Revisiting 2012 Spring Camp
with Eiji Katsurada Sensei
Inryoku Volume 4 Issue 4 (supplement)
By Josh Paul Sensei, AOSB Head Instructor
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In aikido, the role of nage—the defender—is sometimes interpreted too passively. In training, nage is often instructed to “wait” for uke to attack, and to then react with a technique. But we know that, for example, in randori practice, if nage passively waits for three or more uke to attack and then reacts, nage is most likely going to get clobbered. Nage must move and engage the ukes before they fully attack. The ukes’ intentions are clear—get nage—so why wait to be literally beat over the head with this intention?
When teaching, and especially when teaching randori and jiyu waza, I’ve struggled to explain the difference between waiting for an attack and moving toward an uke before or during an attack.
I often found myself wanting to use the word “aggressive,” which wrongly seemed to imply fighting, and would substitute it with “proactive,” which only seemed to imply corporate gibberish. I would compromise on an idea of “assertiveness,” but this too was still not the right vocabulary. And, so, it was a relief and revelation when Eiji Katsurada Shihan, at the 2012 Aikido World Alliance Spring Camp, taught his interpretation of the concepts of go no sen and sen no sen.
Katsurada Shihan, rokudan, is an instructor from Hombu Dojo in Tokyo, Japan, where he teaches adult and children’s classes. He is the first Hombu Dojo instructor to teach at an AWA seminar—a major milestone for the organization. The seminar was held at Kyushinkan Dojo, Roswell, Georgia, from April 13–15, and with more than 170 people on the mats, it was one of the AWA’s largest seminars to date. And it proved something that’s likely to affect every future seminar at Kyushinkan Dojo: even with 170 people on the mat, there’s enough space for all partner practice all the time!
Katsurada Shihan knows some English, and language differences are not major impediments to teaching technique. However, with translation help from Courtney Heizenrader (3rd kyu, Aikido of South Brooklyn), Katsurada Shihan was able to teach and share something deeper than gross movements. He shared his aikido and his ideas, and asked us, the students, to be open to a different way of doing familiar techniques. And this sincerity and openness was on display in Katsurada Shihan’s teaching style: at some point during the seminar, he practiced with virtually every student on the mat regardless of age or rank.
I’m sure everybody left Spring Camp with different understandings and memories of the seminar, but his discussion of go no sen and sen no sen particularly resonated with me. These ideas are referred to in kendo, karate, and other arts, and all with slightly different translations. Instead of a lengthy discussion of these differences, I’ll only recap how I remember Katsurada Shihan discussing these strategies. (By the way, if you hadn’t picked up on it, that’s my “I’m-not-an-expert-and-could-have-misunderstood” humility disclaimer.)
Go no sen, said Katsurada Shihan, is when nage waits for uke to attack and then executes a defense. It is not passive, mindless waiting. Even though the body may be still, the mind and senses are active. Katsurada Shihan explained that nage has the luxury of waiting because he can see or sense how uke will attack. Most aikido practice is done this way. There’s a prespecified attack, knowledge that empowers nage to wait for uke to move first and still have the time and space—the ma ai—to respond.
This strategy works in jiyu waza and randori practice, too. Maybe uke comes charging at you with a raised tegatana (sword hand) in preparation for shomenuchi or with both arms extended in a Frankenstein-like walk ready to grab both gi lapels. Maybe uke makes obvious and wide angles to circle behind you or in some other way telegraphs the attack. When nage can see or feel how uke will attack, he can wait.
But what if uke’s attack isn’t telegraphed or dictated by the instructor? What if uke can attack freely? And what if there’s a weapon or more than one uke? In such contexts, nage may choose to go to uke to either intercept uke’s attack or to engage uke before he has a chance to attack. This is the idea of sen no sen, said Katsurada Shihan. This idea is probably most commonly practiced during randori, when nage moves toward the uke and intercepts them before they can attack fully and simultaneously.
Katsurada Shihan illustrated the idea with several techniques. Munetsuki kotegaeshi stands out in my memory as a clear example of Katsurada Shihan’s idea of sen no sen, as well as an example of his personal approach to aikido. In this version of munetsuki kotegaeshi, Katsurada Shihan entered as uke began to punch, preventing the strike from reaching full extension by stopping uke’s elbow and dropping his weight on the elbow joint. From there, Katsurada Shihan took uke’s fist into both of his hands, forming a two-handed kotegaeshi grip. He extended uke outwards, in the direction of the strike, and around to his opposite knee. Next, he lifted uke’s arm, making a wave-like motion and pivoted. The timing was such that as uke was coming around, off balance, nage was pivoting in the opposite direction. Uke’s wrist went one direction while his body was traveling in another.
This style of kotegaeshi was facilitated by Katsurada Shihan’s very wide, deep hanmi stance, something he specifically talked about at the opening of the seminar, along with the importance of keeping weight underside. The progression from these skills to go no sen and sen no sen followed a clear narrative, and, along the way, Katsurada Shihan also emphasized the importance of individual control over each part of the body. He most memorably illustrated this by breathing: first into his chest, then the abdomen, and then the pelvis. If you watched carefully, you could actually see each segment of his body sequentially expanding and contracting with each breath.
Since April, I’ve discussed Katsurada Shihan’s teachings with friends, teachers, and students from around the country. Everybody remembers something different: throws that required nage to literally dive to the floor, slapping your partner on the back (a refreshing type of atemi waza practice), tanto dori done with water bottles, unusual approaches to nikkyo, and Katsurada Shihan’s approachability and openness. And that’s the short list. That so much could be remembered and so much forgotten is a testament to the depth and breadth of the 2012 Spring Camp.