Josh GoldA short editorial by George Ledyard. Ledyard Sensei has been practicing aikido for over 40 years and holds the rank of 7th dan under Mitsugi Saotome Sensei as well as shodan in Daito Ryu Aiki-jujutsu. He is the chief instructor of Aikido Eastside in the Seattle area. He is a member of the Ueshiba Juku, which “connotes a direct line of ‘transmission’ from aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba through Saotome Sensei.” He is the founder of Defensive Tactics Options™, a system of police and security training which specializes in less-than-lethal force alternatives, and Options for Protective Control™, a low-force system for physical intervention with juveniles and emotionally disturbed subjects.
Folks always talk about the conflict resolution side of Aikido. And certainly the Aikido practitioners who are interested in the art as self-defense focus on application of effective technique.
But I have long felt that some of the most important life lessons in Aikido have to do with ukemi.
In real life there are all sorts of events in your life which do not have some magical technique that resolves them in a way that leaves everyone happy. Sometimes you are just going to have to take the fall. Ukemi is where one of the most important life lessons in Aikido can be found.
Your boss tells you that you are laid off… What are you going to do, put a nikkyo on him and get your job back?
Or your spouse asks for a divorce… There is no Aikido technique that makes that better. You are taking a hit.
Now, we have the public health crisis. The whole world is taking a hit. We can fall hard or we can fall soft, but we are falling. As with physical ukemi, resistance only increases the likelihood of serious injury. You can control whether you resist or go with it. You can, to some extent control what type of fall you take, but you are going to fall.
Aikido has been going through a period of virtual colony collapse. The community of practitioners has gotten increasingly older, young adults are increasingly scarce in our dojos. Our dojos have been increasingly marginalized from a financial standpoint. Many have closed, some have had to go back to community centers.
“The whole world is taking a hit. We can fall hard or we can fall soft, but we are falling.”
And now the outbreak. In many ways we are like a community of folks with compromised immune systems. I have closed my dojo of 33 years with no feeling for whether it can reopen. This outbreak could easily be a terminal event for it. I know that I am not alone in this.
As a professional teacher, conducting seminars has been an important part of my financial survival. That income has shrunk steadily as dojos have either closed or become too small to host events. With the outbreak, that has also gone to zero. And if other dojos are in the same boat mine is, survival after the recovery is in question.
I have spent my whole adult life devoted to the study and transmission of this art. Now, everything is changing. And there is no magic technique that makes everything OK. I am taking a fall. I can fall hard or I can fall soft. But I am being thrown by this. So I fly through the air, trying to keep in mind that my center is where ever I am. At some point I will land and see where I am. No point in resisting, just have to go with it all.
- George Ledyard on Patreon: Articles, videos, and remote instruction
Antonio Aloia
As usual Sensei you are right again. your fan since 1981, Stay healthy. i’m in my 90th year and i’m doing two Corona beers for lunch daily and that seems to keep the doctor away. Keep teaching, we love ya. Warren Little, Missoula, MT
Last fall, after 40 years of practice, I faced the reality that I (and the dojo where I taught) were falling. We were facing all the same issues outlined in this article, and the only thing I hadn’t yet done back then was realize that I was in fact falling….. We decided to suspend operations at Thanksgiving, and who would have guessed back then that a pandemic was on the way and our fate was sealed.
When the world emerges from this truly global experience, it will be a different place.
Ledyard Sensei’s analogy of our response to this Pandemic and Ukemi is quite understandable for us Aikidoka!
We are on the receiving end like it or not. But much like ukemi we must be ahead of the movement to land softly!
We the practitioners and Dojo operators must look ahead of these “stay at home “ orders with alternative
Measures for our students to maintain
a workout regime and connection with our students! I would suggest that the use of interactive web sites such as
Zoom to hold classes can help make for a SOFT landing!
Keep the “KI” Flowing !
Gallo Sensei
Sensei, your remarks are, as usual, perspicacious. It would be a sad irony if we aikidoka, after so much study of ukemi, cannot find a way to quickly get back on our feet. I wonder what our stance will be then–perhaps somehow different.
Let us fall but keep our Center . The Center is our humanity , our dignity.
You know how much people are grateful to all your dedication and you know that we love you. Whether you fall soft or hard, you can remain our teacher.
Hello and good wishes,
I have not met Ledyard, Sensei but I know of him and it is all good.
I too have been training for some time now. I started at age 27 and I am now 72.
I closed my dojo to go to a rec. center and I’ve had a small but, wonderful group.
Now we are closed until we land.
Best wishes and hope for wellness to all and thank you Sensei. We will keep our center.
-Mike
Sensi Ledyard: Thanks for your insightful editorial. I started Ki-Aikido in Maryland to calm the stress from a DOD job, and stuck with it 26 years because of the mind-body coordination principles. I believe that falling softy applies to everyone at the moment and will allow us to “flatten the curve”. I intended to join the Aikido Dojo in Olympia WA after moving, but suggest they also will fall, but hopefully spring back. It maybe that the different Aikido Dojo’s will have to find new innovative ways to continue, and I hope that yours will flourish after this crisis settles. I looked through Sensi Ueshiba’s “The Art of Piece” to find a quotation that is relevant to the COVID-19 crisis. While there are many, this particular one stuck with me:
“In extreme situations, the entire universe becomes our foe; at such critical times, unity of mind and technique is essential- do not let your heart waver.”
All the best.
Vern
If aikido never existed, it will be have to be reinvented. The nature of the human spirit is never-ending… The irony, I think, is that this whole pandemic thing was evidently started by a smallish and super-cute animal known as Pangolin which apparently exuded this virus under acute conditions of stress in captivity (destined for food in Asian wet-markets). I equate it’s propensity to roll into a small ball in self-defense with the aikido roll. In the debate on whether aikido is effective or not viz. MMA, etc, I would also probably exude a virus. Fancy killing and eating an animal that does no harm to us. That in a nutshell (forgive the pun) is what we are faced with. Either continue our human propensity to kill or pursue an alternative way of life, more in keeping with being in harmony with all life on this planet. “Leave us alone, we’re innocent” might have been the Pangolin’s last thoughts (they can avoid getting eaten by lions because of their hard shell). The doctor representing the W.H.O. seems to think this is nature’s revenge. I have only the greatest hope that this virus, as bad as it looks, will only make us stronger. Aikido, Pangolin, the planet, innocence. These are what we need to defend. And, going deeper, if it turns out the gangs in Asia who rule these markets are doing this out of desperation, because of a hierarchical society which excludes their participation in normal society, then we need to change society, change the human heart. Life, death, rolling. Falling and getting up again. Dojos closing, opening, getting up again. Yep, why not..?!?
I cannot agree more on this deep and profound point of view.
This is exactly how I feel. The only difference is that this fall will last for a few months (maybe years), not a piece of second as usual.
But, the feeling is the same.
Thank you for sharing.
Sensei Ledger, we’ve never met in person, though I share the universal aikido mat with you. I’ve admired you from afar. We are taking a fall and I love your thoughts about a soft fall without resistance. While dojos may close, I believe the concepts of aikido are more relevant now more than ever. In our practice, we evolve and feel our way through blending with uke. Now uke is not a person but a circumstance. The mat now is not tatami, but life. Now, we have no choice but to practice because the mat is everywhere at our feet: when we rise, as we greet our loved ones, as we are separate, and as we value first responders…I believe, perhaps, aikido’s time has come. Stay well. You are valued.
We can grow so much by recognizing that we are off center and not in control. We will land and then see what we need to do to carry on. Thank you for your wisdom, nothing is lost, yet all is changed.
Well put. I’ve also thought about the lack of youngsters in Aikido dojo and have no solution. I’m thinking in fifty years we might be an extinct art.
Muito obrigado por compartilhar o excelente artigo, cheio de sabedoria.
Abraço.
A very Zen-like perspective. A mindfulness of our center ‘s place is utmost important.