Norman Wight
North County Aikikai
One day I was training with Yahe Solomon in the dojo on University Avenue in San Diego. From behind me I heard Sensei’s voice. (I never did hear him coming up behind me – ever). He said, “Norman. You test?” (There was testing the next day.) I said, “I do not plan to test, Sensei. I only have a few hours of training since the last test.” He said, “You test.” And he walked away. Yahe said, “Looks like you are testing.” After my test the next night, Sensei said, “Not pass. Not ready yet.”
Any time we were lined up on the mat, waiting for Sensei to come out and start class, there was always an electricity in the air. And maybe some fear. He’d come out, finishing up the ties on his hakama, and then take us to places we’d never been before.
At testing, about once every three months, after the tests, the Senior Council would go back into the kitchen area with Sensei and after passing most of the junior students testing, he’d turn our attention to the more senior students. He would say to me, “Norman. What you think?” I’d say, “I think (he or she) should pass.” Then I’d say why. Sensei would sometimes say, “Tosh! Your eyes they cannot see. Not pass. Norman. You talk.” That meant that when we went back out, I had to tell the student they didn’t pass, and why. I had no idea why they didn’t pass. So I had to make something up – quickly.
One night we had testing, and Yahe was taking ukemi. He was challenging the student testing and I thought to myself, “Yahe, you better be careful. Sensei isn’t going to like this.” Afterward, in the kitchen, Sensei said the student passed, and Yahe was being demoted. He asked for comments. I said, “Sensei, it seems to me that once a student gets his rank, it should be for life, even if he makes a mistake.” By the time he was done with me, I was pretty sure I was going to be demoted, along with Yahe. It turned out he was demoted. I wasn’t.
No one talked on the mat when Sensei taught. He said, “If they want to learn a technique, they’ll have to steal it.”
One day I was teaching a noon class and Sensei walked into the dojo. He watched for less than a minute, and then started teaching the class, in his street clothes. After about twenty minutes he left. It wasn’t that I was teaching anything wrong, it was just that Sensei had somewhere he wanted to go with it. For him, a technique was only a part of an overall program. A technique was related to the technique before it, and the one after it. Like a symphony.
