Carrying the Baton(s).

Many of the Kokikai community traveled to Japan this April to train with Sensei. Our dojo was fortunate enough to have four of our senior practitioners make the trek. When I arrived at Sensei's dojo for the first of four days of training I was a bit early. I got to speak briefly with Sensei and he talked about Kokikai and how we need to work together. He joked that he traveled to teach in the US and to Australia for the past 50 years and it was now our turn to travel. As he often has, he spoke about the importance of the next generation of practitioners needing to carry on the legacy of Kokikai, to further the community, and to continue to develop the art. He made the analogy of a relay race. He said that he is now in the process of passing on the baton to us. I heard the conversation repeated several times that weekend as he spoke with senior students from both the US and Australia. 

 

I like the analogy of the baton. It invokes the idea of being a team. Each person who carries it is responsible for firmly and securely passing it on to the next. No individual needs to carry the entire race, just do their best for their part. Every time we come together in the dojo is an opportunity to implement this idea. We pass on what we know and have learned, regardless of where we are on the track. We share the responsibility of success.

Like in nature, patterns repeat at different scales. Within the dojo, members share what they know. From that, regional dojo share practices. Whole nations of practitioners regularly come together at camps. People from all over the world come together to practice like we just did in Japan. When we return to our home dojo, we repeat the cycle of improvement.

For that I am ever grateful. Thanks to all who made it out to make our regional practice a success and share in what we learned in Japan!!

#aikido #aikidokokikai #kokikai #dojo #selfimprovement #martialarts #MindBodySpirit #selfdefense

Join us for our May 2025 Regional Seminar!

Aikido Kokikai® students are welcome to join the Rochester Dojo for a Regional seminar!  Classes will focus on our takeaways from the 2025 International Seminar In Nagoya.  We were fortunate enough to have four of our senior practitioners attend classes with Sensei along with over 50 students from Japan, Australia, and the United States.

There are several lunch options near the dojo.  Traveling in?  Contact us if you need a place to crash.  FYI, the Rochester Lilac Festival is going on that week and that is a great destination for the family if you need an extra reason come.  Traffic near the dojo is not affected by the festival.

It's all in the details.

This is one of many wonderful tsuba in a museum in Nagoya we visited on our recent trip to Japan.  It’s easy to see the beauty of the gold inlaid figures.  But just as amazing is this care and pain staking attention paid to the background. Every mark made by hand and hammer with consistent force, in perfect elliptical concentricity.  It is a clear and beautiful demonstration of the mastery of fundamentals.

Our first class in Japan with Sensei was limited to 4th degree black belts and above yet Sensei spent the first of three hours concentrating on fine tuning our ki exercises.   That is how important fundamentals are to progress.  As “simple” as these movements may seem, even incrementally better building blocks make for exponentially better end products.

#aikido #MindBodySpirit #martialarts #aikidokokikai #kokikai #dojo #selfimprovement #selfdefense

Holiday Schedule

Happy Holidays Everyone,

 

I hope you all are getting some time off and enjoying time with family…or hiding away in a book or your workshop, whatever recharges you.  As a reminder, here is our schedule over the next couple of weeks.

 

12/24    Tuesday               No Class, Go Finish Shopping

12/25    Wednesday          No Class, Merry Christmas

12/26    Thursday             YES Class, with extended 8pm class

12/28    Saturday              YES Class

               

12/31    Tuesday               No Class, Drive Safe!!!

1/1         Wednesday         10 AM Class, No Evening Class, Happy New Years!

1/2         Thursday            YES Class … Back to Normal

1/4         Saturday             YES Class … Back to Normal

 

Good habits are easy to lose, so have fun, eat, be merry, but then gets your butts back in the dojo!  😊

 

 

Large Ukemi & Feeling Radial Expansion (aka "ki")

Radial expansion is often a topic of conversation around the holidays.  But Post Turkey Bloat isn't what we're here to talk about.  It's an attempt to discuss how to do large ukemi (rolls) safely and well.  Words sometimes get in the way so let's also use this picture from the Great Lawn Chair Revolt of 2020.  This is on the more extreme side a large rolls; done more for fun and skill that practicality on its own merit.  Whether we do small, medium, large, or extra large rolls we should have a feeling that we are this expanding ball. Every inch of us is driven or pulled by some force radially outward from the center of the roll.  It's not quite like some Cenobite with a bunch of radial chains pulling you apart but it is something sourced from within a sphere of your control.

It would be easy as instructors to fall back on the classics, like "extend ki". But what does that mean? As people begin a martial arts journey the word "ki" ranges from meaningless esoteric nonsense to people who have literally thought we could do Dragonball Z type stuff.  Once you attain ki and feel it, then ki becomes a word we can communicate around.  But it can take years to attain a sense of ki begging the question of what do we do until then?

In a bicycle tire, the air inside is applying a pressure to maintain the wheel's quintessential round shape.  The pressure provides cushion between the hub and the road.  It prevents deformation into sharp clunky corners but still allows the tire to flow over small rocks and cracks in the pavement to give a smooth ride.

In ukemi, large and small, we need to emulate this inflated feeling.  We need to feel it.  This is where the rubber meets the road, how does one describe a feeling?  The Hallmark channel has been working on that for decades and they're still trying.  It is not that Post Turkey Bloat.  The stuffed feeling where we are bursting at the seams from that last scoop of mashed potatoes is different.  That would be an inflation centered within.  This feeling is an inflation centered outside of us.  Because of that we feel only a tingling of that pressure being on the outer edge of the circle. The pressure drop across us is small because we are only a part of the circle. We are still comfortable.  It should feel energizing.

I have used the word "inflation".  But this doesn't mean suck in air and hold it; not at all.  Don't do that as it can have consequences and it would be more along the lines of the Post Turkey Bloat feeling.  "Inflation" here is made up of an energy, a feeling, a mindset.

Words may be failing us but the next time you roll, try to create a feeling of radial expansion.  Visualize the surfaces of your arms, back, hind, and legs that will make contact with the mat being pushed outward from the center around which you will roll.  Feel "lifted" onto that ball or wheel.  This feeling should exist before, during, and after the roll.