Deportment is never neutral. How one stands, how one moves, and – most critically – how one does not react are constant signals. In other posts I have argued that sangfroid is not merely an affect but a form of power: the capacity to enter any encounter, including conflict, with an unflappable calm that communicatesContinue reading “KALI AND AIKIDO: SANGFROID AND THE AXIS”
Tag Archives: Mulligan
REVERSED EFFORT AND THE KEY TO MASTERY
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”
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”