November 2019 – The Achievement Issue

Welcome to November's Shinbun, the Achievement Issue

Achievement
1. The action of achieving, completing, or attaining by exertion; completion, accomplishment, successful performance.
2. Anything achieved, accomplished, or won by exertion; a feat, a distinguished and successful action, a victory.
Oxford English Dictionary

This month we have four timely examples of achievement. Two of our ranks have achieved Nidan, two have achieved Sandan in a rare double promotion demonstration. Rare enough that it hasn’t happened in 17 years. I am in the unique position of having participated in one, and having organized the other. But as Shihan Bradle once told me, running a black belt test is like lion taming without the chair.

As always, please send pictures, pieces, ideas for pieces, stories, and upcoming events. I'll get them posted and sent out with the next newsletter.

Yours in Budo,
-Sensei Scot Lynch
Yondan, Tsugiashi-Do

Click for a full view.

The Shinbun of 20 years ago was a very interesting one for a couple of reasons. There was an announcement in the lower right hand corner that 29 Palms (home of a related dojo and many friends) was the epicenter of a 7-point earthquake. The historically interesting point is that they suffered another earthquake this year, 2019.

Another interesting point is that 20 years ago, Soke Sensei announced the successful completion of the first of six seminars on Hombu waza. The key phrase in this announcement was “never ending study” as was the thank-you to Keith and Shawn Wittenberg for the use of their dojo for these seminars.

Most of the left hand side of the page is dedicated to a University of Chicago medical journal study about the association between baby crawling and the ability to read, and that it had to do with neck strength and repetition and how it impacts neurological development.
Never ending study and gratitude for mat time constitute “the important stuff” that Sensei’s have to get right, and which Soke Sensei always does.

On November 10, we welcomed two new Nidans and two new Sandans. Nancy Guerierro and Brian Guerierro are now second degree black belts. Kevin McKinney and Joel Berger are now third degree blackbelts. Each pair have demonstrated advanced understanding of our style and of their new belts. Nancy and Brian have demonstrated a new understanding of direction, redirection, target direction, and control past the Shodan level, and have begun the long path to understanding gaukun. Kevin and Joel have demonstrated an understanding of balance, foot positioning, fall line and float line past the Shodan level, have continued on their road to gaukun, and have added Mochi-Mawari to their toolboxes.

Each pair have demonstrated a very special quality of being able to study and practice independently, to carry on even when their senseis (Shihan Bradle and Soke Sensei) are not watching. Each have been able to let go of their previous belt training to adapt to the techniques and demands of the new belt. I cannot overstate the difficulty of working towards a goal like this without a full-time sensei.

Sensei Perez and I spent several sessions with the candidates (Gabriel using Skype for several of them) to help them get ready. However there was never an instant in any of these practice sessions that I was unaware who their “real” sensei’s were. I’m happy --and in a strange sense relieved-- to report that whenever I set foot on the mat in Bayville, NJ, Shihan Bradle was on the mat with us, and whenever I work with Kevin or Joel, I do feel that Soke Sensei is standing over my shoulder.

As I can personally attest, it takes a special quality to stick to a task as big as this without constant encouragement and scrutiny by a full-time sensei.  These four candidates have that quality.

Well done!

Sensei Perez and I are not the first “stand in” sensei’s who have gotten candidates over the finish line. In the late Winter and early Spring of 2002, I made weekly pilgrimages to a gym in a building behind Hackensack Toyota, where Sensei Shawn Wittenberg got me up to speed the Nidan demonstration in July of that year. Ironically, that promotion, like this past one, was also a pair of Nidans and a pair of Sandans.

To prepared for my task as “stand-in” sensei, I watched the video of that demonstration a few times. I watched the video after the test itself, 17 years ago, but I watched it this year with different eyes. During the post-demonstration speech, Soke Sensei said that he could see the difference between the Sandans (Keith Wittenberg and Mike Wilson) and the Nidans (Gabriel Perez and me). 17 years ago, I thought there was not all that much difference between Gabe and me and our “big brothers” Keith Witenberg and Mike Wilson. Unfortunately for my ego, Soke Sensei was spot on: Keith and Mike were clicking on all cylinders, and their demonstration was a model.

For my part, I injured Sensei Perez demonstrating Nidan Kata 11b (the manual clearly states at the end, “Be careful to ease up on the arm bar as to not injure a friend”).  And I still got promoted. And for the record, Sensei Perez was a bad-ass active duty Marine Corp officer 12 years younger than me and does not deserve your sympathy.

July 2002

Emerson, NJ - Sandan/Nidan promotion demonstration

November 2019, Kent Island, MD - Sandan/Nidan promotion demonstration