|
Nidan Essay by Jirka R. Friedl Aiki Dojo Mainz 21.5.97 |
||
| It has been two years now, that I left Aikido of San Leandro after 10 months of being uchideshi. During my apprenticeship, Aikido became an integral part of my life, nothing special anymore, nothing to make big words about, just an everyday chore like eating breakfast, brushing teeth or going to work. I was not really aware of the changes I went through until I came back home to Germany and hit the environment I originated from. Looking back today, I notice how much my Aikido training helped me in managing my business and my life since then, and how much my life reflects my training. Being aware of these relations is greatly enhanced as I teach Aikido in Germany. On my way to class at night, I think about the experiences I had that day and how they can help me explain certain aspects of Aikido. My training gave me the courage to start a career on my own. I had less fear taking on this new challenge and more faith in the fact that if I treat it like my training on the mat, it will take me to success. It's just like a new technique I had to learn, and though it might be difficult to understand at first, sticking with it will make it easy after a while. This reminds me of the consistency taught in Aikido: choosing a path and walking it without fear and regrets. Coming to the classes twice or more times a day, even while not feeling like it at that time, probably being terribly sore, yet still not forced by somebody else but just overcoming yourself, is a great training of discipline. Working with business partners is greatly enhanced by the training of etiquette and respect to the partners on the mat. To try to be a good and receiving partner for the more experienced sempais as well as to respect beginners, to feel and dissipate their insecurities is also greatly appreciated by people who never even heard about Aikido. Being corrected on the mat, even after years of practice of a particular technique, knowing one never really reaches perfection, but feeling comfortable with the correction is another skill I learned. How many times do arguments arise from situations where one partner feels offended or intimidated by another, leaving no other reaction but to become unreasonable and to strike back with whatever is in their mind's reach, bringing up a big fight from a little word. Just like a lot of beginners in Aikido try to justify a little mistake they have been corrected on, since they feel personally attacked. I learned to take an aggressive partner not as an enemy, but as a difficult uke or nage who helps me improve, to be able to step beside myself and look at the situation rationally and find a way to make it better, while not letting my ego get involved. My overall strategy is like training randori: trying to be ahead of the situation, being aware of the positioning of my partners and their intentions, yet not anticipating a particular attack, totally focusing on it and being surprised by another, but staying open and flexible to allow spontaneity. When I arrive at class at night in Germany, I sometimes have the feeling, that my whole emphasis reversed as in kaeshi waza. Then it appears to me, that being on the mat is my everyday common life, while being out in the world doing business is my Aikido training. To me, it's not about the application of aikido techniques and their theories, it's more about never to stop training. |
||