An Interview with Josh Paul Sensei
In the Dojo Volume 3 Issue 4
In this issue of In the Dojo, we invited 5th kyu student Anna Gibertini to interview Josh Paul Sensei, AOSB’s cofounder and dojo-cho. For over 20 years, Paul Sensei’s aikido practice has evolved from simply a means to get some exercise, to a lifelong dedication, and finally into a family-run business. Here, Paul Sensei shares his aikido history, as well as his thoughts on how this traditional art is faring in the digital present.
In the Dojo: When did you first discover aikido, and what was your journey from a white belt to owning your own dojo like?
Josh Paul Sensei: I started in 1999 and my initial motivation was to get some exercise. Aikido appealed to me because of its philosophy, but it didn’t hurt that the dojo, Jikishinkan, was only two blocks from my apartment, too.
At first, it was very hard to integrate aikido into my lifestyle. I played bass in several different bands, and the same question always came up: Will I go to aikido tonight, or to rehearsal? Getting used to showing up to class was hard. By about two years in, I fell into a slump and almost quit. But then I attended one seminar that turned that lack of motivation around, thankfully. After that I started showing up five days a week and have continued ever since.
In 2004, I reached shodan (black belt). Shortly thereafter, I started teaching adult classes and running the children’s program. Around 2006, I started teaching school-based programs independently of Jikishinkan, and set up the organization Mind Body Arts to do so. Andrew Sato Sensei, head instructor of the Aikido World Alliance and my teacher, affiliated MBA and made me a dojo-cho in 2011 so I could build on what I had already had going on outside of the dojo. At that point, starting Aikido of South Brooklyn with my wife Courtney made the most sense to continue my teaching.
ItD: You got your start teaching aikido with children, right?
JPS: That’s right. My sensei, Joseph Jarman, brought the idea up abruptly, and what else are you supposed to say when your sensei asks you to do something other than “hai, sensei”? It was a struggle in the beginning because I wanted them to be like little adults; I had to learn how to interact with them. I learned that I like teaching kids because they have no ego—if they make a mistake, they laugh it off and go back to having fun.
Much of what we’re teaching them, especially the really young ones, isn’t formal aikido. We’re teaching lessons on cooperation, coordination, patience, and concentration. You’re building the groundwork for them to learn to do real aikido later on.
These fundamental lessons are just as applicable to adults. A lot of times adults come for a trial class or beginners’ course thinking they should already be able to do aikido, and have uninformed ideas of how they could use it in the “real world”. They have to let go of their egos and learn the basics of how to move their bodies in a new way, like children.
ItD: Speaking of aikido in the real world, there are a lot of YouTube videos that make aikido look very confrontational and aggressive—the opposite of O’sensei’s teachings. Why do you think there’s so much of this kind of aikido content out there?
JPS: The aikido community has lost control of the narrative. We're not telling the story about what aikido is, its benefits, its mechanics on the internet. YouTube is overrun by lots of “aikido versus” videos that feature aikidoka in competition against different types of martial arts. O’sensei said that aikido is victorious because it competes with nothing. It is primarily a path of spiritual and physical development.
Another thing people turn to YouTube for are answers to their questions about aikido’s effectiveness. And while there are definitely many videos of aikido’s potential as a system of self-defense, there seems to be very few about the practice’s potential to improve someone’s physical and mental health and overall life. Does aikido work? Yes. But what does that mean? If it makes your life better through practicing, then it works.
ItD: Why do you think the narrative has run away from the community?
JPS: The community hasn't embraced social media or used it effectively. Individual dojo and practitioners have, but collectively, as a community, we haven’t. At AOSB, we use Instagram every day. It took me a while to embrace it. I mistakenly thought that being on social media would somehow compromise the dojo’s integrity. But I’ve learned that social media platforms can help spread an art’s message and attract new practitioners while still maintaining the dojo’s own unique story.
I’ve also learned that people are increasingly using social media as a search engine and they tend to view user-generated content as trustworthy and genuine. If even a quarter of the aikido dojo in the United States became frequent social media users, we could definitely realign the narrative around what aikido practice and lifestyle actually looks like.
ItD: What are you doing to rein it in?
JPS: Dojo need to have a social media presence in order to grow. Many dojo-cho may groan at this, but it’s just like paying rent on your space, calling the electric company, or filing taxes—you have to do it to support your students and bring new people in.
That’s what my new endeavor, Floating Bridge Communications, is for. Floating Bridge helps dojo develop an engaging and consistent social media presence. The company also provides up-to-date website maintenance and copywriting for print resources.
Aikido may never reach the level of popularity that the UFC and its associated arts have achieved, but we don’t need that kind of popularity to be successful. We just have to fill our dojo. Having a social media presence can help do that, and it isn’t about being commercial—it’s about being professional.