1st Lady Assistant to
Sensei Henry Ellis
Ellis Schools of Traditional Aikido
I was born in West London
in 1963, my father was very involved in the martial arts and a dan grade
in Karate he was also a dealer in ancient Japanese arms and armor,
although my father has an antiques shop in London's Bond Street, my home
was more like a samurai warriors dressing room, with original suits of
Japanese armor complete with very frighting face masks that would
frighten the life out of my friends when ever they came to visit, there
were also very many valuable swords yari and naginata spears.
The Masters
My father would travel
around the world searching for the best quality weapons, what intrigued
me the most as a child was all these strange visitors that would come to
my home, the famous Otani family were regular visitors with Sensei
Matsuro Otani 7th dan Judo the UK National Coach, Kenshiro Abbe Sensei,
Tomio Otani Sensei the UK National Coach for Kendo, his visitors were
like the who's who of martial arts, as recently as two weeks ago I was
pleased to meet with Sensei Kazuo Chiba 8th dan when he came to see my
father.
Introduction to Aikido
As a child I did a little
Karate with my father but nothing serious until 1992 when I went to the
local Aikido dojo in Bracknell, Berkshire, UK. All those years with my
father and his Japanese weapons must have had a latent but profound
effect on me, as I watched Sensei Ellis teaching his Positive Style of
Traditional Aikido I knew there and then that this was the martial art
for me.
The Hard Training
Begins
When I started Aikido I
made a point of training with the men and they treated me as one of
them. With regular practice I progressed. I had now developed the hard
training bug and started courses in physical training and amateur weight
lifting, after a few years of hard work I became a fully qualified
fitness instructor-personal trainer and amateur weight lifting coach,
the high light of all this effort was when Sensei Ellis promoted me to
assistant coach of the Ellis Schools of Traditional Aikido (ESTA) two
years later he promoted me to first lady assistant to himself, there had
never ever been a lady assistant in all the long history of the ESTA,
Sensei put me on a three month trial and 8 year on I am still here.
In 1994 I received my
coaching certificate from the British Aikido Board (BAB) which is the
governing body for Aikido in the UK. Once I became assistant to Sensei
Ellis I became involved in assisting in teaching both men and women and
also helping with the children's classes.
The First Seminar
Sensei Ellis asked if I
would like to take part in a very large and important seminar in
Liverpool in the North of England, Sensei Ellis is not one of those
teachers who has a pet uke follow him around to fly all over the mat at
a touch or a glance, he prefers to try to involve all the students who
attend his seminars if possible, knowing this I felt very privileged but
nervous when Sensei told me there would be about 700 students from
various martial arts, I think the phrase "Being thrown in at the deep
end" is applicable here.
On arrival at the venue I
was amazed to see so many students from so many countries,
UK-France-Germany-Italy-India-Austria are just some that I can recall.
Sensei Ellis was asked to take the first class of approximately 50 dan
grades from various martial arts. Sensei had me demonstrate 100
press-ups on the backs of my wrists with fingers pointing both inwards
and outwards. When I had finished and was in the raised position Sensei
sat on my back (he did not warn me of this) and carried on with his
lecture. Sensei suggested that those who wanted to should try this
exercise. It was amazing to see all these black belts struggling. Later
I had a little crowd around me wanting to inspect my wrists, I explained
that this exercise is standard for both seniors and juniors in our
schools.
I was now feeling a
little more confident when Sensei pointed out that there were six young
dan grades who had arrived late and were respectfully waiting for
permission to come onto the mat. Sensei asked me to show them what we
had been teaching so far, they were all wearing black gi's and when I
approached and invited them on the mat, they scowled as if to say "hey,
we have not traveled all the way from London to be taught by a women" as
I showed the first technique "nikkyo" a wrist locking action, the first
guy tried to resist me, I applied the technique as shown to me so many
times by Sensei and almost put him through the mat. I thought he would
be upset with me, but as he got up he asked "How did you do that?". He
then wanted me to do the technique on all the others, now I had their
attention and they were a great bunch of guy's. I really enjoyed
teaching them. At the end of the seminar, as we were leaving the hall to
head for the car park, these six guy's were waiting in a line and bowed
to me simultaneously with a smile and said to Sensei Ellis " You have a
strong lady assistant there ,sensei" Sensei replied " That is why she is
my assistant". That was my first seminar and one that I will never
forget.
I have been involved in
many other seminars with my Sensei and they were always good, but I was
never so overawed as I was at my first one, or so I thought. Then Sensei
Ellis asked if I would like to visit New Mexico in the USA for a
seminar. The seminar was to be held in Alamogordo NM, where Sensei's USA
representative in the US lives and works at the Space Museum. Sensei
visits New Mexico every year and we have another Ellis dan grade in
Texas, Al Montemar. I had always wanted to visit the US and jumped at
the opportunity. We made the trip into a vacation for friends and
family. We taught members of the USAF and German Air Force at Holloman
AFB, which included a guided tour of the base and various fighter
aircraft, including the Stealth bomber. Sensei Rogers is an instructor
who teaches students from the USAF, Highway Patrol, police and some
members of the United States Marshals.
While in the US, I also
visited the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. I intend to move to Phoenix to
live within the next two to three years. Sensei Ellis has a book on
aikido coming out next spring in the US titled "Positive Aikido" which I
am pleased to be featured in, Sensei Rogers is a journalist by
profession and has worked on this book for the past two years and it
will be published in the US. There are several publishers interested in
the book so we are all very excited about this latest project. I hope to
be visiting the US again next year and I hope to be there for the
launching of the book.
For the martial artists
out there I would like to add one more comment about the proposed book.
Where as most Aikido books spend a great deal of time harmonizing with
the planets and the universe, there will be none of that in this book,
Sensei always tells students to come out of the clouds and get back on
the
tatami because "This is where it all happens" and he also often says
" leave the dancing to Fred Astair" (who is Fred Astair?).
Anita Wilson
Assistant to Sensei Ellis
Posted by Henry Ellis Co-author of
Positive Aikido.
http://www.EllisAikido.org
http://www.geocities.com/britishaikido