Practice at Burlington Woods
1/22/92
Mark J. Norton
Ed Stauff invited Mike Gilmer and a fellow student to practice with us. Mike is a
Shodan Aikidoist who has taken over teaching at the Nashua Dojo from Mike Pabst.
Since we were hosting them, Mike deferred to me to teach. Mike has studied Aikido
predominantly under teachers trained in the Tomiki style, though he has also seen and practiced
other styles. They no longer consider themselves to be Tomiki stylists, but rather
a blend of styles. The other student, Dan (?) is new to Aikido, but has studied
Karate for seven years.
I demonstrated a series of kokyunage thows off of one hand grab, two hand grab, yokomenuchi,
and tsuki. Dan had a strong tendency to move in and perform the throws close the
body, instead of the large lead I demonstrated. I take this to be an indicator of how the techniques are taught by Mike (he did similar things). We were practicing
in a line and got a pretty good workout. I got more exercise than working with Ed
alone. After a while, Dan's toe started bleeding and he went in search of a band-aid.
The facility manager helped him and found out he was a visitor. This is not allowed
it seems and we were told not to do it again. As such, Ed and I will propably make
a trip over to Mitre and work with Mike there.
I have long suspected that the different styles of Aikido were different paths to
the same goal. Mike Gilmer lends a lot of support to this theory. His technique,
while different at times, seemed strong and smooth. He mention that he places more
emphasis on keeping balance and staying erect, while Hombu-stylists have a larger, more
flowing technique. His Aikido does not show the static, kata forms I have come to
associate with Tomiki Aikidoka. He also mentioned that many of his Tomiki instructors
had practiced Judo as well and had a 'brutal' approach to Aikido. He seems to have mellowed
this teaching a great deal, while preserve in the effectiveness.
Practice at Burlington Woods
1/29/92
Mark J. Norton
Ed and I practiced as usual today. In an effort to get more of a workout, we tried
a series of limited freestyle exercises (any defense against a given attack). I
have several things to note. First, we did get more of a workout, though not as
much as I'd like. Still, any more activity and I will have to start showering afterwards .
Second is the style incompatibility between Ed and myself. Both of such noted that
the movements on both sides seemed clumsy and rough. After giving it some thought,
I belive that this is the result of different styles. Ed does not know how to fall for
the techniques I use. He does OK, and is not getting hurt, but his ukemi is hardly
smooth. Similarly, my ukemi is not up to my standards. This is in part laziness.
Ed's degree of control is such that he will not force me to take falls I don't want, so
I don't. On the other hand, there were several occasions when Ed was not following
my lead, so I switched to a more aggressive throw. I can control him, but not gently.
Ideally, I should be able to deal with these stylistic differences smoothly and gracefully.
Perhaps this will be achieved in time.