Newsletter - No 4 July 1981
- retyped by Wendy Wallace for the Internet
Learning Aikido.
Learning aikido techniques is comparatively simple providing that one does practice regularly, but learning and understanding the principle of aikido is not easy at all and to put these principles into practice in every day life is virtually for some people practically impossible. This is due to everything one has learned in his or her life , clashing with these principles.
So let me explain some of those principles in a more practical way:-
After a few years of practice one attains the grade of first Dan, in Japanese Shodan. Sho = beginning, start, first. Dan = Step.
So Shodan can be translated as the beginning of a long and difficult road ahead; a road of contradiction and making time for practice and teaching others.
As I said its only the beginning. Beside the normal physical training usually there is a mental training and that is where usually comes the rejection, one ego takes over, humility is forgotten and what comes out is the "Big I am" . Then the progress of learning is ended usually one starts thinking that he or she doesn't need to practice anymore. So those few words would have no meaning without setting a picture of what a shodan should be or should do.
A Shodan should be :- respectable. Polite.
Helpful in practice:- humble, considerate with lower grades.
One must remember that lower grades are watching and learning from Dan grades.
If a Dan grade does show a bad example it will be absorbed by beginners and outside the dojo, a shodan should not start fighting or antagonise people in any way especially by bragging of his or her exploits and feats in aikido.
I would like members views and feelings for the next newsletter.
Also I wish to remind everybody that the next course at Chorley on September 20 is not only for members of the Lancashire Aikikia but is open to anybody regardless of affiliation.
Yours sincerely,
M.Mucha. Principal.