A Visit From Sensei

T Shihan's visit last weekend was definitely a brain-full of new information about Aikido, & our schools place in it.
In Friday's class he spent a lot of time talking about te-waza & ashi-waza, & their importance to controlling uke's center for technique.
He talked in great detail about the importance of our Aikido; the uniqueness of it. I'm sure that some of that comes from our direct connection to the Omoto Kyo from T. Sensei & his father as Shinto priests.
He wasn't pleased with a good bit of people's technique — not using center, etc. He stressed the use of proper hip movement, & moving uke with te-waza.

But most of all, I was reminded, after we were on our way home, of the differences in opinion that my instructor & I have in how we see our connection to the organization.
Sensei has a good bit of well-founded cynicism from past experiences with our organization, including how this latest trip was put together on such short notice, leaving most of our students out of the testing loop since we're on break at the university & so many people are out of town.

I see that, too, but feel a real connection with T. Shihan when I can see him teach, feel his technique, & hear him talk about the art. He's almost seventy now, & was just slamming some people down when demonstrating some techniques -- he noted that he always likes to use young, strong uke's because they can take it .

Sensei's technique is solid, & strong, but he doesn't have a strong desire to follow T. Shihan's instruction to teach so closely to his technical expertise.

In respect to staying close to our traditions, I would rather be a dojo that is trying to promote, in that we are teaching a specific way of doing Aikido, & thinking about the world around us.
I think we need closer contact with our home U.S. dojo, which would require more commitment all the way around to train with them, for us to go there more frequently, & for them to come to us more frequently.
I think we would do better, in many ways, if we were to move our dojo off campus, & set up in town. Again, that would require a good bit of commitment from a number of people, & Sensei isn't ready to make that jump yet; though I'm hopeful that he might be in a couple of years when he retires from his position.

I guess I'm connected to the particular spirit of our style in a more traditional way than others.

As strongly as I feel about it, I don't want to be the kind of person who splits a dojo, though I know that happens occasionally & can't always be helped.

Last year, I ended up cancelling my weekend class after attendance dropped to just a few people each week. I'm trying to decide now whether or not to bring it back this fall, & encourage everyone to come as often as possible. I would try to make it a mix of kihon waza & more advanced technique, leaving time for people to have the free practice that T. Shihan likes to see in every class.
Sensei & I briefly discussed the possibility of doing that during the week, but I don't really see that happening, unless we can actually get back to a twelve minute warm-up every class, & not fall into his twenty minute warm-up that morphs into pseudo-technique, then we're out of time without looking at any kihon waza in detail.

The more I think about a community dojo, rather than a university club, the more I like the idea.
As we are now, we have the majority of our students for just two or three years; anyone who stays longer than that has graduated & stayed in the area, or is a faculty member. Right now there are three aikido students who aren't university students.
In the long run, it means that we will continue to have a relatively small number of yudansha in the dojo, & that teaching responsibilities will continue to fall on just Sensei & myself most of the time.
Were we to move into the community, we could have more long-term students, & eventually build a larger base for teaching the classes.
We were at the NC dojo this weekend with our three yudansha - an all time high for us - and nine of the thirteen from their dojo were present on the mat.
Seeing that makes me feel that we can do more if we change what we're about in some ways.