Kotsu Kotsu

Another Kokikai Aikido Winter Camp is over, and afterward I had the inevitable day of rest and a little sadness. Announcements, Kokikai Aikido Winter Camp 2016 It's quite complex to put together an event like this, and a lot of people worked in beautiful harmony behind the scenes so that Sensei could focus on teaching over 280 participants. As I think about all that effort, there are a few things that come to mind that make it so worth it: Sensei. Sensei is amazing. He shows us the incredible potential power that human beings have. And then he teaches us how to do it!  The Kokikai Community. Kokikai is a bunch of really amazing people, and as a volunteer, anything we can do to bring them all together in one place, and then practice together, is worthwhile, not just for the volunteers, but for everyone in Kokikai.  It Feels Good. Teachers I know - of various disciplines - have commented that their students are less and less willing to "help out" when asked....

I'm a pianist and I practice the martial art of  Kokikai Aikido . Lately I've been working on speeding up. Part I - Music Usually I'll practice a tune till it sounds great when I play it slowly. Then I turn up the metronome. As soon as I do that I can feel my shoulders getting tense, I can't hit any of the notes, I forget what I'm doing and everything sounds like h*ll. I've come to realize that what's holding me up is not lack of technical ability, but my own mind. My brain is stuck in "slow mode." I'm used to hearing the music slower in my head. So when I play fast, it feels like I'm always trying to catch up. My brain is a half step behind what my fingers are doing. I realized that instead of just going "faster," I have to think "sooner." I have to think ahead , and then I'll be ready to move my fingers at the right time. I can tell you that takes a lot of attention to do that. My brain constantly wa...

"No, Sir!" When I first started practicing Kokikai Aikido, I was an adult. I had never in my life called anyone "Sir" or "Ma'am." A child of the egalitarian '70's, I had grown up with a disdain for titles.  I knew from my son's karate lessons that in a martial art class the teacher would expect to be addressed with some title - my son's teachers had been "Sir" and "Mr. Dave."  I wasn't looking forward to it. It felt...awkward. At the same time I wanted to make a wholehearted attempt to try this martial arts thing, and if that meant bowing a lot and adhering to some strange Japanese etiquette, I was willing to give it a shot. Like any traveler setting foot in a strange country, I kept my eyes open and my senses alert in my first aikido classes. But as it turned out, my instructor was pretty informal.  I saw that some people called him "Dan Sensei," others seemed to avoid saying his name, and s...