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| Exculsive
Interview with Gordon Jones |
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Gordon
Jones Sensei has been active
in Aikido for over forty years,
and in that time has trained
with some of the biggest names
in the art. Hugely respected
in the UK and around the world
Gordon Jones Sensei tells us
about his forty years in Aikido...
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| MI:
Sensei Jones thank you very much for taking
time out during your visit to Australia. May
I begin by asking you age and rank? |
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| Sensei
Gordon Jones: Thank you for asking me
to take part in this interview, it was good
to meet with you in Sydney and thank you for
taking the trouble to deliver my students
weapons to the airport. I am 59 this year
and my rank is 6th Dan awarded 2 years ago
from Hombu Dojo. |
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| MI:
Can you tell us how and when you got interested
in Aikido? |
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| Sensei
Gordon Jones: When I began Aikido it was
in the late 60s and it was then a very obscure
art, the general population was only just
beginning to get to know what judo was. I
am sure I was introduced to Aikido like many
hundreds since, by a friend of a friend, who
just happened to be Mr. William Smith Shihan.
At that time he was a 2nd Kyu and teaching
in a tiny dojo that had steel poles in the
mat! I had no idea what Aikido was but it
just seemed to suit my character, so here
I am 40 years on and still learning. I must
say in those days the very idea that I would
travel halfway round the world to teach as
a 6th Dan would have been as out of reach
to me as walking on the moon. |
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| MI:
With over 40 years of training you must have
noticed some changes, what are some you think
are notable? |
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Sensei
Gordon Jones: Aikido is a living-growing
concept; in 40 years I have seen it
go from a rough, physical and in some
ways undisciplined activity to an incredibly
sophisticated art. In the early years
bloody noses and joint injuries where
common if not expected. In today's Aikido
this is sort of injury is unusual simply
because we are teaching students response
and ukemi, taking away the confrontational
grab and smash of years ago.
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| Aikido
today perfectly straddles the fine line
between effective controlling technique
and an art that can be practiced from
the energy of youth into late middle
age. |
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| MI:
There must have been some key people along
the way that had an impact on your life in
Aikido? |
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Sensei
Gordon Jones: My first teacher was Mr.
W Smith Shihan and in many respects I still
consider him still to be so, even though
the practice of our Aikido is poles apart.
The other great influence in my life in
general and my aikido life in particular
is of course Chiba Sensei of whom I was
a student for 28 years. Although I see little
of him now, I still look upon him as my
teacher. The legacy he instilled into me
will be with me forever. His dynamism energy
and absolute single-minded determination
make him in my mind one of the greatest
Aikido teachers in the world. To have trained
with him the 70s and 80s was my own personal
Everest. There were times in that period
when a climb up Everest would have seemed
the easier option!
I believe that I am one of few survivors
around that has his signature on every grade
from 3kyu to 6th Dan.
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| MI:
How has your Aikido changed since your Shodan
days? |
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Sensei
Gordon Jones: As I have said
earlier that Aikido has matured
and become more sophisticated
with the well being of your uke
being balanced out with the development
of a dynamic and effective aikido.
When I was Shodan if you did not
go home with a split lip pulled
muscles or serous bruising then
you had not had a good
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| practice.
If my Shodans adopted that philosophy
today I would consider it a failure
in my teaching. Not because Aikido
has gone soft, on the contrary,
training is more difficult and
vigorous today than ever, but
by developing ukemi to the same
degree as technique, injury is
a rare occurrence. |
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| MI:
Does our need for understanding and control,
somehow make learning Aikido more difficult? |
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| Sensei
Gordon Jones: Aikido is a very broad
concept, at the one extreme there is
absolutely martial 'aikido', grab and
smash, at the other extreme there is
abstract aikido, typically large flowing
movements with no practical application
what so ever. Somewhere between these
two extremes we draw the line that is
'our' Aikido. A balance that is full
of contradictions… control without
strength, response without |
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| choreography,
hardness within flexibility, dynamic
energy with a centered calmness, contact
without impact. To achieve an understanding
of these contradictions is a great satisfaction.
The students who take these principles
on board at an early age and develop
them into middle age will become the
great teachers of tomorrow. |
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| MI:
How would you define Aikido? |
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| Sensei
Gordon Jones: Aikido is a way of
life! |
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| MI:
What
are your thoughts on O'sensei? |
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| Sensei
Gordon Jones: O Sensei must have
been a great man. He created a philosophy
and an art that, almost within his lifetime
has encompassed millions of people throughout
the world. Apart from religious icons
there can be very few men in history
that have made such a profound and positive
influence on so many people's lives.
I wonder if he had been born in today's
world whether his influence would have
been realised.
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| MI:
Ki is an integral part of Aikido, How do we
learn to differ between Ki and strength? |
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Sensei
Gordon Jones: The definition of Ki for
me is mentally concentrated, physically relaxed,
calm centered energy generated from a balanced
posture. If you take ukemi for a student using
strength you find a coarse, confrontation
impact within the body movement that generates
a mirror effect in the ukemi. Ki is an indefinable
almost unstoppable energy.
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| MI:
What
is your opinion of competition in Aikido? |
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| Sensei
Gordon Jones: I once had a discussion
with a guy who did Tomiki Aikido; he
explained that to compare the 2 disciplines
is like comparing apples and oranges.
Competition Aikido is simply a sport,
with totally different goals than conventional
Aikido. 90% of Aikido training is body
conditioning and 10% practical application.
If we adopted competition then all training
would be just that10%. Aikido is not
simply putting your partner into the
mat; the art is how you do it! |
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| MI:
If
you could invite six people to
dinner who would they be and why? |
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Sensei
Gordon Jones: 6 people? In
an Aikido context it would have
to be O'sensei, the present Doshu,
Chiba Sensei, Tamura Sensei, Saito
sensei and Koybayashi Sensei.
Because they would, between them,
span the lifetime of Aikido. From
the very first students through
to the present day, to listen
to how it all began, the changes
that Aikido underwent in the formative
years and compare it with the
changes I have seen in my career,
and of course the stories!!
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