Читать книгу Complete Aikido. Aikido Kyohan: The Definitive Guide to the Way of Harmony онлайн

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Despite his condition, Suenaka began physical training, under the apt tutelage of his father, almost as soon as he was able to walk. Young as he was, Suenaka was introduced to the basics of weight training, doing his best to imitate his father as he joined him in his daily workouts. Though Suenaka no doubt considered these sessions more like play than work, his father was consciously laying the foundation for what was to become a lifetime of physical and martial study. This early education was accelerated at age four, when Warren Suenaka introduced his son to the family arts of jujutsu and kenjutsu, as well as judo, having begun his study of this system during one of his many trips back to Japan, and continuing upon returning to Hawaii.

Clockwise, from, top left: Calvin, Greg and Wesley Suenaka, Warren Suenaka, Roy Suenaka, in front of their home in Honolulu; 1966

Warren Suenaka also introduced his son to the fundamentals of Western boxing and wrestling, skills that served the boy well in countless schoolyard brawls and neighborhood street fights. Throughout his youth and early adulthood, young Suenaka and his peers would constantly challenge one another to see who was tougher, more skilled, or simply the most stubborn. While adolescent brawls are a common rite of passage for many young men, in Suenaka’s case these constant challenges served as an early crucible in which the efficacy of martial technique learned on the mat was put to practical test on the street. This ultimate proof was to become one of the guiding philosophies behind Suenaka Sensei’s waza (martial technique) throughout his life: in short, if a technique doesn’t work “on the street,” regardless of how impressive it may look on the mat or how commonplace or accepted its practice, then that technique does not work, period, and so has no place being taught at all.