Integral Aikido

Me and Daniel in an aiki jam

with Miles in the background

In a way you might say that this is all thanks to Daniel, who wanted to visit Miles Kessler's new dojo Integral Aikido in Tel Aviv (Facebook page), but now I have been there for practice twice, and Yoram one time, and both of us are overwhelmed with positive emotions and intend to attend classes there on a weekly basis. Not that I never practiced with Miles before. We have met on the mat several times, during seminars and when we went to Bethlehem, and I have been in his new dojo numerous times. I have just not practised there or taken a class for Miles. I guess you can say that I have been a bit too lazy and convenient up until now to join.

It all started with Daniel and me deciding to visit the Integral dojo together last Thursday evening, for what would be one regular class and one "aiki jam". From what I have seen so far (and felt) I knew that Miles was carrying around some unique qualities as an aikidoka and teacher, with a unique approach to his students, same as also my Swedish teachers posses, where the teaching is interactive, detailed and highly personal. During the first class he showed many excellent exercises to advance body awareness, confidence, posture and centre, and both Daniel and me were quite astonished over how well his students move. Miles has only been in Israel for five years, which means that most of his students are mudansha, i.e. white-belts. I cannot wait to see these ones as they start reaching shodan level. They will kick some ass, for sure!

Before the second half of the class Miles asked me if I wanted to show some exercises for learning soft high-falls, so I took over the class for the last half hour. Everybody falls very confidently and smoothly over the hip, but they have not done so much free high-falls yet, so I showed how you successively can build up for high-falls on kokyunage, kotegaeshi and tenchinage. That was pretty many things squeezed into 30 minutes and some of them looked a bit shocked, but I wanted to deliver a taste of the exercises you can do to work on these things. With the foundation they already have, most of them could immediately take high ukemi with only a hand as a reference point and I was thrilled to work with them.

Then the aiki jam. This is a concept that Miles developed to bring the aikido beyond technique, form and frameworks, i.e. to kill the Buddha. Lights were dimmed and incense was lit, and we meditated shortly in a ring before we started. Ambient music floated in the background and we moved around freely, trying to clear our minds and create a contact with the partner that was in a constant flow, beyond any desire to apply any technique. As time went by, the music became successively more intense, bringing also more intensity into the practice, and suddenly we found ourselves doing jiyuwaza, with applied techniques, but definitely with a more liberated mind. We also did some randori (several attackers), and I was amazed how confidently everybody handled the randori. To wrap up the class, the music brought us back to a slow and meditative atmosphere and we finished of where we started, with subtle-contact movement, without techniques or throws. Amazing evening!

When I came home the next day I bombarded Yoram with my experiences to the point where he agreed to join me the next time. The next time became already yesterday. Yoram was in Tel Aviv working, and I came in there with a sherut in the afternoon. Miles gave two classes this evening, one regular class and one advanced (from 3 kyu). This time the focus was more on kata forms and applications and I must say that I feel very much at home in his aikido. Miles is brought up in the Iwama tradition and practised for many years with Saito Sensei. However, Miles' aikido is much more dynamic, soft and less codified than the Iwama-style I have previously encountered. It is clear that he has reached the stage where he is no longer a slave under one particular teacher, or system, but instead he is creating his own aikido, inspired from many teachers, as well as his students. One thing I do see, though, is a fair amount of Christian Tissier stuff, and I am sure that Miles himself would agree on this.

I was enchanted once more, and Yoram dreamt about aikido all night after this evening, so it is pretty safe to say that we will make the effort to attend his classes on a regular basis, although it is 90 km from home and we arrived at home about 23.30 in the evening last night.