“An Aikido practice that builds the partner.
An Aikido practice that crashes the partner.
An Aikido practice in which both the partner and me become alive.”
What kind of Aikido practice do you prefer?
Suganuma Sensei used to read short passages in the Dojo written by great teachers. One of his favourite teachers was Nakamura Tempu Sensei.
Quite a few years ago I learned the Japanese sentence: "Ichi-go Ichi-e". It translates directly into: "One instance, one meeting", but I think that "A once in a lifetime encounter " is closer to the true intent and meaning of the sentence…
As we know, while we practice Aikido, we switch roles continuously, and half the time our role is that of “Uke”, meaning we accept the technique. Even though we spend 50 percent of the time in this role, there are hardly any texts explaining the essence of it.