A few questions from a complete beginner.

I have been thinking of giving Aikido a try for a few years now but things always got in the way, now however I have a job that I love and can work on my own time scale giving me some free time and money to really give this a try.

Ive decided to attend a class at the Aikikan Dojo in Derby, this place is part of the Aikido union, England and the instructor is Chris McDonald.

Can anyone give me any more information on this Dojo, or the organisation, it mentions The Aikido Union is dedicated to the advancement of the study of Budo, im that uninformed im not even sure what this is.

Also want to get an idea of what to expect, I know its best to attend and see but am pretty excited at getting this started as ive always had an interest in this, especially as it delves into the philosophical side of things.

Look forward to the replies,
Mark.

 

Dave!

 

would you mind elaborating ?

 

Thanks.

 

Mark apols for the delay in reply, I'm studying, teaching and working pretty much on the fly; anyway here at last.

Okis, I'll do my very best to be both honest and objective in my comments however, let me begin my saying that I do know the organisation you have experienced, the man at the top of that organisation is Pat Stratford, Chris MacDonald is as I understand it, Mr. Stratford's right hand man.

A bit of history.

Mr. Stratford claimed some time ago to be, and I quote; "The only westerner to have been a master of aikido"

Not five miles from where I live, I have an Aikido Union England Dojo operating, a number of their students were likewise pontificating about their so called master. I politely emailed Mr. Stratford pointing out the erroneous nature of the statement which appeared on his association's website, although that statement was soon changed, I received a rather, shall we say "impolite" response from Mr. MacDonald.

Very soon later, I had two of Stratford's "boys" from the local dojo visit me presenting a "commendation" issued to Mr. Stratford on behalf of the Japanese Embassy for his Anglo-Japanese relationships in furthering Aikido in the UK. It wasn't certifying a level of mastery in the art of aikido; despite the fact it was being offered in justification of the statement I questioned.

Ok, so that bit of history was to illustrate the contact and experience I've had with the AUE, all negative and in part somewhat hostile. Then again I did (politely) challenge the providence of the statement being claimed (which was erroneous)

The Aikido studied within the AUE is IMHO not particularly orthodox, that said I haven't trained with many of their members however, I do have two of their local group who have since migrated to me and the United Kingdom Aikikai. The comments which have been muted to me directly from former AUE members are slightly disturbing in relation to how techniques are applied and, the speed by which student’s progress to dan grade.

All in all Mark I can't offer any particularly positive comments, last time I checked Mr. Stratford was claiming a very lofty 8th dan from the AMA (an organisation which has previously been questioned about the credibility of their issuance of grades) Despite having a supposedly very close relationship with Tanaka Sensei in Japan, I don't understand how 'local' grades to very senior Yudansha level fit in the whole scheme of things but, stranger things have happened.

If you want to talk to someone within my dojo who spent over three years within the AUE, let me know and I'll forward his email to you directly.

Regards

 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the detailed info, really appreciate you letting me know this, I have had a similar experience with another dojo one time, am not gonna mention any names but I did find out that they had one student teaching classes after about 3 months of training, with no other experience in martial arts, its a shame when MA organisations operate like this and it is obvious they are only operating out of greed rather than for the love of the art.

I am slightly disapointed to hear this as I was looking forward to giving this a try, but I do think the most important this is to make sure the teaching I receive is from a reliable source, and these do seem very skeptical in this area so I think it maybe best to look elsewhere.

Do you know of any good aikido dojo's within the Derby area ?

Thanks,
Mark.

 

Hi Mark,

Sorry my post has stemmed your enthusiasm, I thought it best to give you a fuller picture rather than just say "give it a go and see what you think"

Follow this link http://www.bab.org.uk/club_directory/county.html to the British Aikido Board's club directory, this is indexed by county so, you should hopefully be able to find somewhere else.

As you've no direct experience in aikido, thus not sure what to measure against, although I am some distance from you, if you wanted to travel up to meet me and my students some time you are most welcome, please contact me off forum if you'd like to set this up, see my signature link.

KInd regards