Aikido Schools of New Jersey Friendship Practice
Contributed by Lucy Lee*

On Thursday, September 21st, I attended the one-night Friendship Practice hosted by Aikido Schools of New Jersey (ASNJ) at Elizabeth with Hiroshi Ikeda shihan. Richard M. Stickles sensei (6th dan), the head instructor of ASNJ, is a long time student of Yoshimitsu Yamada shihan and has several dojos affiliated with United States Aikido Federation in New Jersey. I've heard that Ikeda sensei and Stickles sensei have been good friends for 15 years. Ikeda sensei teaches a weekend seminar at Bond Street dojo in New York City in the fall of every year, but this was the first time he taught a class at the ASNJ dojo. Feeling a little excited I entered this beautiful and spacious dojo with good spirit.

The class started at 7:00 pm. Stickles sensei opened the class with a warm welcome to Ikeda sensei and to over 100 aikidoka from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York City, and other places. Stickles sensei recalled how aikido had connected him with Ikeda sensei 15 years ago and built the friendship between them. Ikeda sensei also shared his appreciation of the long friendship with Stickles sensei. With his usual modest smile, Ikeda sensei looked around and had a very short talk. He mentioned aikidoka might practice aikido in different ways, but they all practice aikido. Ikeda sensei indicated that while each teacher's aikido might look a little different, we should be open-minded and learn from all of them. One analogy Sensei gave was how in Japan, shrimp is put into hamburgers, and it still tastes good even though it's a little different from what we normally eat. The light laugh helped us relax a little bit and then we were ready for training.

Ikeda sensei demonstrated various techniques from different grab attacks. We started from tenkan and irimi. Sensei focused on building connections as uke touches nage. With ikkyo practice, sensei demonstrated with both big movements and tiny movements. He explained that by using our center, we could make our movements smaller. He also showed how a person with shoulder injuries could still perform a very strong ikkyo. In his irimi nage, we saw the power of sharp entering. Sensei asked us to imagine how a big tree would stand against a strong wind. He mentioned directing power into the ground and relaxing the body. We should use the same ideas in our training. Sensei demonstrated these ideas in kokyu nage and threw two or three strong ukes at the same time. In his shihonage, Sensei moved as nimbly as a rabbit. He kept reminding us to be relaxed... In those two short hours, Ikeda sensei covered many principles of aikido training. I've heard most of them from him and other teachers before. The more I train with different people, the more I feel there is to learn.

As always, Ikeda sensei generously offered his hands to almost everybody on the mat, and Stickles sensei also trained with many people during the class. Both instructors offered their friendship and sincerity. I guess their secret of becoming masters is to keep training. Special thanks to Aikido Schools of New Jersey and Richard Stickles sensei for hosting this evening of friendship.