Marketplace: The Art of Peace by George Ohsawa - 3 Replies

From: Fred Little on Tue, 22 Sep 2020 14:33:35 -0600

[QUOTE=Peter A Goldsbury;355025]Hello Fred, The seller has not specified a method for shipping to Japan. Hence I cannot buy the book immediately; I can only "commit" to buying the book. Best wishes, PAG[/QUOTE] Dear Peter, Please send your physical mail address to me as a message. Sources with awareness of the seller's thinking have advised me that he might lift that restriction for an individual known to him, so I'll see what can be done. Best, FL

Techniques: Budo Renshu: seven years after - 6 Replies

From: Ivan Labushevskiy on Tue, 22 Sep 2020 14:10:10 -0600

2 Craig Moore Older Takeda, older Ueshiba and younger Takeda have left numerous forms to add 200 more to practice. Quantity of forms leads to ideas behind it. Budo Renshu might be a good tool to verify ideas passed by forms and dealing with unknown forms. It's free to show and could appears the useful in exploring way. Not many people shares their experience around Budo Renshu last 7 years. Hope it'll changes next time.

Training: Athletics in aikido - 12 Replies

From: Peter Kelly on Tue, 22 Sep 2020 13:41:43 -0600

This has been an interesting yet I am sure unpopular discussion. I came to Aikido after 3 seasons as a professional athlete. Years of training 6-8 hours a day, plyometrics, weight and strength training, flexibility training and endurance training. I was rather astounded at what I believed a lack of athletic ability I saw in the dojo's I trained at and visited. You are right in saying that athletics in Aikido is almost discouraged, and strength is a dirty word, but that is because the word strength and power are understood to be the same thing by those uninitiated in understanding functionality of the physical structure. A person can have strength, a weightlifter for example can isolate parts of there structure and generate force from bulk. But a great athlete uses the entire structure as a whole, not as a segmented isolated part, to generate power from the root of the structure, the ground, through the structure to an intended point. Ground reactive force is not new to any athlete that had to develop a high vertical jump (mine was 41inches at my peak), and body shape and alignment as you stated are not foreign to anyone that has spent considerable time doing gym weights work, especially deadlifts. I still believe the founder encouraged farming in his students to develop these physical skills. Having grown up on a farm, the amount of repetitive lifting, digging, carrying and bending done on a daily basis forces the body to understand how to generate efficient power, and how to repeat such movements without to much duress over long periods of time. Decades later I still have a weight lifting program I follow, to keep a sense of connected power, and to try to preserve the stabilising muscles that surround knees that have taken a beating from many years of jumping. I try to encourage such pursuits in my students. I found it a breath of fresh air to read this post, and I will continue to encourage those that train in Aikido to get a stronger grasp on what in means to live in a proprioceptive, kinaesthetic, strong connected structure. And I support your observations entirety. Thank you.

AikiWeb System: Obituary: Hiroshi Somemiya Shihan (1932-2020) - 1 Replies

From: Jun Akiyama on Mon, 21 Sep 2020 07:52:10 -0600

The rest of the obituary as submitted follows: [quote]Somemiya Shihan was fluent in English and Russian, a person of deep culture and a true gentleman. He was a direct student of the Founder. His style of Aikido was reminiscent of that of the late Kisaburo Osawa Shihan. The way he taught was very hands-on. He would practice with everyone on the mat, transmitting his techniques through physical contact. He always encouraged his students to develop their own character and seek their own path in Aikido through consistent training. But he also always stressed that we must keep in mind that the techniques comprise only the surface of what Aikido is, and that there is much more depth to Aikido, a much deeper meaning that O'Sensei intended. That this unseen aspect is most important. To seek this elusive ideal is very difficult and is an endless struggle. Somemiya Shihan never aspired to be a great teacher but saw his role as an administrator in helping to promote Aikido across the world. He was fiercely loyal to O'Sensei and Second Doshu, and served whole-heartedly at Hombu Dojo and at the IAF. He was an unsung hero of the international Aikido movement. Few people would realize the difficulties of promoting Aikido across boundaries and cultures, and the difficulties in resolving the inevitable human clashes and politics in an international organization. Somemiya Shihan hated organizational and inter-personal politics but accepted that it was within his duties to resolve conflicts and restore harmony within the Aikido community. It was an unenviable and thankless task which he took on without complaint. To him, the elusive ideal in Aikido is harmony, an eternal harmony with oneself, within our community and society. It was the ideal he was always striving for. In recent years his health deteriorated and Somemiya Shihan refrained from travelling and teaching. Our General Secretary Angela Lee visited him every year and frequently talked to him checking on his condition. He was all well until we were sadly informed that he passed away peacefully at home. Due to the Covid situation his family held a private funeral. Somemiya Shihan is now resting in eternal peace. He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by Aikido members all across the world. Please join us in praying for the repose of his noble soul.[/quote] -- Jun