|
|
|
|
Fumiaki Shishida, 8th Dan, to teach at Vassar! The Vassar College Aikido Club welcomes Vassar College students, faculty, and staff as well as members of the local community. We practice the Japanese martial art of Aikido which emphasizes timing and balance breaking as the keys to successfully applying joint locks, throws, and submission holds. Because it does not call for the application of strength, Aikido allows the smaller and weaker to confidently deal with attacks by much larger and more powerful opponents. Instruction is provided by Sensei Sean Masaki Flynn, who is also a Professor of Economics at Vassar College. Sensei Flynn has studied Aikido extensively in Japan, is the author of Understanding Shodokan Aikido, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Japan Aikido Association, USA. Sensei Flynn teaches the Shodokan style of Aikido, known popularly in the West as Tomiki Aikido, after its founder, Kenji Tomiki. Tomiki Sensei was a direct student of both the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, as well as the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. Tomiki Sensei held 8th degree black belts in both arts, and was the first of Ueshiba's students to be awarded an 8th degree black belt. Tomiki Sensei's innovation was to create for Aikido a systematic instructional system based upon that of Judo. As such, it has a highly structured curricula that leads students systematically through basic movements and fundamental concepts, with each technique building upon past techniques as students advance through the system. This greatly shortens the time necessary to achieve any given level of proficiency. Tomiki also introduced a safe sparring method for Aikido which allows students to judge their skill and progress by pitting them against aggressive opponents whose attacks are in no way pre-arranged or choreographed. By gradually raising the level of intensity with which sparring is engaged, students come to be able to utilize their Aikido skills at full-speed and full-resistance, closely mimicking combat and street fights. As Tomiki Sensei put it, adding sparring practice to forms practice was like "giving eyes to a dragon."
|
