The question-
Why does aikido seem to attract certain kinds of personalities? In order to elaborate on what I am asking, I intend to point out something my mother noticed about aikidoists when I first started training back in 1997. She asked me "why does aikido attract so many passive aggressive personalities?" Ever since then, I started to notice that the people at the dojo believe that the only way to use aikido in their personal conflicts is to ignore bad behavior, and then let their unhappiness about the subject "ooze" out somewhere else. I put "ooze" in quotations because my dear friends Donna and Andrew Miller use that phrase any time I start bitching about unresolved matters.
Back to the point, people seem to think that aikido is just a tricky way of ignoring problems. They call it Tenkan. Tenkan is an aikido technique that involves letting your partner's energy pass by as you turn to get out of the way. But, just as in the physical technique, if you just let things go by, but lose your posture (analogus to behaving without integrity, dignity, and honesty) in the process, you didn't do it very well. Being centered (another aikido term used ad-nausium) means being able to say "no", and say what needs to be said at the right time, without making it a personal attack. I only wish that such things could be taught to people. I am slowly trying to decrease the size of my own diaper
I'm not sure if it belongs here or with "novice" but I think the "Student Intake Questioneer" could
ReplyDeletebe both. Check it out on Aikiweb July columns.
Novices have a "Student Intake Questionaire", and no, there is no diaper big enough for that either. As a result, I will provide the novice questionaire for choosing a sensei. Approach potential sensei's with the following questions:
ReplyDelete1. Do you have a name, or does everyone just call you sensei?
2. Does your husband or wife call you sensei?
3. Do you require aspiring students to fill out a "Student Intake Questionaire?"
4. Do you tell your students "this is a 20 year technique?" If so, do any of them ever get it in in 20 years, or are they still saying that 20 years later?
5. When you have a problem with your students, what color does your face turn, rather than dealing with the issue directly?
6. Have you ever been attacked by a guerrilla? (inside joke)
7. Do the bandages on your student's arms come from some form of harmonious injury?
8. Do you feel that everyone else's aikido is not martial enough? If so, do you wake up in the middle of the night screaming because of it?
9. Let me rephrase the last question: deep down, do you really wish that you were just practicing Karate or Judo?
10. Do you make your students pass certain rights of assention over a course of serveral years before they are allowed to dress themselves properly to train?
11.When I get a black belt, does that mean I will be deadly? I mean, will I be able to go into a bar and just clean the place up, because that is one of my favorite fantasies.
12.And last but not least: Do you really think that you are doing what O'Sensei was doing?
Laugh cause it's funny, cry because it's true