Life

Sometimes an ukemi is not performed the best way... Ukemi without using the arms is not the easiest one, that's why it's usually not recommended to beginners. If you want to try it, fold your hands, go down to shikko dachi and start rolling forward. You will see that it's harder to roll this way, but rolling without the use of the hands can come handy sometimes (think icy roads and some big china vase in your hands).

A couple of days ago, when I was writing the address of my dojo's website onto the pavement with chalk (with the aim of drawing attention to martial arts, especially to aikido), a little kid was coming by with his mother. As he saw what I was doing he asked his mother what I was writing there. After having received the answer from her, he immediately asked her mother "What is aikido?" I was curious about what people not doing martial arts might know about aikido so I waited patiently until the woman said something.

Before going on to relating to other people in the dojo, I would like to write about the overall process of dojo-change.
I've recently read about the steps of cultural shock (and I wrote a post about it which was lost just before submitting...), because of moving to a new country. The four steps of cultural shock are always there, and none of the steps can be skipped no matter how much you would want that. The only thing that might change is the duration of the individual stages. Before going onm here's the steps from Wikipedia:

Finding and settling in a new dojo is a real test. Unless you have something specific in mind, first you need to explore what options are there, then try some classes, and see if you can fit in the dojo. Then you can start training and settle down.

Now it's time to talk about the last self-defence principle. I'd like to start with an example from a movie. You might remember a film called Road house, or - in case you are too young to have seen it - it's recommended. Apart from the action scenes and some questionnable momentums in the film, there are some interesting things in it as well, such as the following: 

In an interview, when Paul Linden Sensei was asked about how someone should choose a dojo one of his points in the answer was the following: go and visit several dojos and see how people treat each other. If you want to be treated like the people there are treated (either by other students or by the sensei of the dojo) it's probably the place for you. I intended to keep this in mind when looking for a new dojo in the Netherlands.

A couple of days ago I was walking towards the train station after work. It was around 9pm but it was still not very dark. As I was walking I heard someone saying in a nervous-sounding voice: "Excuse me!!" It was a woman on a bycicle and she was saying this to an other woman walking just behind me. The pavement was wide, there weren't many people there walking but the bycicle woman wanted to cycle in the middle of it and anyone in her way had to get out.

In the past couple of days I have been noticing an interesting thing when I talk to some people: They don't listen. I don't want to complain about it because I'm not a perfect listener either and I kind of understand that people have some needs that need to be met; some needs that require that they can freely think what they want even if they are in a training environment and they are there to learn from the person they are talking to. By training environment, I don't really mean aikido training here, however, any kind of training environment can easily be compared to an aikido training which I hope to do towards the end of this post.

As mentioned in one of the previous posts, I had learned about the concept that through some movements, even some very simple ones, it is believed that enlightment can be achieved. I have been focusing harder on body movement, state of mind, connection and openness for about a month or so, and I think I realised some interesting points.

Let's consider a simple aikido movement, taisabaki, and someone with little aikido or conscious body movement experience/expertise. Taisabaki is something that looks very easy from the outside. You step forward, turn with hips, and step backward. This is at least the description by which everyone can start doing it. If I give someone this instruction and tell them to do taisabaki for 20 minutes they will get bored in one minute and I will never see them again. However, if I tell them a couple of points to look at, observe, and correct, they might say that 20 days might not be enough to perfect taisabaki, and through that, themselves. The following are a couple of points with respect to taisabaki. These are all going to be questions, so I don't really want to tell anyone what's good and not, just what they think and feel is better and more useful.

Before the questions, a bit of advanced taisabaki demonstration with a partner: