Martial arts Hall of Fame seminar, 2004

I attended the most recent AustralasianMartial Arts Hall of Fame demonstration and workshop day this weekend just gone. 

I had an extremely enjoyable day and much to ruminate on. First up all

attendees were invited to line up according to rank, being a relatively

junior yudansha I was amazed at home many shihan, hanshi and grandmasters

were gathered together in one place - outnumbering the little known junior

yudansha such as myself.

The day was a great opportunity to witness and practice many other martial

arts in a co-operative atmosphere, something difficult to do if you fronted

up to these schools randomly to ask for a 'lesson'

First up we were treated to a grandmaster from America, teaching his art

based on the short sword (wakazashi). I was a little perplexed at his gold

trimmed red belt that was heavily embroidered, but he gave an excellent

class able to teach experienced iaidoka and novices (that didn't know the

sharp side of a sword was the best to cut with) some of his basic kata.

Similarly the hi-fives,'go girl' and drill sergeant training method were

something to feel squeamish about, though it certainly worked.

Following that a number of demonstrations given by newly inducted members

into the hall of fame were given.

During the day we were treated to full contact karate, kata demonstrations

from JJ (2 person), karate, iaido, other weapons, board breaking and even

some internals arts stuff.

Some ex? Zendokai karateka gave a superb talk and demo on the effects of

stress on the bodies physiology (specifically loss of fine motor skills,

loss of auditory senses and tunnel vision), which I had only read about in

scholarly works perviously. They also suggested ways to train for these

debilitating effects - though I would seriously need to upgrade my

'hobbyist' practice to enter into this kind of training regime.

The internal arts stuff included breaking arrows pressed into the hollow at

the base of the neck and lifting heavy weights through piercing made in the

arms with short metal stakes - and then breaking these weights with a sledge

hammer. Very impressive stuff that came with the usual warnings about don't

try this at home. Of course back of the envelope physics calculations

reveals just how easy all this stuff is ..but I'll save my own little hobby

horse for another occasion.

Finally the closing demonstration was given by Catherine Schnell Sensei,

what can I say it was a lot of fun, sensei even revealed a little of her

Yoshinkan roots (diverging from Ryushinkan - way of the willow just a

little) in the excitement and fortunately the ukes were up to the task. The

demonstration closed with Charlie and I demonstrating the Aikido Yuishinkai

Kumijo kata, which sensei kindly invited us to demonstrate.

I must admit I have reservations about Hall of Fame, Sokeship councils and

similar institutions. However the plethora of high dan rankings, flashy

awards and medals aside, 5 minutes in the carpark with some of the

participants and '...will we see you next year?' really caused me to

reconsider my prejudices.

For the most park everyone in aikido has a clear lineage back to the founder

(our art being younger than most) and have organizations that can provide

regular seminars for high quality teaching, interaction with other dojos,

certification and gradings.

However imagine the many other martial arts (like some karate and JJ schools

etc..) where lineage is not so clear, there are so many generations away

from the founders that ryu and ryu-ha abound, and where the many independent

and functionally independent dojos have little external input and

interaction with other clubs and little chance to be recognised for their

efforts. Here an organization like the AMAHOF can provide a sense of the

larger picture, a national affiliation, opportunities to have external

instruction and importantly and accompanying martial arts community.

Find about the hall of fame here