A Search for Aikido - by Khai Tran

A SEARCH FOR AIKIDO

AND MY PERSPECTIVES TOWARDS MARTIAL ARTS

Khai Tran

(For the brown belt grading, April 2009)

People have different interests in life, but many could not persevere or have the opportunity to accomplish their goal in their youth. I was one of them. As a young boy of the 70’s, my childlike dream was to be an extraordinary person who could defend the unfortunates and fight the bad guys. I wished to be a martial artist (although I did not know what was its meaning at that time), who could do many tricks that were foreign to ordinary people. Being tied with the Chinese culture, many martial art movies from Hong Kong were greatly received in Vietnam or other Asian countries. Among those, Bruce Lee movies were so popular to many Vietnamese in the 70’s. It was effortless to find kids imitating Bruce Lee in every corner of the neighbourhoods. Many Tae Kwon Do schools mushroomed everywhere to supply the forced demand of young people. So, I sampled few schools of different styles, most of them involved kicking and punching. For some different reasons, I could not last for more than 6 months at any one school. One time, a fortuneteller told me that I would grow up to be a person working with pens and papers, but not the one of martial arts. However, it seems that there is always something inside me that consistently urges me to get back to realise my dream.

I started to know the term Aikido when I was 21 years old (1981) in a refugee camp in Indonesia, where I met a friend who was one of the students of Dang Thong Phong Sensei, a Vietnamese Aikido master who is now based in Westminster, California. My friend gave me brief explanation of Aikido and demonstrated a few basic moves for me. I was so fascinated and determined to learn this art when I have a chance. I heard that Aikido is a non-competitive martial art that uses the strength of the opponent for counterattack. That sounded best for me, because I don’t like competition and sparring. In 1984, I began my first Aikido lesson at the University of Ottawa. The class took place in one of the gyms of the university and was fully packed with mostly first year students. The first lesson I learned was a flat break fall, which I could hardly do it and I almost bumped into somebody’s head. I did not come back for the second class.

After the sudden death of my beloved brother in 1992 and the starting of my postdoctoral life in Winnipeg I had to be away from my wife and son in 1994. I began to search for some spiritual meanings of life to cope with adversities during that long journey. I read books on Buddhism, Taoism and martial arts including Aikido. One day, when I was in a public library in Winnipeg, I serendipitously saw the fictitious story of Myamoto Musashi translated in Vietnamese. I read the story two times. I was so fascinated about the perseverance and determination of Musashi that I often related to my postdoctoral training as a martial way of training, which gave me the courage and the strength to move forward. No Aikido Dojo was present in Winnipeg at that time, but, instead, there was a small group practicing in a backyard of a house. I did come to visit the place, but decided not to join. When I returned to Ottawa in 1996 for a position at the Heart Institute, I continued my search for Aikido and I ended up at the Ottawa Aikikai, which used to be located at the back of the tall high-rise at the corner of Rideau and Chapel Street. I was totally surprised with a strange setting, where a beginner was put practicing together with all levels including black belts. I became overwhelmed with many techniques given out at one day. I did not know how to roll and nobody showed me how. I had no clue of what they were doing and hardly remembered anything when the class finished. So, I quitted after two months!

Later, I learned about there exists an Aikido club at a sport complex from a colleague, and I started Yoseikan Aikido in 1998 taught by O’ Connor Sensei.  I had the opportunity to learn the basics of Aikido with Yoseikan. I progressed slowly but steadily. I practiced twice a week, one hour per session. As any beginner, I was anxious to learn as many techniques as possible without fully understand the fundamental basics of the techniques. As a result, I picked up some bad habits that took me a while to correct them. When I got to the orange belt level, I had the opportunity to practice one more day (Saturday), on which we mainly practiced groundwork.

From 2005 till now, I have the opportunity to practice Aikido with Lau Sensei. Since then, my learning curve has risen steadily and my perspectives about Aikido in particular and martial arts in general have been changed. Coming to the Dojo three times a week has become my routine and my way of life. Luckily, I have the opportunity to attend the additional two noon classes. Being practicing this deadly art daily, I know that I hardly use it in my life. Then, what is the meaning of self-defence? To me, learning martial arts is to acquire a healthy body and mind. It is not for fighting against a human being as I used to think when I was younger, but it is self-defence against many internal and external adversaries. The internal adversaries stemmed from the self include my own ego, my laziness, my procrastination, my mental corruption and the tendency to blame on others, my low-self esteem, my arrogance and selfishness. The external adversaries include microorganisms, the improper eating and substance abuse, and excessive activities, which are all derived from unhealthy life style and ignorance. Those adversaries constantly threaten my life daily and deteriorate my body and mind. The type of practice that I follow has so far provides me with the ammunition to defend against those adversaries. My childlike idea about being an extraordinary person has been completely vanished.

Looking back, I am grateful to my decision of starting the Aikido since 1998 and my perseverance to follow this art until present. However, not until recently that I start to have a complete different mentality towards martial arts in general, as well as about my daily practice. I do not quite understand about the meaning of Yoseikan, but instead I slowly feel being impregnated to the essence of Jiseikan, Self-Improving Hall, which is our current Dojo’s name. Thanks to the term Jiseikan, I can see that there are so many things that I could learn and improve inside and outside the Dojo. Daily, I could improve my awareness in many circumstances such as in driving, in the relationship and interaction with colleagues, friends, neighbours and family members, improve my fitness and internal strength. At the Dojo, many so-called basics activities such as push-up, warm-up, stretching, kicking and punching are no longer trivial to me. [Thanks to Sensei that he makes us doing push-ups at the end of the class that slowly increases my endurance]. I start to pay more attention to basic techniques and the importance of building a strong foundation. There is a saying that “Practice doesn’t make perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect.”  I have the opportunity to practice more with the beginners, where I could learn proper basic techniques shown by Lau Sensei. I start to see the details and the beauties of the techniques when they are executed slowly and with accuracy. With the beginners, I learn and improve my control and pay attention to details. I learn from their difficulties and looking for ways to improve. Then, I apply what I have been learning with the beginners to my class, where I concentrate more in the timing, positioning, and unbalancing, which are still my weaknesses. I am working to smoothen out my Jyu Randori and enhance my physical strength. When I practice alone (e.g. kicking or punching), I always image the presence of a target in front of me. When practicing Iaido, I imagine that I am cutting either a watermelon (straight cut) or a banana tree (diagonal cut). When I practice with the advanced students, I pay attention to see how they handle the situation, their awareness of the surroundings, and how they reserve their energy.  Sensei always reminds me to relax during practice and not to start with full blow, which often makes me exhausted prematurely. I promise to myself to pay more attention to those points in this summer camp.

After years of practicing, I have been handed down lot of raw materials. I think it about time for me to polish, perfect and systemize them accordingly to my ability. There are so many things I could practice either inside or outside the Dojo, from many ways of kicking and punching to many sword drawing and cutting techniques from Iaido. I know it would take long times to practice and perfect the techniques that I acquire so far. However, I think time is not an issue to me, but rather it is the process that I enjoy daily. I feel rejuvenate again, and I would not mind to take time to explore and try to see the essence of each technique. Perhaps, I should look at life as my playground and enjoy the journey until my body would no longer permit. During each day of practicing, I pay attention to my endurance and I routinely monitored my health. The Aikido camps give me a great opportunity to practice how to live harmoniously with my work, my family and my body. They give me the opportunity to observe closely my strengths and weaknesses, and I try to make the best out of it. I start to see the summer camp as my retreat where I could evaluate my performance and set an objective for the coming year. So far so good, my health still allows me to do what I love to do and it seems to be better each day.