May, 2002
An Age-Old Dilemma
Previous Issues
I’ve seen young masters of wrestling, of Karate, of Tae Kwon Do,
of Judo, of boxing, of kick boxing, of Sumo. But I’ve never seen
a young master of Aikido.
If you’ve been practicing Aikido for a while, or at least if you've been interested in it, you’ve probably seen videos taken of Aikido’s founder, Morihei Ueshiba, just a few months before his death. He tosses around young attackers like they were no more bother than a bunch of excited puppies. He his happy, almost gleeful. His posture is perfect, his movements quick, flowing, and precise. He is like an elf moving magically and effortlessly. And he was 86 at the time.
Flash back to when he was 50. Ueshiba was a sturdier man, but stiffer, and grimmer. He threw people convincingly, but his fingers jutted out, revealing the tension in his arms and shoulders. His face looked tight, even angry. You could see the passion in his movements. You could even see the genius. But mastery? Not yet.
That is simply the way it is with Aikido. Though Ueshiba invented it (or did he discover it?), even he himself had to wait for mastery to come. It takes decades. And that brings us to one of the most important points we need to consider in our practice:
Though we age, we must find ways to continue.
We have a dojo with students ranging from five years
old to those past 60. And for some reason—be it the spirit of our
dojo, the commitment or our students, or the inspiration of Maruyama Sensei—
people seem to stick around for a long time. Though our dojo is made younger
by the new people who join, it also grows older with everyone who stays.
Those people who stay grow stronger, and calmer, and
more relaxed, and more positive. But oddly enough, when these people pass
a certain point in life, this progress happens in concert with a certain
kind of deterioration. Bones become more brittle, flexibility takes a
little more work, ukemi takes more effort, and injuries become slower
to heal.
So in recognizing the facts of this stage of our lives,
are we to factor in a gradual phase-out of our Aikido practice? Not on
your life! There is too much to gain, decade after decade after decade.
And the only way to experience it is to keep coming, for years. For that
to happen, we need strategies for how we will approach practice as our
bodies age and change.
Here are a few of those strategies. But you can be sure,
I’ll have more in a decade.
- Take care of your injuries. Immediately. Whether you
need ice, or a doctor, or just a few minutes to rest, it is important
that you do the right thing, right away. When you're young, you bounce
back from injuries quickly, often without doing much about them. But if
you keep treating injuries like they're of little consequence, at some
point you'll get the one injury that teaches you your body isn’t
like that any more. It’s the injury that takes months to get better,
that affects your practice for weeks and weeks. Better to get in the habit
of taking care of injuries now.
Informing your instructor is also a mandatory. He or
she might have ideas for how to take care of it, or who you should talk
to in order to find out more. (At our dojo, there is often a doctor, or
a couple of them, in the house.) Also, this helps us to keep tabs on problems—with
technique, or the people doing them—so they will occur less often.
- Take your attacker's balance when throwing. If you
take someone’s balance, it minimizes the chance for injury. How?
By getting your attacker’s body out of the way of the throw.
If you twist someone’s wrist hard and that person’s
balance has been minimized, he will probably fall. But if he still has
his balance when you throw, his wrist might be sprained, or it might break.
Breaking bones and harming joints is not how Aikido works.
It works by throwing your attacker. And the easiest, most powerful, and
safest way to do that is by taking balance.
- Modify your practice when stiff, achy, or injured.
Many times when your body is hurt, you can still continue practicing.
At any given time, many people in the dojo are doing exactly that. This
modification can range from avoiding certain stretches, to not practicing
any ukemi (falls).
It is always permissible to work in a group of three
people in which you just practice the throw, and let the other two people
take the falls. Feel funny doing this, like you are somehow not pulling
your weight? First of all, remember that we all learn by being thrown.
But also consider that someday, those other two people might be in your
situation. And by practicing this way now, you'll make them feel more
comfortable doing the same in the future.
- Work on your rolls. Why do we roll? To protect ourselves.
This isn’t how we expect attackers to behave if we use Aikido on
the street. It’s how we behave to preserve our bodies in practice.
Think carefully about what rolls are intended to do.
They take the energy you are given in a throw and allow it to be gradually
dissipated in a safe and comfortable way. How do you judge if your rolls
are good? They are smooth, quiet (except, perhaps, for the slapping of
your arm), comfortable, and fun. As you improve, your rolls should also
become sharp. Quick when they need to be, saving your body in the briefest
instant, while the whole experience seems breezy and natural to you. But
don’t try to rush to this stage. Mainly, just stay comfortable.
- Exercise. Stay in shape. Sensei surprised me a few
years ago when he asked me what I did for exercise. I never imagined him
thinking about this, assuming he just kept his mind on Aikido. But this
is an important part of our overall training, especially as we get older.
The fact that our martial art is Aikido makes exercise
even more important. It takes a certain level of fitness to be rolling
on the mat and flying through the air. Plus, that fitness helps give us
a cushion for when unexpected or unintended things happen.
But also, Aikido—especially on the throwing end—gives
us very little exercise. It's minimum effort, remember. So we really need
to supplement it in order to be healthy individuals.
The deterioration that occurs as we age will not necessarily
be progressive. It may come in fits and spurts as knees get weaker, backs
lose flexibility, and odd parts of us get nagging injuries. A consistent
exercise program helps to prevent all of these.
- Teach. Look for opportunities to share what you have learned with others. As you age and continue practicing, the amount you have to share will grow to huge proportions. And sharing it takes very little toll on your body, yet makes your mind and body feel great. So develop your ability to teach now. And when you are 86 years old and don’t feel like rolling around on a mat any more, you will still know that you belong in the dojo.
Instructors’
Class
On May 14, we will have our first Instructors’ Class. This class
is intended to help those who teach Aikido in our dojo. It is open to
anyone who teaches at any time in our dojo, whether in classes for Adults,
Teens, or Kids, as a regular instructor or a last-minute substitute, or
as a proctor for Open Mat sessions. Our intent is not just to show you
how to do techniques better, but how to approach teaching itself. Please
come with questions. All people who instruct at the Rochester and Victor
dojo are encouraged to come. The first session will be taught by Jim on
Tuesday, May 14, from 8-9 PM. This session will be closed to other students.
Upcoming Events
Ran Tori Class is on Wednesday, May 15 from 7-8.
Weapons Class, Wednesday, May 15 from 8-9.
Ki Class, Thursday, May 23 from 8-9 PM.
Video Night Thursday, May 23 at 9 PM.
Summer Camp with Maruyama Sensei, at Villanova University, July 25-28.
Maruyama Sensei in Rochester, August 2-4.
Recent Testing
Congratulations to all those in our dojo who recently
tested and were promoted to their next rank. For 6th kyu, Christian Haacke,
Jeff Miller, and Carroll Wilcox. For 5th kyu, Jeff Colaizzi, Baron Duffy,
Christine Esswein, Ingrid Mesa, Jessica Parry, and David Petterson. For
4th kyu, Bob Martini and Phil Plummer. And for 3rd kyu, Harold Leve.
Nikyo Monthly Banner
This month shows the second of several banners designed
for Nikyo Monthly by Christine Kennedy. Keep track of the one you like
best, and you'll get a chance to cast your vote for your favorite one
soon!
As we grow old, . . . the beauty steals inward.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson