Y'all remember the old western comedy, City Slickers, with Jack Pallance playing the wise, old, grizzled cowboy named Curly? Y'all remember Curly's Law? When asked what his secret was, he held up one finger. When asked to expand on that he just said, "Choose one thing, and do that one thing." Pretty good secret cowboy knowledge.
For a long, long time, there has been an emphasis in my aikido classes on atemiwaza. Direct, simple, effective. And we've mostly got a decent handle on that facet of aikido. So, I've been casting about for a bit of a new direction to take my aikido classes in next year. That's when Curly's Law came to mind.
I figure we'll pick one thing and focus on it for the whole year and see where it takes us. And not only are we going to do "one thing" but we're going to do an emphasis on what Ueshiba called, "Thing-One."
Ikkyo. Oshitaoshi. Udeosae.
Sure, we'll continue to work folks up through the excellent teaching system that weve developed over the years. We're not throwing the baby out wwith the bath. But I think that a few minutes of various forms of oshitaoshi during each class next year is likely to open up some new ideas for all of us.
And if not, at least I'll know that my students will be the best in the world at One Thing (Thing-One) by the beginning of 2013.
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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com
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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com
