One...Two... Uhn?... Oh, ok. Three!!

Senpai is the peer that came before you, right? He has a little more experience because he is training for a little longer.

That "little more" is the true power of the senpais.

Think about a sensei, a great master, great painter, champion of any area. Their performance are so enhanced that many basic steps or technics are second nature to them and a great master is not necessarily a great teacher.

That's why the senpai is so important!

He is the bridge between the lessons of the sensei and the struggles of the new student, because the senpai himself just got out of the same struggles, finding the pathway and little tricks inside the sensei lessons.

The senpai effect can be observed in every activity, think back on any videogame that you played with someone else, could be your best friend or a sibling, one of you has just finished the game and can't wait for the other to play, but the one who had learn the game and will always give a little tip to the other making the progress quicker.

Now, back to de dojo the scope of the senpai effect gets much bigger, not just a marcial arte can last more than any game, every good senpai can change your entire perspective on your practice and it's a chain effect, if a sensei builds a good senpai, the next will have both the sensei and the senpai to help him grow, the next new student will have all 3 of them to rely on (and so forth), if this domino (or senpai) effect takes place, in theory the baseline and inicial progression of the newcomers will be much higher.

So my take is:

Stimulate the senpai responsability and collaboration between them and their kouhais.

Unfortunately my aikikai segment here in Brazil disband both because of the COVID and political issues with the Sandans and shihans, So now that my master and i can finaly go back to the dojo we could either open our own group or join another one with a completely diferente style.

We took some things in consideration:

First, ourselves. We both are due to graduation exams and with a solo grupo and with no connection to shihans, would not happen any time soon, although on it self the graduations represents little to us as long we can keep training.

Second, our students. The styles are very different, so we would have a quite long adaptation period and some of them might forfeit aikido, we hope that open communication help in this transition.

Third, the aikido. When making a decision we learn with the masters to think, how can we benefit the art itself, after we pass that impact this decision we have on the ones who come after us? That was the the main reason that brought us to ask to join a different group.

If we had form a new group, it would "benefit" my master he would seek a connection with Japan and have some sort of title and be a great representative of this new formed group, that would benefit me and make me next on the line of succession or some other egotistical praise like that, and the students would be comfortable in their acquainted style.

Now, Aikido is a minor martial art in brazil even smaller in my state, fame wise we compete against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, judo, Muay Thai, and others traditional, old and gold (medals) arts, this means that another small raggedy band of hakama users would contribute little and less for the over all growth of aikido.

I'm happy that we made that decision, we are twice as many practitioners, some of the students did left on both sides but the vast majority are teaching each other fresh new forms, my master and i were invited to graduate next year and we are looking for a bigger place to practice.

There thank you for reading this, it was a journey for me, I very happy and i hope your practices are doing just as great!

It's funny how we perceive martial arts and the training of, we see in the movies and everywhere we hear the word KATA or KATI and how it is a magical group of movement that turns you into a master.

Please don't get me wrong, katas are extremely important and they get you far, very far.

But past that, there is the refinement that every martial artist seek, and in so many ways it lays in upon the knowledge of your inner circle that is your own body, not only that but how it interacts with the outer circles ~ your partner\rival\agressor's body and movement and finally the environment.

when you practice Kata, what you are doing is creating muscle memory, right? but we are also learning a whole lot, for instance, where are our point of balance, how flexible we are, what is our reach, how to modulate the breathing, and every practice we are getting comfortable with all those factors in our own body.

"Past" that stage, acknowledging our own body, we are ready to explore and enjoy how our movement connects with our partners.

*and if you are thinking about anything other than their martial arts, I have just one thing to say, you are not wrong, it applies to any kind of movement*

For the ones how are on the more visual side, let me give you an example, I m tall and heavy, 1,85 m, 110 Kg (not gonna use feet or pounds, fight me... please) and I have two partners, a short and light, 1,65 m and 55 Kg and an even shorter but heavy 1,55 m, 105 Kg.

So three people,

1. Tall and heavy.

2. Short and light

3. Short and heavy

So all 3 learn every kata and love their body as we all try and should... how you think this training session will go? is someone in advantage? will anyone get crushed? one of them will get tired before the others? will someone die?

To all those questions, the answer is no because aikido is cooperative and not competitive, and in martial arts that are, that doesn't really matter.

So you see all individuals are unique, so are their bodies and minds, therefore every artist is a whole art in itself, and should focus more on what works for themself than in "the correct form" within reason of course

if you don't believe me yet, picture this:

How is the training routine of a blind person on the dojo? how the sensei thought this person? what about kids, it is very different to practice with a respectful but very, very, very ancient sensei.

To everyone who is away from you dojo doe the corona panini, I feel you all, I trained aikido for 10 years almost every day and now I'm 2 years away because my country is a big red zone since day 1 and is way behind in de the vaccination schedule

I’m the senpai on my dojo and both my sensei and I decided to stop all the activities before the complete immunization so we gonna suffer all the new posts of the reopening dojo around the world before it's our turn.

Meanwhile, I will talk to anyone, anywhere about aikido em martial arts in general.