Aikido practitioners from Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria came together in Armidale on Friday for a four-day seminar with David Brown Shihan, an internationally recognised master instructor of this non-aggressive Japanese martial art.
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A shihan is a ‘teacher of teachers’, explained Bellingen aikido instructor Barry Ford, so it was appropriate that half the group gathered in Armidale wore the traditional samurai black pants indicating a grade of black belt or higher.
David Brown was one of the original students of Sugano Sensei, who founded Aiki Kai Australia in the1960s.
In the decades since then, Dave has gone on a personal journey of testing aikido techniques against other branches of martial arts to refine their effectiveness.
“Dave Brown offers a fresh interpretation of the techniques we’ve been learning for years,” Barry said. “He started with Sugano Sensei fifty years ago, and his natural inclination was to find out if it worked. So he’s taken himself off to do aikido against various other martial arts like karate, jiu jitsu and zen do kai with Bob Jones.
“When Dave says, ‘if you do this the jiu jitsu people will wrap their arms around you and pick you up’, it’s because he’s tried aikido against people who’ve actually been trying to hurt him, and then he’s worked out what’s effective.”
“But he will tell you that everything he does he learned from Sugano Sensei, it’s just that it took him a long while to understand what Sugano Sensei was trying to teach him.”
Sugano Sensei died seven years ago. His son Jikou Sugano is now head of Aiki Kai NSW, and also a former Bellingen High student. He occasionally visits the Bellingen dojo at Thora to give special classes.
The Bellingen aikido group has been running since 2009 and meets Wednesdays and Thursdays 6pm–7.30pm at Thora Community Hall.
It’s a small, friendly group with equal numbers of men and women. Visitors are welcome to come and either just watch or try the sport and can contact Barry Ford on 0418 893 179.