The key points to take away are: initially, don’t slide off the attack line; pivot off it. Also, take a nice kneeling step to keep Uke off-balance before the kiri movement.

Advanced pointer: When guiding Uke’s arm and extending it, try to grab the pulse-reading side of his wrist with your outside palm and keep it flush through the extension. This will extend Uke without twisting his wrist unduly. We are kind partners.

I thought that was hilarious and definitely hits the mark. This was written by a man who decided at the age of 50 to take up Judo. It’s his experiences and also a look at the world of Judo.  I highly recommend this book to anyone, martial artist or not.

合気道パーフェクトマスター

In this publication, Doshu and (mainly) his son explain key points to posture, kamae, ukemi, as well as techniques between Aikikai 5th kyu and 3rd kyu levels. The DVD is 97 minutes long and entirely in Japanese (and for region 2 players – not like that means anything anymore). This is great because the viewer can hear the names of techniques with authentic Japanese pronunciation. In my case, I want to hear what Doshu thinks are important points as he explains key points and features. This book and DVD is not a mechanical step-by-step instructional video, but rather it focuses on critical elements that can be applied to more advanced techniques. That is why it is called Perfect Master.

The first instruction is how to sit in seiza and stand from it, then return to seiza. You may think you are a rock star at sitting in seiza and getting up from it, but they make it look cool and polished in the DVD. Also, whether you like to keep your hands up in kamae or not, Doshu makes keeping hands up カッコウイイ。 If for no other reason, when doing Aikido you should set aside your karate stance, your judo stance and/or your kickboxing stance because there is just something confident and non-threatening about Doshu’s Aikido stance that we can learn from, in my humble opinion.

The DVD then goes through ikkyo to yonkyo from various attacks. This is not a complete set of techniques like Tissier has made in his DVD set, but techniques are repeated at different speeds with key points highlighted, plus they are demonstrated by Doshu so it is a good reference. For example, where to press in yonkyo in explained in both omote and ura versions.

合気道パーフェクトマスター screenshot

Doshu yonkyo omote nerve

Doshu yonkyo omote twist

Doshu yonkyo ura nerve

Doshu yonkyo ura twist

In the screenshots, pay attention to Uke’s pinky finger to notice which arm Doshu is performing yonkyo on. In the DVD he demonstrates yonkyo omote on one arm, but yonkyo ura on the other arm. The screenshots are misleading as they look like they are done on the same arm. Be careful.

As far as I can discern, Doshu presses on the same nerves for both yonkyo omote and ura.

I don’t want to hurt to my friends when we practice. That is why I choose to do yonkyo a couple inches higher on the inner forearm – there is muscle there to protect the nerves better. I try to think about my partner when doing this technique and follow the Golden Rule. Some people out there can put their whole body weight on my fragile nerve if they get upset and it is their turn to do yonkyo.

Zagi Shomenuchi Sankyo Ura

Zagi Shomenuchi Sankyo Ura

Zagi Shomenuchi Sankyo Ura

Zagi Shomenuchi Sankyo Ura

Zagi Shomenuchi Sankyo Ura

Mr. Tissier does a hand switch similar to how he does the standing sankyo ura version. This is a very elegant sankyo ura.

1. Beginner’s Stage

I’d say it’s the first year or two, depending on how intensely the student is training and how talented the student is.

2. Intermediary Stage

It starts at the time when the student has a comfortable ukemi technique, and can do many of the basic techniques in Aikido without much hesitation. From this point the students usually develop very quickly, and need to train often and with vigor.

The most common rule for dojos outside Japan is to allow hakama when the student reaches the grade 3 kyu. If later, I fear that the good influence the hakama can have on posture and circularity of movement is lost.

This is a very intense period in anyone’s aikido development, and it is full of intense memories that we keep forever on.

They still need to work on their basics, certainly, but they also need to discover how much they have already learned – even to show off, occasionally. They will sneak in such moments, whether the teacher allows it or not. Anyway, the teacher must work hard to keep these students challenged, or they will get bored – or quit at a later time.

The intermediary student might be able to teach others some Aikido techniques, but rarely has the patience to do so, and misses important aspects when doing it.

3. Advanced Stage

It commences at the level usually associated with shodan, or right before that. The grade itself is not a trustworthy indicator, but the student has reached an ability that is unquestionable. The student also has a level of authority in his or her Aikido. The advanced student is familiar with most of the Aikido techniques, and comfortable also in teaching them to others.

Maybe that’s the best indication of the advanced student: the ability to teach others the Aikido techniques.

For a continued development, the advanced students need to reexamine their techniques.

The refinement of Aikido is done by revision. Advanced students should question what they have learned. They should dare to let go of solutions they have trusted this far, so that they are open to continued improvement even when it means a change from what they know well into something that makes them feel like beginners anew.

Of course, it takes an advanced teacher to make advanced students continue to learn, to challenge and inspire them.

4. Teacher Stage

This arrives when the student is quite competent to have a dojo of his or her own, become its head instructor and take responsibility for the development of its students from the beginning to the advanced level. The competence signified by the grade 4 dan is probably where this stage commences, but again – grade alone is no guaranteed measurement.

Excepts from Running an Aikido Dojo by Stefan Stenudd, November 2006.

“You must have a broader perspective than just the next class, but as the bottom line: you must want to train in the dojo and long for the next class, or something is wrong.”

“If you prefer a certain style of Aikido, allow the dojo to be devoted to it.”

“The more the dojo agrees with you, the more you agree with it, and you will be an inspired leader of it.”

“If for some reason the dojo develops into something that doesn’t suit you that well, don’t hesitate to leave it.”

“When a dojo is started from scratch, its first generation of members is of the greatest importance. They set the character of the dojo.”

“Don’t change your Aikido or the dojo system to attract a lot of people who would never want to train Aikido the way you want to. That only leads to trouble and conflict.”

“Consider carefully how to advertise for your dojo. Don’t stress the self-defense aspect if you’re not personally into that. Don’t use media or forums that mainly attract people of an attitude that is far from yours. In demonstrations, try not to show a way of doing Aikido that differs much from what you like the trainings to be.”

“Those who can’t take the heat you don’t want as members, anyway. Anybody who expects just to pay the fee and then be served is not fit to join a dojo.”

“I recommend you to make grading a fun event at regular intervals, but not give it an importance as if it were the goal of the training. It is not. Training is the goal of training.”

“If your dojo is a club, … a good general rule is to search for a Chairperson among those members who do not want to be one, and to make sure not to elect one who is eager for it … or else that person might get an attitude.”

“If senior students are involved in the teaching of newcomers, they will surely do all they can to make those people stay and continue their training.”

“Maybe you’re left without any yudansha, black belt, and quite probably you will not have members with which to train on the level you were used to. … You have to give your dojo a second chance, for the sake of the members remaining, and those yet to come.”

“If there is a big gap, so that almost all of the remaining members are of a much lower grade than the first generation, then you need to start by admitting to yourself that you didn’t take proper care of the regeneration of the dojo. You didn’t do enough to make newcomers welcome, or to assure that they were given a good enough training to develop as they should. You have to think of ways to improve in this respect.”

“You need to ensure that the most senior members of the ones remaining in the dojo are regarded as the core of the dojo, just as much as the first generation was before them. The trick is to make them feel that way. When the present seniors of the dojo feel like its seniors, they will help you to keep the dojo going.”

“The main inspiration in training Aikido is the learning process. Students practice towards perfection. Without the perspective of improvement, training is mere body exercise.”

“The teacher needs to feel that he or she is improving, or it’s just a job – with no or little pay, at that. So, who teaches the teacher? The students do.”

“Invite other teachers to give classes in your dojo! It has the same benefits for you as when you travel to seminars elsewhere – and then some. You get a chance to be a student like the others, in your own dojo.”

“Any teacher’s ideal is that the students should surpass him or her. But make them work for it, by your own continued development, at the same time as you do all you can to assist and inspire them in their progress.”

“(As a teacher) watch out for two things, though: pride and laziness.”

“Pride makes you avoid teaching techniques of which you don’t feel sure. Instead, you fill too much of your classes with the stuff that you excel at. Since practice makes perfect, you will surely improve on the techniques you already know well, but the rest of your Aikido risks to deteriorate.”

“Laziness is a slow-working poison. At the start it works much the same as pride: you avoid techniques that you are not comfortable with, for one reason or other, and spend excessive time on other techniques that you find easy to perform… A lazy teacher also avoids going to seminars or inviting other teachers to the dojo. Again, you don’t learn much.”

“A better goal for an Aikido teacher, if there should at all be one, is to cultivate one’s students until they can become teachers – to be a teacher of teachers.”

“The teacher is the needle, and the student is the thread.”

Stefan Stenudd interprets this as: “As a teacher you lead the students on, in a spirit of their improvement being the reason for it all. The needle goes first, but the thread remains.”

The first two falls are awkward on purpose as a reference. The rest are simulations of going straight down comfortably. There is no audio.

I guess what I am trying to do is to throw my body up and let my torso touch, then my stomach and finally my legs in a soft manner.