Happy new year message from Sensei Paul McGlone
1ST January 2012
To All Students and Friends of Poole Aikido Club
AKEMASHITE OMEDETO GOZAIMASU
The New Year begins and the old one is past but not forgotten. The year 2011 was a very sad one both for aikido and for me personally. Three people I had known and respected for many years in aikido are no longer with us.
A brief word on each:
In Scotland, the second aikido teacher I ever trained under, William (Billy) Coyle Sensei passed away early in the year. I had started aikido in August 1969 under Tom Weir Sensei and within a couple of weeks heard about another club in the city, run by Billy Coyle. I started attending all the classes I could find, and along with a number of other beginners was soon attending 8 classes each week. I remember how we would attend an early evening class under Weir Sensei at his class on the south side of the city, and as soon as it was finished we would jump in a couple of cars and tear across town to one of Coyle Sensei’s classes to the south west of the city, (usually arriving late but we were still welcome). Coyle Sensei was very helpful to me and the other beginners and he had an affinity with the sword and stick which really appealed to me. He was in spirit a Samurai.
In London, a truly great man in the aikido world, Haydn Foster sadly passed away. He was Head of the Institute of Aikido and had taught Weir Sensei. I first trained under him in January 1970 when he and Hamish MacFarlane Sensei came up to Glasgow to teach a weekend seminar. He awarded me my 4th kyu grade. The highlight of each year for many of us was the annual summer school held at that time in Barrie, South Wales. It comprised two weeks of aikido, training every day under Foster Sensei, MacFarlane Sensei and Andy Allen Sensei. Heaven!! Mr Foster was particularly helpful to me when I was preparing to resit my shodan test (which I had failed on my first attempt). He continued to be influential in my aikido development for quite a few years, and I always held him in the highest esteem.
The third was Tim Buswell. Tim had started as one of my students at Poole Aikido Club many years ago, and came up through the ranks with Chris Bartley and Peter Reynolds. They were known as the “Three Musketeers” and were at all the seminars. All three of these students gained their dan grades with me, and Tim and Pete both became club leaders in their own right. Tim was wise man, devil’s advocate, raconteur, and friend. He was great with children and ran a successful childrens’ class for some years until work meant he could not continue it. He developed a cancer in 2010 and died in 2011. It was a very sad loss of a friend.
All these teachers have touched many people’s lives, and it makes me think of the numbers of students who have come and gone over more than 42 years that I have been training. There were a number of other beginners started around the same time as me but all the others have fallen by the wayside and I am the only one still going. I recall how we regularly used to have attendances of 25 students or more every class, and when we ran seminars whether in Cambridge or in Poole, we would have 70 or 80 people attending. It is a sad fact that fewer people now seem to want to make the commitment which we did when we started. We now have considerably fewer students at each class and it is not just once that I have arrived to teach a class to find that only one student has turned up. Even seminars are now considered well attended if we have over 25 turn up.
We are apparently not alone in this as other martial arts have also been experiencing a downturn in attendances. The competitive arts do tend to have larger classes, perhaps because some people have a need to compete, or win, or ‘fight’.
Our aikido is non-competitive, and I personally feel that it is a major strength of the art. Aikido can be a haven from the stress and turmoil of the world, a place you can go to look for a bit of yourself, to forget any stress and worry from work or family life, and to work with other like minded students. You leave your stress outside the door of the dojo, and with misogi (purification) to prepare for the class, you are ready with an open calm mind to continue your search.
2012 is a new year and we traditionally consider making ‘resolutions’ at this time. Sometimes these may be to give something up such as smoking, to change something in your life such as losing weight, or to start something new such as learning a foreign language, juggling, swimming, or playing the bagpipes (but perhaps not all at once). Whatever you decide should be your resolution, you should make the necessary commitment to see that resolution through to fulfilment. Even if your resolution should be to relax more, you will need to allocate time for yourself to achieve that goal.
I hope that you will all be able to find the time in 2012 to commit to your aikido. We have only one class at present, and it would be great if we could start a second weekly class. In 2007 we did start a second class near Upton, and although there was initial support for the class, after a while we were not getting the attendance needed and so the class was closed. The sad reality of the situation is that any new classes must be entirely self funding.
I am intending to start off the classes this year by concentrating mainly on one technique, form, or aspect of aikido in each class. The first six classes will be covering shiho nage, kote gaeshi, irimi nage, tenchi nage, kaiten nage and kokyu nage, There may also be some related Ken or Jo considerations at these classes so you will still require to bring your weapons with you to all classes.
I hope that with this focus I can help you to feel confident in your syllabus, and will be ready to sit your next grading test at some point in 2012. Should you be1st kyu or higher, you may have some specific queries about small details of techniques, particularly if you have been helping another student with a technique. Please take the opportunity to let me know of these matters at least three or four days before the relevant class. I would ask you to do this in writing, because I believe this may focus your own mind on what exactly the problem is which you are trying to resolve, (and it may even help you see the answer for yourself).
I am very much looking forward to the classes in 2012 and with the improvements to the website I hope that we will gain a higher profile and some new members. We finished 2011 with really good energy in the club. Let’s build on that for 2012 and see how much we can grow together.
Best wishes to you all.
Paul Sensei
