Absolutely no competition
theaikidad – Aikido
by Aikidology
2M ago
As an Aikidoka, one of the core concepts is ‘No Competition’. Which generally means that there is no tournaments, no gold medals, no ‘winner/loser’ in that sense, and most of us gets it. So I thought. It was only recently I came to a realization the true virtues of ‘No Competition.’ Sure, we all know that you don’t go out there and compete against others, we don’t race for the first place, but… do you compete against yourself? If you run 5km at 30mins yesterday will you try to beat that record today? And if you do, did you ‘win’? Give yourself a pat on the back? While I have been practicing A ..read more
Visit website
Horii Shihan’s Lessons
theaikidad – Aikido
by Aikidology
3M ago
We had the good grace of hosting Horii Shihan again earlier November, as he came by our dojo for another visit. Horii Shihan is a good and dear friend of Harry sensei and to have him train at our dojo is certainly a weekend I wouldn’t miss. It was also a good time to catch up with some old Aikido friends and I’m always so happy to see them again. Simplicity-but never Easy Horii Shihan’s style is always very simple, these techniques are never flashy and at one glance looks deceivingly easy, which encourages beginners to try without being too intimidating. He don’t encourage break falls, and yo ..read more
Visit website
Don’t Quit!
theaikidad – Aikido
by Aikidology
4M ago
Dear boys, I’m sure by now you both have heard many times over these 2 words, “DON’T QUIT!” Do you know exactly what it means? Recently I learned a very subtle yet profound lesson over the past months. You see, there was The Quarrel. an argument which involved a good and old AIkido friend of mine and a newer member of our club. The new guy also happens to be one of the 2 financial contributor to the club. As it would have it, the new guy is in every way an incompetent politburo, and does pretty much nothing constructive for the club. He simply uses his money and ‘buys’ his way into the club. T ..read more
Visit website
Surviving an Aikido Seminar
theaikidad – Aikido
by Aikidology
4M ago
Going for an Aikido seminar can be fun and very insightful, you will get a huge bump no only in your Aikido technique but also in terms of stamina, as well as overall fitness. However, you can only enjoy if you are also in the right physical conditioning to enjoy the seminar and also use some of the tactics and strategies below. What is an Aikido seminar It is a training event where Aikidoka gathers over a period of days, mostly because there is a visiting Aikido Shihan (師範) in town. So typical training can stretches over a weekend, starting from the morning all the way to the late afternoon ..read more
Visit website
Friends of Aikido
theaikidad – Aikido
by theaikidad
6M ago
Singapore is a place of transit, and we have many working professionals who come here to work and some of them needs a place to practice Aikido. Over the decades, many of these Aikidokas came and went, some stayed in Singapore for a long period of time and left because their work here is done or for other reasons. Harry sensei is quite well known during his time and many overseas Senseis who were friends with Harry sensei will send their students this way, when their students came to Singapore to work and needed a place to train. Long lasting friendship This is the magic of Aikido, when we tr ..read more
Visit website
All are Welcomed
theaikidad – Aikido
by theaikidad
7M ago
I remembered my first time going back to Aikido after missing it for a while, to take time starting my family and settle some personal matters. I just turn up, unannounced at Ceylon Sports Club, gi, belt and when Harry sensei saw me, he stared at me with his usual gruff, no non-sense look. I asked humbly if I can train with him; something like that. Of course I was scared that he said ‘NO!’, and thankfully he didn’t. There was another guy, who phoned him, asking if he could come and train. Harry sensei told the other guy, who was an Aikido instructor; the dojo is a very small one and we don’t ..read more
Visit website
Do not get into fights
theaikidad – Aikido
by theaikidad
11M ago
Dear Boys, While this might sound like a no-brainer, sometimes emotions can get better of us, and we get triggered by overwhelming external circumstances to act in a hurtful and violent manner. Just recently, there are 2 case of such altercations. one of them involved a 36 year old Stanchart staff called Chua who hit a 74 year old smoker, Ng, who wasn’t happy that he was filmed smoking at places he shouldn’t be smoking. The older man kind of attacked Chua, who charged at the guy, knocking him to the floor. Ng sustained head injuries and died later in hospital. Chua received a jail sentence of ..read more
Visit website
I got my 4th Dan
theaikidad – Aikido
by theaikidad
11M ago
No one knows this but I was close to tears back in November last year when Horii Shihan announced that we have passed our grading. ZZ got his 1st Dan, Tri- 2nd Dan, MJ-his 3rd Dan, and me my 4th Dan. I’m not sure why I wanted to cry, perhaps it is because Harry sensei just died back in April? If it hadn’t been for his demise, I would be getting the 4th Dan from him, like how I got my 1st to 3rd Dan. Perhaps it is because if it had been Harry sensei grading us, getting my 4th Dan would be an platonic reality, and now with Horii shihan grading, I’m not so sure if my standards meets his expectati ..read more
Visit website
What does the grades in the Belt means?
theaikidad – Aikido
by theaikidad
1y ago
There is some confusion about what a coloured belt looks and feel. Sometimes we look at a black belt and we go like ‘wahhh… that guy’s got the swag!’ To put this in a more simplistic way other than having a functional purpose of just holding your Gi in place, we can use the grades to think and solve problems. Shoshin (初心) Way Harry sensei always tells us to keep a beginners mind, so much so our Dojo is called Shoshin. How then, on the mat and in our lives are we supposed to live and act on this values. Beginner’s way of solving a problem. A couple class back, Radek and Lois was working togeth ..read more
Visit website
Doing Aikido Videos
theaikidad – Aikido
by theaikidad
1y ago
This is something of a gray area for Harry Sensei, while we have often serendipitously recorded his teachings every now and then, he was never consistently supportive of us doing so, his likes and dislikes ebb with his mood, sometimes he don’t mind it, often he will berates us for recording, as he would want us to focus on the training and not get distracted with recording him. I agree with him wholeheartedly and at the same time, continues to take video recordings of my lessons. There is value in recording our trainings as we can reflect back on our moves and think deeper years later. We can ..read more
Visit website

Follow theaikidad – Aikido on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR