Aikido club hosts guest sensei for Winter Term project

An Oberlin Aikido club that has been in existence for almost 25 years attracted twelve participants to the Aikido Winter Term Project. The project culminated in a national seminar with more than 50 interested martial artists who came from Illinois and Pennsylvania and everywhere in between.

Tracy Alpert, sensei , came up from Boulder, Colorado to teach the project, which involved three two-hour sessions every day of instruction and practice. For full credit a participant would have to attend four hours of class a day, though some attended all six hours.

Aikido is a Japanese martial art that was traditionally the fighting technique of the samurai. "It's hard to put into words, but most would describe Aikido as a strictly defensive martial art," senior Alex McCarthy, president of the Aikido club said. "You learn to use your opponents' strengths against them and you don't have to be terribly strong to do well."

Part of the martial artist's training also involved a samurai's weapons. A wooden version of the short curved samurai sword, called bokken, and a four foot walking staff, called a jo were used in training. "We try to better understand our open-hand technique as it is derived from traditional sword and spear work," McCarthy said.

An aikido sensei by the name of Tres Hofmeister came to give the three day seminar, with the third day devoted to rank testing.

Aikido practitioners are divided up into kyus and dans. Testing for sixth kyu is like making the team, while first kyu means you're a starter. After first kyu you test for dan, which is like going All-conference, and then higher level dans could be considered All-American.

The ranking system is prevalent in other Japanese disciplines, such as flower-arranging and in the game of Go.

Six people tested for and acquired sixth kyu, and one made second kyu. To pass a test the instructor names a technique that must be demonstrated by the test-taker with a partner in front of the class until the instructor decides the test-taker has sufficiently demonstrated the technique. Hofmeister, a fifth dan, administered the testing.

People are not asked to test unless the instructor feels the individual is qualified to take the test. Only half the class tested for ranking, as some didn't want to provoke injuries. "Injuries are not all that common, but if you do physical activity four hours a day for a month you will get sore knees or something every once in a while," McCarthy said.