Dueling with O-sensei by Ellis Amdur

Author:Ellis Amdur [Amdur, Ellis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Freelance Academy Press
Published: 2016-09-14T22:00:00+00:00

What is to be done with abuse?

From the time my children were very small, I—like so many parents—began to teach them about not trusting strangers. I taught them a secret code word, without which, they should never accompany anyone, even if they said their mother or I were sick or injured. It hurt my heart to damage their natural trust in other people, but I hadn’t stolen their innocence at all. It was those who would hurt my sons, not I. When my younger son was about four-and-a-half, someone tried to kidnap him. He bit his way free. Without his courage as well as my teaching him how to defend himself, where would that child be today?

I am occasionally invited to teach aikidō seminars. What I often do is similar to what I did for my children. I often try to open my student’s eyes, at the expense, perhaps, of their innocence. I teach ukemi. The entire weekend is a dissection of falling, from the very first movements, because many people have learned to fall quite incorrectly. They end up injuring themselves. I teach how to take ukemi in such a way that one can always take a breakfall. An ushiro ukemi, where one falls backwards, is a conscious choice only taken when assured, in the middle of that technique, that one is safe.

In the course of such a training seminar, almost everyone there learns to take at least limited breakfalls from all the major throws in the compendium of aikidō techniques, including hip throws. During this time, instruction on techniques is limited to what is necessary to set up the proper circumstances to learn to fall in a particular manner. What I teach is to take no one for granted. From a martial perspective, it is disrespectful, if not suicidal, to regard an opponent as less than dangerous. You are insulting your training partner if you fall in a manner in which you do not protect yourself—at least if you know how to do so.

The proper manner of ukemi also sets you up to reverse your opponent’s technique. Without the ability to do counter-techniques, I do not believe that one is truly effective in aikidō.

You are, thereby, at least somewhat prepared for both the malevolent and the inept. You only have to protect yourself once, because you don’t have to give them a second chance.80

Which brings me to my next point—the art of departure. Decide beforehand that you will never accept someone willfully hurting you if it is in your power to stop it. If a fellow student, junior or senior, tries to harm you, take an effective fall to counter this, get up, look them in the eye and say, “I don’t want to practice with you anymore.” Depending on their response and your personal inclination, you can then reply, “Because you tried to hurt me,” or “You know why,” or simply walk away and find someone else to practice with. You can also say, “Don’t ever try to practice with me again,” if the act was particularly reprehensible.

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