East Bay Aikido - Oakland, California

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Growing Up

by David Lynch, Editor, Hakama
A Journal of Aikido in New Zealand

The 13-yr-old was not interested in the basic principles of aikido, so I thought a gentle application of nikyo might get the message across more directly.

"That doesn't hurt," he said, showing off to his mates, "I can easily escape from this," and proceeded to jump and dodge around, thereby practically guaranteeing himself a broken wrist, had I not released my hold.

Whether the child was acting out some TV "martial arts" fantasy or whether he was just being a kid, he had to be forgiven since he had no idea of the risk he was taking.

Unfortunately many adults approach aikido with a similar attitude, "testing" the techniques without the slightest idea of what they are doing or just how meaningless it is to play the fool on the mat. In the process they cut themselves off from the real teaching, and also risk getting hurt.

It would be nice if they would grow up and start taking aikido seriously.

    Most aikido teachers (with some brutal exceptions) do not use the fear of injury or death as a means of discipline, although it would not take much to turn "peaceful" aikido techniques, designed to control and defuse violence, into instruments of torture and mayhem.

    If the instructor is not to resort to such means, the responsibility for achieving an atmosphere of safety, enjoyment and yet seriousness in the dojo rests with the students themselves.

I sympathize with school teachers these days trying to control children who have no interest in learning, when they are not allowed to resort to corporal punishment, however open to abuse the latter may be.

Likewise, in these enlightened times, the old methods of teaching budo, incorporating the hearty slap across the face and the slightly more than token atemi to the ribs, would be unacceptable, particularly in aikido.

For the most part we are dealing with adults who come to learn aikido's central message of non-aggression and realize that to do so they must put aside ego-contests and open their minds to a different approach.

   Unfortunately some lack the discipline, which must come from within and which requires a degree of maturity. (The word "discipline" comes from "disciple" and means "to learn" not merely to conform or submit to physical abuse.)

   If people treat aikido as a contest, they disqualify themselves from learning its true meaning. They demonstrate by their attitude that they do not really want to learn - and of course, they don't! Nothing could be fairer than that.

   It may seem that they get what they deserve, but, in the end, it is not so much that you get what you deserve in life as that you get what you are.

If you are interested in subscribing to Hakama - and I highly recommend it - you can contact David via email at david@aikido.co.nz or you can write him at David Lynch, 365 Mill Creek Road, RD 1, Whitianga, Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand. Hakama is full of articles, information and humor. David and his wife, Hisae, also run a Bed and Breakfast. Fly down and say "Hi." You can also find out more online at http://www.aikido.co.nz.