“What does stand out is that instead of stifling his genius as a compliant “follower” of this or that, O-Sensei allowed his genius to come forth.” The two dozen or so basic techniques that are held out to be...
Archive - March 2016
Josh Gold“I intervened in four fights in NYC!” by Miles Meyrow
“I start staring at him and tapping my foot with an intense expression on my face.” I recently published an article titled Risking your life to help someone. We received many comments with a variety of...
When in the Village by Steve Varley
Aikido experts (I use the word advisedly) of all sorts have landed at the threshold of our space in Payne-Whitney Gym, located on the campus of Yale University. They seem delighted to have discovered an aikido class at...
“Risking your life to help someone,” by Stanley Pranin
“I kept imagining what had transpired and tried to conceive of some alternative courses of action that would have spared him this beating.” I attended an aikido seminar recently. I had a very interesting...
Ikazuchi Dojo: An Aikido School Done Right! by Stanley Pranin
On March 18th through the 20th, I was invited to join Haruo Matsuoka Sensei, Josh Gold, and members of the Ikazuchi Dojo in Irvine, California for an activity-packed weekend. To give you an idea of what my schedule was...
“Who is Koichi Tohei?” by Stanley Pranin
In May, 1974, an event occurred that shook the roots of the aikido world to its very foundations. It was then that Koichi Tohei, the chief instructor of the Aikikai Hombu Dojo, resigned from his post and left the...
Morihei meets Sokaku — The Untold Story by Stanley Pranin
“What is not explicitly stated here, but implied, is that Morihei had strong financial support in addition to being a talented student.” About the age of 30 I went to Engaru in Hokkaido. There I met...
Dojo Analytics 101: Tracking Injuries by Josh Gold
In response to the interest generated by our earlier post, “How Safe is Your Training?“, we’ve written a follow-up that outlines how we track, analyze, and respond to injury-tracking data in the dojo. We’ve outlined...
Kanshu Sunadomari’s mind-blowing performance at the 1st Friendship Demonstration by Stanley Pranin
Watch Kanshu Sunadomari and other great masters at the Aikido Friendship Demonstrations! The process of selecting teachers to approach about participating in the 1st Aikido Friendship Demonstration scheduled for April...
“Honest attacks vs. straw man attacks,” by Stanley Pranin
“That’s not what I said at all. Don’t put words in my mouth!” Sometime back I wrote an article titled “Sunao — Being honest in training” that elicited a fair amount of feedback from readers...