Kotsu Kotsu

In Aikido practice,  I often see a less experienced student "correct" an experienced student. I'm sure these people genuinely feel they're offering something of value. But it's inappropriate, incorrect and detrimental to your own progress to correct people who've been practicing longer than you. A while ago someone asked  Cecelia Ricciotti  (7th dan), "What do I do if I'm working with someone who has more experience, and they just plain out-and-out are doing it wrong?" "Well," she said, "You have to make a decision: Do you want to take on the role of teacher? Or do you want to continue to be a student?" 7 Reasons Not To Correct Your (More Experienced) Partner In Aikido Respecting each other is one of the most important parts of our practice. You demonstrate respect for someone who has more training than you by listening to what they have to teach you. Especially if you disagree with them, it's a great opportunity...

"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...

This is an article I wrote for the Kokikai Web site  a few years ago. It's been removed from that site so I thought I'd repost it here... On Common Sense When I began teaching aikido at a university dojo, Maruyama Sensei told me that I needed to give special attention to teaching university students. “You need to talk more.” he said. “Make sure they understand common sense.” Sensei seldom says anything lightly and I have since given much thought to these words. The more I consider it, the more I realize that thinking about common sense can illuminate our practice. “Common sense” sounds like something everyone should be able to understand without an explanation. Yet what one person may call common sense may seem senseless to another. Common practices of etiquette provide many examples. Much of our modern etiquette derives from practices that were originally common sense ideas. I was told by a history teacher that friendly knights would raise their visors on encountering e...