What a Dojo Reveals Before Training Even Begins

In forty-five years of Aikido, I've walked into hundreds of dojos around the world, and you can tell a great deal about how people train before anyone sets foot on the mat. I remember being invited to teach at one dojo where a beautiful photo of sensei was leaned against a crash mat, half hidden, and the mat itself was dirty. At another, the host running late meant nobody was surprised, because apparently that wasn't unusual.

In this episode I get into what I actually watch for before class even starts: whether the mat is clean, who arrives early and what they're doing when they get there, and whether people change and clean the mat without being asked. I also talk about a test one of my sempai in Japan taught me, for telling whether something a host does to impress a visitor is normal or staged.

I also get into what I watch for once training starts, including how people attack and receive an attack, and the difference between someone showing off and someone chasing quality. I talk about how students become the culture of a dojo and the culture shapes the students who join it, and I tell you about the bucket of rags test: what happens in a Japanese dojo when it's time to clean the mat, versus what I've seen happen here.

Thanks for training with me this week.

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