First International Aikido Seminar in New Delhi conducted by Gaku Homma Sensei, Nippon Kan Kancho

No-one who attended the First International Aikido Seminar held by the Aikido Foundation of India (AFI) on 4-5 February 2006 knew what to expect. The thought of sitting through a ten-hour seminar can be quite daunting - even if it's any ordinary one. But then there was nothing ordinary about Shihan Gaku Homma Sensei, the founder and chief instructor of Nippon Kan, Denver, USA, or indeed, about how he conducted the whole event. In fact, time just seemed to fly by, leaving us all wishing for more!

For anyone who knows little to nothing about Aikido, Homma Sensei's teachings were quite revealing. He showed a deep understanding of this martial art and how it could be made to apply to real life situations. An art that was born out of a samurai tradition, seeped in the bygone era when violence and force ruled, was made contemporary with Sensei's varied experience. "In Brazil, I would get a strong kick from any direction, up, down, side. It is best if you just move out of the way." Aikido is, after all, a form of self-defense!

In fact, as he explained, that is the essence of Aikido. In techniques like shomenuchi (front attack) and yokomenuchi (side attack) one has to step out of the way to avoid getting slashed with the sword. Similarly, this is also the best defense against a kick that is coming or one that could come.

Aikido teaches that not making enemies is by far the best form of defense. Out-stretched palms - as opposed to clenched fists, stepping out of another's way, saying no to an attack by fending it off, are all, as Homma Sensei explained, "…the first five minutes of the movie, which are always the most important." Bystanders, he said; don't understand why in aikido we "offer our hand for attack" in the first place. "But they have missed the first five minutes of the movie, when the tori (defender) is attacked and he initially backs off saying 'no'. They only saw from where the tori tries to pre-empt further assault by a pretend attack (atemi), followed by the uke's (attacker) persistence and finally the tori's act of defense."

Besides demonstrating and conducting practice of various techniques, Homma Sensei covered a wide array of topics, ranging from his experiences in various countries, to the history of aikido, Japan during the War, the Samurai tradition, portrayal of samurais in films and the influx of Japanese migrants into the US; right to O'Sensei's teachings, the way of the Aikikai Hombu dojo and O'Sensei's last days. His profound knowledge and skills and excellent sense of humor kept everyone's spirits high throughout the two days of the seminar.

Some important cues he shared were how to use the weakness of the uke's thumb to release his grip and how curling the hand inwards in katatedori techniques increases the nage's power. Homma Sensei's unique teaching method combines kenjutsu (sword techniques), jojutsu (staff techniques) and taijitsu (open hand techniques) or, as he put it, the concept of "three-in- one" in aikido. Under Homma Sensei's guidance the participants practiced sword movements in order to understand subtleties of corresponding to them open-hand techniques.

However, as Sensei said, practicing a martial art may make one strong, but then all a weak person has to do is get himself a gun. Hence learning to be calm and having one's wits around is what is most important, as is also developing a strong sixth sense to recognize a potential assailant.