The more I teach, the more I distrust my own methods. I vacillate between two instincts: to explain everything, the Western compulsion toward clarity, and to say almost nothing, as my Japanese teachers did. Both seem inadequate. There is a paradox in learning that unsettles: The more effort one exerts to master, the more elusiveContinue reading “REVERSED EFFORT AND THE KEY TO MASTERY”
Tag Archives: Mulligan
MULLIGAN SENSEI WORKSHOP 2022
A much belated post on Mulligan sensei’s returned to Portland for a workshop weekend March 5 & 6, 2022. It was a welcome return to seminar training! On Saturday, he covered two basic forms of entry (ashi sabaki) as a precursor to the disarm class on Sunday. My subsequent classes were an homage to MulliganContinue reading “MULLIGAN SENSEI WORKSHOP 2022”
JO TORI
The jō 杖 (“wooden staff”) is a walking stick usually about four feet in length. It is unclear precisely how it became incorporated within Aikido. While some of the jō movements come from spear-fighting (yarijutsu 槍術), and others from staff-fighting (jō-jutsu 杖術 and bō-jutsu 棒術), many of them are most similar to the use of a bayonet (jūken-jutsu). Jō tori is takingContinue reading “JO TORI”
Protective Arts 