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

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Much like his father, Suenaka took every opportunity he could to investigate and, in some cases, study as many different arts offered in the area as he could. In particular, while in Sacramento, Suenaka developed a brief friendship with noted tang soo do instructor Mariano “Cisco” Estioko, and occasionally studied with him on an informal basis as time allowed. Studying different arts, no matter how briefly, whenever the opportunity presented itself was a conscious practice for Suenaka, meant to provide him with as broad a martial reference base as possible. Just as his street-fighting experience, both during his youth in Hawaii and his later days as a serviceman in Japan and Okinawa, provided him with “real world” proofs for his primary disciplines of aikido and karate, Suenaka’s constant study of other systems and styles enabled him to judge with authority the worth of a given technique, to say with authority, “This might work in this situation, but not in that one,” or “This technique from style A could be countered with this technique from style B.” It is due in large part to his extensive experience that Suenaka Sensei later came to discount so-called “advanced” techniques, regardless of system (including aikido), modifying or casting aside those techniques vulnerable to kaeshi (countering) and concentrating instead on proven fundamental methods. To him, the simpler and more direct a technique, the broader its potential applications and the fewer the chances for failure. It is out of this conviction that one of Suenaka Sensei’s guiding philosophies was born: “Advanced techniques are merely the basics performed better.”