Contents
Editorial
Welcome to the first edition of the Lancashire Aikikai
magazine incorporating the newsletter. The intention of this publication
is to keep you informed of course dates and news throughout the year.
As well as a calendar of events we will try in each
issue to carry an interview/profile of a Dan grade from one of the clubs
in the association starting with an interview with Bill Smalley from
Chorley Budo club in this edition. This we hope will make instructors
more accessible and encourage members to visit other clubs.
We will of course be carrying all the regular features
you would expect from a magazine :articles, letters book/video reviews
and news etc. If you would like to submit an article or review something
or simply write a letter then please address all correspondence to the
address below.
I he intention was to produce four issues a year
- we will try our best! The magazine can only nourish with your support
and input so please send us your articles letters or even review a book
or movie for us failing that just let us know what you think of the
magazine.
Alan Lock
Submissions to :- 5 Longworth Street, Chorley, Lancs
PR7 2HT
Bill
Smalley Interview by Alan Lock
A.L. Firstly thanks for agreeing to do this
interview. How long have you been practicing aikido?
B.S. Eighteen
years.
A.L. And why did you choose aikido?
BS It
wasn't aikido I chose, I was keeping fit and this happened to be what
I chose. Little Frank found the club, Frank Monk.
A.L. Had you done any
other martial arts prior to aikido?
BS Practically
none. A bit of boxing when I was younger, very young, when I was about
eighteen that's all.
AL How would you describe
your own personal form of aikido that you teach?
BS Well, there's not
supposed to be any difference between my teaching and that of my sensei,
they should be the same, traditional aikido. We try to stick to that
all the time, try not to vary otherwise it will just get bastardised.
So I try to keep it as I was taught.
AL What was the training
like when you first started, and how has it changed?
BS Marian
was a lot stricter than I am, he was very strict with us. It's gone
down hill a little bit in that respect. I wouldn't say so when
Bob gets on the mat but a lot of people take it for granted but not
when Marian was on the mat though. He would think nothing of expelling
anybody of the mat for the slightest thing.
AL What was it like
training under Mr. Mucha?
BS It
was all right. He was very strict and there was no other way round
it, whatever he said that was it. Same with grading, you took what
he said, you didn't ask you just did it. That is the way he was taught
by the Japanese with very little speech, never said anything - just
did it. And Marian tried to work along those lines, which is hard
to do for us because people want explanations today, but you can't
always have an explanation; but I think that's a better way of doing
it definitely
AL Are there any particular
memorable occasions that stand out?
BS No, not really I cannot
say there were. The only time you remember things is when you get
hurt or something like that. You do get knocked about a bit in aikido,
that's the only thing I remember. Marian was very strict no matter
where you went, he was the gaffer; he was very, very strict, that's
all I can say about him. It's the same as in anything else - discipline.
There is no discipline today in schools and things like that, and
it rubs off. You can tell with the kids or anybody coming in here,
you ask them to practice and all they do is play about and talk. It's
not on, but what can you do about it, how can you punish them.
AL Numbers at Chorley
have fluctuated over the 3 years since I have been practicing, what do
you think the reason is for that?
BS I don't know, because
all through the Lancashire Aikikai they rely on people coming from
other clubs; in other words at Chorley we rely a lot on people from
Preston and St. Helens and other clubs coming. It's the same for a
lot of other clubs as well.
AL Do you think it
is because there is more interest in other martial arts like Karate and
kick boxing ?
BS Yes, because if you
started karate you could have a black belt in two years. It took me
seven years and I'm talking seven years without a break, two and three
times a week for that.
AL Where do you see
the future of Chorley Budo club ?
BS I hope it carries
on because we are not doing too badly, I hope it continues. Trouble
is handing it down, who is going to take over next ? I am sixty-seven
and how long can I keep on going ? anything can happen. I'll go on
as long as I can same as Marian did, it's all I can do. See, you cannot
tutor anybody to take your place because there may come a time when
they don't want to do it no more and just cut off, that's it, and
you cannot do nothing about it. Look what happened to Paul Sparks;
he jumped the gun and never came anymore.
AL You where asked
once by a student from another association what type of aikido you taught
and you replied "street aikido" How would you define that.
BS A lot of people ask this - aikido, traditional
aikido is very nice, nice to see but with street aikido there is only
a little bit more in it and that is atemi. ninety-nine percent of
aikido starts with atemi: You cannot hit a raw beginner though, they
won't come again, so you have got to distinguish one from the other.
One for the street, you mean it; one for
in here (dojo) and you practice according to grade of the person you
are partnering. If it is a lower grade you have to lower your grade
accordingly. The higher the grade you practice with the harder you
do it. That's why we practice with people from other clubs because
you don't want to fall into the trap of practicing with a friend all
the time otherwise you get used to them, and they get used to you,
looks nice but it's not practical.
AL Would you say aikido
is an effective self defence system ?
BS Oh yes, but having
said that there are none of us that have tried it out to find out.
In my mind it is, and in Marian's mind it was, and it certainly is
in Bob's, I do know that. I don't think any of us have tried it because
the first thing to use is atemi !
ALWhat would you say aikido
has given you, and has it changed your life in any way ?
BS I don't think it has changed my life any. The
reason I got into it in the first place was to keep fit, because once
I got to the fifty mark you can feel the difference in your bones.
So I thought it was time I did something constructive so I got in
here with Frank Monk, and I did it to keep fit, self defence didn't
enter into it because I could look after myself anyway before I started
aikido. I'm sixty-seven, Bob's in his fifties I think, so it does
get harder in the sense that your breakfalls are not what they were
ten years ago. Once you get over a certain age you do the best you
can, that's all you can do.
AL We talk a lot about
Ki in aikido, how would you define Ki ?
BS Ki is very hard to
define. It's just an inner strength, a thing you've got to use all
the time, you cannt just turn it on and off, you have to use
it all the time. If you didn't use Ki and you did a technique outside,
your technique wouldn't work. You have to use whatever you've got
- your inner strength with technique, it's very hard to define. You
can only show certain people certain things for them to grasp. To
explain it...it is hopeless trying to explain it, very h
AL You are recognised having a wicked nikkyo,
is that youised fr favourite technique ?
BS No, I wouldn't say so. Nikkyo, speaking
for myself took me a long time to master. It is very hard to get a
proper nikkyo on and I wouldn't say I was proficient at it yet, I'm
as proficient as I'm probably going to get, but it can be done better.
Once it's on, that's it you're not getting up again, it's not a plaything.
Nikkyo is a bastard when you get it on, that's it - finish, but I
wouldn't say I have a wicked Nikkyo, no. It took me. . . l must have
been getting up to I st Kyu before I could really do a decent nikkyo.
It is not easy to pick up, and yet you get some who can do it straight
away, it's just one of those things; but nikkyo is a bastard, once
it's on you've had it.
AL I know. We sometimes
do a bit of Shiatsu massage at the end of a class, do you think this is
an important part of our training ?
BS Yes,
but it is not classed as normal Shiatsu, it's just a cooling down
period as opposed to your warming up at the start of a class. Especially
after a hard practice we will do some Shiatsu We don't do it every
week, we do it to cool down, to settle the students down because their
Ki is still buzzing, their energy is still flowing. You pick most
of it up your self, you are only taught Shiatsu when you get to Dan
grade. Marian used to do a bit so I used to pick little bits up of
him and the same with Bob. they only teach you a little bit.
AL Finally Bill, any advice
for students just starting aikido ?
BS
It is very hard The only thing to do is set your mind to do
it - and do it. It is no
use doing it hit and miss and saying I cannot come this night, or
I'm going for a pint, or United are on T.V. you have got to be committed.
If you want to learn you have got to keep coming, that's the only
thing to do, come what may.
AL Bill,
thank you very much.
