."

As professionals, we regard our students as clients. The professional always attempts to help or advise the client to the clients best benefit.

The only way to do this is if the instructor is constantly engaged in an effort to improve his thinking and his technique. For Seikikai instructors, this means living the life of a professional instructor without the distractions of an outside "job."

PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTORS

A professional instructor should have most of the qualities listed below. If you have the desire to be a professional instructor, you can be a better instructor than someone who simply falls into that position.

The prospective professional must seek out the best instruction available. Aligning himself with the best instructors available and learning what the instructor has to teach. In the "West" it is often thought that studying under many teachers is an asset. In Japan, this is not the case. Traditional instructors, as a rule, will not freely teach someone who shows no apparent loyalty to the teacher. They will often say that it is fine for you to study with many teachers and even encourage you to go to other teachers and provide introductions to the other teacher. But, look to see who is the student who is "next in line." Most often, it is a student who has, over a long period of time, demonstrated consistent loyalty to the teacher.

Simply put, you can't have it all. You have to make choices and decisions in life. You must decide what it is that you want and pursue it with single-minded dedication. You have to decide what it is in your present life and in your future that you are willing to forgo forever in order to achieve your stated goal.

A full-time instructor has to work to be in that position. Very few people can simply begin teaching for a living. There will be a struggle. But the direction of one's efforts and the dedication to the ideal of being a professional should be the guiding principle in choosing and doing the work necessary to become a full-time professional.

Even before you are a "professional", you must adhere to very strict and well-defined principles. You must always be punctual. The classes must begin on time. It is, without a doubt, unprofessional to show up late for a class. If you must be late, it is your responsibility to make sure that someone will be there on time to make sure that the class takes place on time and with the best interests and safety of the students assured.

The classes must end on time. It is often pleasant to work out. But, as a leader, it is your responsibility to make sure that the classes end on a high note and on time. Your students may have other obligations and responsibilities. There may be a spouse or children at home who require that student's attention. Don't steal time from the student's family. It is unethical to do so, and may cause your best students to drop out at some point because of conflicts with Aikido and the family. Your teaching must strengthen and benefit the family and work situation of your students.

Your clients (students) are of number one importance. It doesn't matter how advanced you are in rank. Your clients are number one. If you forget this, you will not have any students, and you are not teaching Aikido. Take care of your students. They are precious to you not only as a source of income, but as a source of professional pride. If your students don't show improvement, you are probably not much of a teacher. They are your reflection.

It is unethical to use your school as a sexual hunting ground. It is dishonorable to "use" your students in this way. You, as the "leader" in the dojo, have an unfair advantage over your students. They might actually comply with your desires in a misguided attempt to curry favor with you. That is simply wrong.

Often, Aikido teachers do marry students. And, often, the courtship takes place outside of the dojo. This is proper. Very few things will ruin the kimochi (spirit or atmosphere) of a dojo faster or more permanently than the blatant favoritism and lack of discretion that occurs when there are boyfriend - girlfriend problems between the sensei and a student.

Whether you like it or not, students properly look up to a teacher for guidance or as an example. If you don't want to be in this position, then you should not be a teacher. The lame excuse "I didn't ask to be a role model", is not only unconscionable, but evil. The job of the professional is to set an example - a good example. If you want to be teacher, make a study of ethics and morality a priority. And don't even ask "who's morals." Act like a human being and live up to your responsibilities. Animals have no sense of morality. If you think of yourself as an animal, you have no right to teach.

Make morality and principles the subject of your ongoing search and the cornerstone of your teaching. This is Aikido.

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Potential

by Kangas Sensei

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When I first started looking for a martial art to study I was really attracted to the Japanese forms of martial arts because they projected a feeling of quiet menace.The kind of feeling you got when the guy in the movies gave a bad look and everyone else backs off.Judo do had been around for a while, Karate was in its heyday, and Kung Fu was the new kid on the block.

Go-Ju ryu Karate seemed like a good idea at the time. It was one of the five major forms of Japanese Karate. Also kendo had the same appeal for me as a very hard and focused style as well as having really cool threads,(vernacular of the 70's).

Parks Sensei(not a Sensei then) suggested Aikido, an unknown art in the 70's, as an art with high philosophical underpinnings, Aikido as we know, is based an the art of the sword (itself having many schools of thought). It should be noted that Aikido is also a type of Ju-Jitsu, which at its basic meaning is yielding art. Throughout Japanese history Ju–jitsu has incorporated many arts, blending, adding, and deleting techniques as was appropriate to the application of the day. Aikido still retains this ability today, although there is argument to the contrary. Many say that Aikido is an antique art because it uses antique attacks. There are others who say that Aikido is a dynamic art not limited to ancient techniques. There is some truth to both of these schools of thought, so lets start by examining one of the basic attacks we use in Aikido.

When we practice Aikido we are really practicing the art of the sword without the fear of being cut. This is a safety factor automatically built in to what were doing.. Without the sword, (or Jo )we have a lot more variation of technique available to use. When we use the attack of tsuki kotegaeshi also sometimes known as munetsuki kotegaeshi (kotegaeshi is the finish, pining the wrist), it has to do with thrusting forward, but not the fist. It is thrusting foreword of tanto (knife) or Jo (staff), or Bokken (wooden sword) iaito (practice sword) or Shinken (live sword), well you get the idea. Usually we practice so that the attacker has to take at least one step forward to attack giving us distance to perform proper timing.At its largest movement we turn 180 degrees, making or body turn completely every time so it becomes a habit so as attacks speed up we no longer have to think about turning. We often describe the move as a turning move, while true, doesn't begin to describe the technique. To begin the technique you start by sliding your foot forward just off to uke's (attackers) side and forward before you begin to turn, it is actually an entering technique and not just a turning technique.

There are of course many ways to perform this move and even those who deny the value of studying the swords arts cannot deny the relationship to sword movement. Many new students ask how to apply this move to a punch of any kind. My first reply is that this isn't for a punch, which of course isn't a satisfactory answer. There are other techniques better suited to this problem, but were going on the premise that Aikido is a living art able to adapt, and has potential therefore to deal with a punch using kotegaeshi (outside wrist turn). We'll also say that this is your favorite move, or perhaps your only move, or it's the one you've seen in the movies.

We say the first rule in Aikido is to get out of the way (of whatever is coming at you )and that theory also applies to the sword arts. When we practice turning to get out of the way remember we said the first and most important function was to enter (to the side). Usually at the point of turning were using the hand closest to the uke's body grabs to start the application of kotegaeshi. Since were dealing with a punch, and at that is it a haymaker or controlled recoiling punch?We'll take the later, because the former is much easier to deal with.We'll also say it's aite's (attacking partner's) right hand. As we enter we deflect with our left hand an can apply atemi with the right, remember, we've changed the attack from thrust to punch, so we change the way we get to kotegaeshi. We don't have to really grab with our left hand but simply deflect as the right hand comes down on aite's hand applying kotegaeshi.

At high speed it looks as though you've slipped the punch as would a boxer might and also punched. When performing Aikido as practical street defense it does look somewhat like Karate.

When aite is pinned you could again apply atemi (strike) or shime (choke). Often Karate as defense applies atemi, a throw or sweep, and atemi again. In Aikido we can apply atemi or a feint then a throw with a pin and then a choke or a strike if one were so inclined. The main focus in Aikido training is the throws and locks, whereas in Karate the focus is in atemi, striking with hands and feet.

In this application we find that not much more than a shift forward on the forward foot enables you to move in such a way to accomplish kotegaeshi. Entering in this manner is very much like foot and body movement in sword where a cut can be reversed quite rapidly while entering toward the opponent with multiple strikes.Aikido has been combined with every conceivable martial art including boxing. One of the more interesting Aikido instructors in Japan is Nishio Sensei, who at an early age studied Judo to about 4th or 5th dan and switched to Karate to around 6th dan again switching to Aikido where he has achieved 7th dan along with about the same in Kenjutsu. He is now in his 70s, having spent his entire life in the martial arts.Every time he achieved a fairly high rank in one martial art he would feel he was limited with what he could do and so would look for another art to further his studies.He finally settled an Aikido for he felt it was the art with the most potential.When Kurita Sensei was a student, and someone other than OSensei was teaching on Sundays, he would sneak out of the dojo (where he lived) and go to Nishio Sensei's dojo in another city to study Aikido. He said Nishio Sensei's techniques were very innovative and always very interesting, and gave him a broader perspective on the potential of Aikido.

It is sometimes frustrating to try to perfect techniques without understanding the why. Most Japanese instructors will teach as they were taught, that's the way it was done therefore that's the way they teach it. The instructors at Seikikai prefer to make the pursuit of Aikido fun as well as challenging.However it is important to perfect even the antique techniques because they are the basis for correct movement before we start to ad lib.I firmly believe in trying to understand the basis of the techniques we call Aikido, that by itself should keep a person busy for a lifetime of study, realizing not only Aikido's potential but our own.

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