Re: Jujitsu master, 77, trains paratroopers

I've just read an atricle in the local Metro newspaper and I feel I need to react to it. As I have recently read a book about nonviolent communication (NVC), so I try to summarise my reaction to the above mentioned article accordingly: when I read the article about a 77 old woman who was able to 'beat' trained paratroopers I felt angry and frustrated because I needed that the role of aikido was properly introduced and acknowledged in the article.

At first, I was furious for about 15 minutes and just cursed the newspaper and whoever wrote the article. Then I tried to turn this experience into something positive which resulted in the blog post you are reading now. Before I discuss some other points based on the article, you may want to read the article first: Jujitsu master, 77, trains paratroopers.

And now the points. Common misconceptions, lack of knowledge, etc., using the article as a basis:

1. As far as I understand things, Ueshiba Kisshomaru (Kissomaru in the article) was not a samurai. He may have come from a samurai family (I haven't checked or learned that), may have kept many of the samurai philosophy but the samurai class disappeared at the end of the 19th century (Meiji restoration, see Wikipedia).
2. I don't know what 'the ways of the aikido' are. Aikido is a way itself. Maybe it's 'ways' because every person walks a different path, a different way. Nevertheless, I doubt the author meant it this way. Probably it should have been 'budo' instead.
3. Generally, I guess people have heard about martial arts at some point in their lives, they know several words and that's it: karate - where you kick and punch your 'foe' (not attacker! just think about the intent). Kendo - there are championships, they wear nice helmets and armor, they shout, so people remember that kendo exists. Jujitsu - take your opponent down and twist, lock, etc. until they start crying. Aikido - what is that? (I'm not saying this is I think about the mentioned martial arts but I think this is the way people tend to see them.)
4. 77 year old woman defeats paratroopers - if she really does aikido (she must use elements of it as she learned "everything there was to know" from Ueshiba Kisshomaru) it doesn't matter how old she is and whether she is a woman or not. 77 year old Fujita sensei has just stopped travelling the world to hold seminars twice every year (he retired from international seminar this year, as far as I know). I know what it is like to receive ukemi from him (although I did so only about 3 times): he barely seemed to move, made absolutely no effort and I was down on the mat. More importantly, I was down without having had to go down because of the pain I felt. There was just no other way of going. Did it matter how old he was? Only in the sense that it needs a lot of time and practice to achieve a level at which you can do a technique on the attacker with no effort at all. And you have to be attacked! At that age you will certainly not charge at anyone. It's much more comfortable to use the energy of others :).
5. I'm sure the lady did not attack any of the paratroopers, even if her mainly used martial art was not aikido. They probably came at her and they went down with the same speed and momentum.
6. This is what I should not be writing according to NVC but I still feel I need to write it down, as I'm not NVC-skilled enough: if I was to write a populist article about a 77 year old lady who brings down attacking soldiers at least I should be prepared and have learned something about the martial arts and persons I intend to mention in my article, even if the general quality of the newspaper tends to be reasonably low. (and why I shouldn't be writing this blog post is because the latter sentence indicates that I judge the article writer. If I was talking to him/her I didn't really stand a chance of connecting, understanding them this way. Just like in aikido where I'm not supposed to be speculating about how uke should be attacking but I should blend as well as possible.)