{"id":897,"date":"2015-05-26T23:09:49","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T03:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=897"},"modified":"2015-05-27T16:12:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T20:12:02","slug":"a-new-path-in-the-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=897","title":{"rendered":"A New Path in the Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5894.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-906 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5894-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_5894\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5894-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5894-1024x755.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5894-407x300.jpg 407w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5894.jpg 1776w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You are not alone.<\/li>\n<li>With hard work and study, you can practice Chiba Sensei\u2019s Aikido at the highest level.<\/li>\n<li>As part of a strong and supportive community, you can pass on the essence of Chiba Sensei\u2019s Aikido to the next generation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That was part of the powerful message of this past weekend\u2019s Birankai Instructors\u2019 Intensive in Wisconsin. It was an incredible experience, full of collaboration, intense study and real progress in our collective goal of keeping Birankai Aikido vital and true to the essence of Chiba Sensei\u2019s project.<a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5901.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-908 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5901-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_5901\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5901-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5901-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5901-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(More reports will be posted soon on the event in this blog and in the print issue of Biran, along with a quick-cut video I\u2019m putting together set to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VgSMxY6asoE\">\u201cEye of the Tiger\u201d<\/a>\u2026)<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I didn\u2019t have a clear idea of what to expect going into the Instructor\u2019s Intensive and I harbored plenty of skepticism, if not dread. Much more of my mindspace as the weekend approached was occupied by concerns about wolverines, a dry campus and three days of healthy food than martial spirit, curriculum or pedagogy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cheese-food1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-900 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cheese-food1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Cheese food\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Luckily, Wisconsin \u201ccheese food\u201d was soon on hand to supplement my diet and I turned my focus to the radical paradigm shift occurring in front of me on the mats and lawns at the House in the Wood.<\/p>\n<p>With full acknowledgment of and respect for teachers who chose to focus on their own dojos and methods, the Intensive offered a new model in which a coalition of the willing apply their energy and humility to the needs of the larger body of Birankai instructors.<\/p>\n<p>We took on the most basic of the basics \u2013 suburi, strikes, fundamental movements in weapons training \u2013 and worked together as senior and junior teachers to first clarify the martial objectives of each movement, then explore the many approaches used by Chiba Sensei over the years to embody these martial intentions. Finally, we put our heads together to form strategies to bring everyone\u2019s level up and practiced, practiced, practiced.<\/p>\n<p>Roo Heins, Rodger Park, Neilu Naini, Deena Drake, Alex Peterson and I acted as group <a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5909.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-909\" src=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5909-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_5909\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5909-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5909-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5909-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>facilitators more than ultimate authorities passing judgment from on high, keeping the focus on improving our training as an inclusive group and keeping the energy up. Shihans Lizzy Lynn and Maureen Brown kept us honest and on task.<\/p>\n<p>Chiba Sensei was there in our hearts at every moment.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing the passion, perseverance <a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5891.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-905 \" src=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_5891-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_5891\" width=\"218\" height=\"166\" \/><\/a>and grit of our fellow instructors \u2013 most of whom I hadn\u2019t gotten to know much at all before this weekend \u2013 I fully expect the next exemplar of Chiba Sensei\u2019s Aikido to come from Muskogee, Lansing or Providence.<\/p>\n<p>As I yearned for cheese food overnight in the deserted Philly airport on the way home, thoughts of the Intensive kept running through my mind:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As part of a strong and supportive community, you <strong>can<\/strong> pass on Chiba Sensei\u2019s Aikido to the next generation.<\/li>\n<li>With hard work and study, you <strong>can<\/strong> practice Chiba Sensei\u2019s Aikido at the highest level.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You are not alone.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>L. Klein<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:<\/strong> Thanks to R.C. Miles for the great panorama photo at the top of the page. If anyone has more good photos or video, let me know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You are not alone. With hard work and study, you can practice Chiba Sensei\u2019s Aikido at the highest level. As part of a strong and supportive community, you can pass on the essence of Chiba Sensei\u2019s Aikido to the next generation. That was part of the powerful message of this past weekend\u2019s Birankai Instructors\u2019 Intensive &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=897\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A New Path in the Wood&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weapons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2RSKg-et","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":913,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions\/913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}