"Beginners, Go Over There!"

Back when the late Chiba Sensei was still part of the USAF, one of my favorite feature of summer camp  was his weapons class on the grass.  So many fun and also weird memories . . . 

As soon as the preceding class ended, enthusiastic students scurried outside to the lawn to look for a good spot to settle in.  Before class started, Chiba Sensei had a signature way of pacing back and forth with one hand holding a bokken (wooden sword) and the other hand on his waist.   

"Beginner, go over there." Sensei announced in a firm, clear voice.

Many white belts lowered their heads and quickly moved over to the far side as Sensei directed.

Sensei started warmups with big diagonal bokken swings.  A couple minutes into it, he stopped.  

"Beginners!  Go over there!" Sensei repeated in a louder voice.  Sensei turned to look slowly, but intensely at every student on the lawn.  Clearly, Sensei did not concur with some people's self-assessment. 

Some more people went to the beginner end.  After the swings, we proceeded to bokken cuts.  It did not take long for Sensei to stop the class once again.  

"I said: BEGINNERS GO OVER THERE!"  

Except for the sounds of a few people scuttling on the grass, the entire universe became still and quiet.  Ordinarily, Chiba Sensei was already rather intimidating.  At times like this, it felt like the atmosphere froze into ice crystals.  It was kind of hard to breathe . . . 

I closed my eyes and pleaded inside myself, "Whoever belongs to the other end, please just go.  There is no reason to insist.  Please don't make him mad!"

Chiba Sensei decided we were going to have paired exercises.  Realizing that I was without a partner, Mike passed his partner to me, and went to practice in a threesome elsewhere.  My partner was a bald, middle-age man with long hair and beard, wearing a heavy, blue hakama.

Takeguchi Sensei used to say, "Weapons are very simple: It is just cut, block and poke."  Sensei is right.  It is very simple; just not easy.  

Quoting Chiba Sensei, "Cut firmly, but block swiftly."  The center is an ultra fine line that can only accommodate one person, and you should always make sure you are the one.  However, never resort to force to push against your partner's weapon.  Not only is a bad block incapable of protecting you, it actually can guide your partner's weapon right to your center to get you hurt.

Apparently, my partner did not get the memo.

While he was eager to hit me with his bokken, my partner was not particularly good at blocking.  Over and over, he lifted my bokken with his forceful blocks, causing my bokken to slide straight towards his head.  I was a pretty proficient senior kyu-grader who had been practicing weapons since day one.  Still, I was only a senior kyu-grader.  I was able to avoid hitting him on the head or poke him on the face.  But, I could not protect him from him 100% of the time.  Every once in a while, the bokken glided along my partner's sword to hit him on the knuckles before I could stop it.  

The next day, at breakfast, a young man came to ask me, "Are you the person who smacked his hands black and blue yesterday?" He turned to point at my partner from the day before.  

"Yup, that was me."  I looked straight into the young man's eyes.  "What can I do for you?"  I don't think he was prepared for my answer.  "Um, nothing.  Nothing."  In a flash, he snuck back to his table.

I do not practice Aikido to hurt anybody.  I am not proud of having hit my partner.  I did my best in class.  To this day, I do not think I did anything wrong.  I share this story with our students because there are many lessons I want them to learn from it.

1/  You do not have to wait till you are good at empty-handed techniques before you start learning weapons.  They are the two sides of the same coin.  Weapon training helps strengthening empty-handed practice tremendously.  I benefited from it.  You can, too.

2/  Don't be intimidated by people wearing a hakama.  They don't necessarily know everything better than a white belt.  

3/  If you are to wear a black belt, make sure you have solid skills to back it up.

4/  Be aware of your level and abilities.  When things are clearly above your head, you really should not insist to stay there.  As in this story, it really does you no good.  Be fair to the teacher and your partners.  Don't be like that guy!