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| Student
Interview with Glenn Davy |
| This
month MI Magazine talks to Glenn
Davy from Sydney. Whilst developing
his own Aikido he regularly takes
the kids class at Sensei Hackett's
Gosford dojo. How do kids relate
to Aikido? How do we approach
the curriculum with them? Find
out how Glenn approaches these
challenges and much more... |
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| MI:
Please can you tell me your age and rank? |
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| Glenn:
38, 2nd kyu |
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| MI:
How long have you been training in Aikido? |
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Glenn:
I think I started about 1998, though that
times been broken up with gaps of several
months far too often, because of this event,
or that
situation or whatever |
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| MI:
Where do you train? |
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Glenn:
Primarily I train at a United Kingdom Aikikai
dojo called "Central Coast Aikido"
(aka Ren Shin Kan) near Gosford in NSW under
Sensei Colin Hackett.
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| MI:
How did you become interested in Aikido? |
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Glenn:
Whmm... I had some uncles and aunts
who trained in Judo in Dandenongs, Vic.
When I was 8 one these uncles went to
Romania to compete in deaf Olympics
as well as to train in Japan, so that
got my eye on martial arts (and the
orient). Later, when about 15 yrs old,
another judo uncle who also had a karate
background said that if he ever took
up another martial art it would be Aikido,
as he used to watch the beautiful and
efficient moves when they practiced
in the judo dojo - When I finally got
off my ass 15 years later, I remembered
'Aikido', researched it and others and
headed off to the Aikikai dojo at Hornsby,
watched one of sensei Eino's classes,
liked his rave and what I saw and experience
and went with it.
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| MI:
How would you best sum up Aikido? |
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Glenn:
In my life generally most of my difficulties
are to do with the way in which I engage with
a subject, for me Aikido is about engagement...
1. Engaging without struggling and
2. Engaging (trying to avoid the word positive
here) in a way that's all
at the same time definite, full, calm, complete,
could be gentle or hash,
but is not passive, is without malice or aggression.
The
poor souls that have to practice with me
could tell you I've still got a bit of work
to do in these areas.
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| MI:
What is a typical weeks training for you? |
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Glenn:
At the moment its teaching kids on Tuesday
afternoon, followed by an adults class after
that. Most weeks that's all I can get to as
I work formy self and I'm often at the mercy
of deadlines. Having said that I'm realising
I've let a lot of opportunities slip pastme
by 'doing the right thing' where work's concerned.
This is something I want to be doing when
I'm 90, writing software to fuel the fires
of capitalism isn't, so...
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| MI:
What
do you find difficult about Aikido? |
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Glenn:
Most (all?)
Aikido instructors' show then ask you
to do - monkey see, monkey do. This
monkey doesn't work like that and no
matter how hard I concentrate, when
I get up to practice (especially if
the techniques a little unfamiliar or
a different slant on what I think I
know) its a
struggle to recall what I actually saw,
let alone translate it into body
movements. With weapons katas, if I
don't practice them again that night
when I get home, then in the next 2
days - they are gone till next time
I do them in class. Then of course there's
the small issue of blending, harmonising,
being a good uke and not using strength
to factor in to the list of difficulties
as well. |
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| MI:
How do you find the Aikido community in
Australia? |
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Glenn:
I've
met a lot of great people from differing clubs
and styles from the broader Aikido community
practising what's been left to them by O'Sensei
through this shihan or that shihan. I thoroughly
enjoy having them re-write for me what I thought
I knew - That is what I find is the
benefit of being able to participate in the
Aikido community.
Having
said that there seems to be some quite bigoted
and exclusive
sections of the Aikido community, who feel
they have a monopoly on
defining when something is or isn't Aikido,
which is a bummer, because I'd love to experience
their teaching.
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| MI:
What goals do you set yourself in your training? |
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Glenn:
To be truthful that's exactly what I've
lacked for most of my training. I've
just shown up to class and expected
to absorb it through osmosis, which
given the amount of time I've been training
has happened a little, but only a little.
At the same time, guys that started
long after me are now teaching me, primarily
I think because they deliberately and
even aggressively engaged
with the training process - so that's
been a wake up call and inspiration
for me. |
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So
- to answer the question - my goals
are, when I go to class:
1. Stop intellectualising and arguing
in my head with sensei.
2. Working through/learning what is
good ukemi
3. Take deliberate note of one thing,
and at home 'sort it out' so I
don't forget it. There are many others
that come and go, but that's what I'm
working with right now.
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| MI:
You take the Kids Class Aikido at Sensei
Hackett's dojo, how many kids do you
get and what age are they? |
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Glenn:
I think we have half dozen on books
at the moment, but we don't get all
of them at once. School holidays are
a bit of a grim reaper for us. Kids
will be gunho last week before school
holidays, never to return after 2 weeks
off. We take ages from 7 to 15, though
would consider younger if the individual
was ready. Similarly I've asked 7 yr
olds mum to hold off
for a year because they just weren't
ready to function in a dojo
environment. |
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| MI:
What approach do you take with taking
the kids classes? |
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Glenn:
I think with kids the art is in minimising
frustration. Glibly, that
means making it fun - so we have a few
tricks up our sleeve to drill core skills
while getting a giggle. However, where
not here to baby sit, and we want to
get some techniques taught. So the art
of avoiding frustration involves a few
things;
1. Requiring they function on the mat
in a disciplined way (lol)
2. Knowing when to move on, catching
the moment when a step forward is reached
and ending it there (before you kill
it), but also at the knowing when to
keep at something and not 'bailing them
out'.
3. Supplementing the show/do approach
with other modes of learning and demonstration.
4. Multiply each of these points by
the number of kids on the mat, it's
as simple and as difficult as that. |
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| MI:
How
do you find children take to Aikido
techniques? |
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Glenn:
With the same range of aptitude as adults,
but adults can take
responsibility for their own motivation
and management of frustrations.
With kids in a sense that's part of
what they're here too learn and we
have to provide some of that management
for a while. On the upside but they
bounce when dropped.
At first they tend to either refuse
to do a technique in a meaningful
way (some kids WONT atemi) or they want
to be WWF stars and tear arms from sockets.
They either ukemi ever so gingerly,
or they think they are Jet Li in shaolin
temple kids - again thank God they bounce,
in both cases.
Another interesting point is I think
70% of kids out there have no
neural map of the back of their body.
Teaching some to tenkan is a slow process,
they can't (initially) turn, with their
back leading.
Once we're past all of the above, kids
are great students, and do quite precisely
what's asked, because it was asked,
that's something to aspire to. |
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| MI:
What are your thoughts on O'Sensei? |
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Glenn:
Never met the man, however I always
enjoy reading the many (sometimes
contradictory) things written
about him by the many people who
seem to think they knew him best.
I find watching his technique
at different stages of life informative,
both about himself and the nature
of the Aikido culture.
When I first started Aikido, I
thought I'd found a cool new spiritual
doctrine from a |
spiritual
genius and guru. As I learned
more
it became a little more fuzzy
round the edges, inaccessible
and imprecise, and in fact while
many of the practical intents
of his ideas are expressed in
his art and agrarian lifestyle,
the esoteric are probably lost
on most Japanese scholars, let
alone me. I guess his genius was
to take the subtlety that exists
in (all?) martial arts, and then
teach that as an art in itself.
That probably says more about
him than I could. |
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| MI:
Thanks for taking time out Glenn. |
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| Glenn:
No problem. |
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