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YORK SUNDAY NEWS
The universal spirit "Aikido is origami with people instead of paper." -- Kjartan Clausen, aikido practitioner, Norway Perhaps the fact that there are practitioners of aikido in Norway is a clue to how popular this martial art is. "I feel that it has a universal appeal. It doesn't matter (where it originated)," said Clausen, the Web master of www.aikidofaq.com, an aikido information site that's gotten hits from places like Romania, the United States and Australia. What drives those who visit Clausen's exhaustive site is the search for knowledge of aikido, a form of martial arts originated in Japan in the early 20th century by the late Morihei Ueshiba. Aikido differs form other martial arts such as karate and tae kwon do in that it involves a series of joint locks and throws as defense, rather than kicks and punches. It results in deflecting the attack and controlling it while causing as little harm to the attacker as possible, Clausen said. All of the aikido practitioners interviewed had studied some other type of martial art first, although Keith Engle, of Susquehanna Aikido in Red Lion, said that isn't always the case. When they did find aikido, all said that something clicked that hadn't before, in the physical practice and in other ways. "I like it because of the fluidity of it. It's so much more effortless to practice aikido," Clausen said. Micah Yohe, who has studied with Engle for six years and is preparing to test for his black belt, said that in other types of martial arts, "I felt like I couldn't have taken a larger opponent before or defended myself against a larger person. But aikido made a lot more sense. It blends with the energy (the opponent) gives you. The more they give you, the more you have to blend with," he said. Yohe, 26, of Emigsville, currently has a brown belt with a black stripe, one belt below a black belt. He said he plans to go to the Aikido Association of America's Chicago headquarters to be tested -- "they want to see you to make sure you know something. They're not just giving out black belts," he said. Although the belts go several degrees higher once the person reaches a black belt, Yohe said he believes the belt is beside the point. "I don't know if I'll ever make it that high. But I plan to be doing this for the rest of my life, Lord willing," he said. "If you get to be the best that you can, where do you go from there?" This is because, he and other practitioners of aikido insist, aikido is much more than a physical activity. It is said to be spiritual, but it is not itself affiliated with any one religion. "A lot of people think that it has a Japanese religious spirit about it, but I don't think so," Clausen said. "I think it has a universality to it." Clausen, who lives in Bergen, the second-largest city in Norway, has been studying aikido for 10 years, since he discovered it while in college. He had studied jujitsu and judo, but "liked the idea that you can use (aikido) as a self-defense and protect yourself without harming the attacker. When an attacker comes at you, you lead the energy off that attacker to somewhere that the attacker can't hurt you." That universality makes aikido applicable to those of all walks of life, and changes the way they walk in that life, said Drew Ames, 27, of Harrisburg. "It's become a very important part of my life. It's very pervasive," said Ames, who studies with Engle. "It infuses all aspects of life. I am calmer, and I'm certainly in better shape than I would be otherwise. It's a lot of fun." Yohe said the postures he learned in aikido helped relieve the back pain he'd developed from doing electrical construction work. Mentally, aikido has given Yohe "a little more confidence to deal with not just an opponent but with things in life," he said. "A lot of things we do in class involve multiple attackers, and the whole idea that you have to blend with (them). It's about not letting things run over you. Don't retreat from them." Ames, who studies with Engle, came to aikido about two years ago. He said he studied tae kwon do as a child but hadn't done it since he was a teenager. An Internet search lead him to Susquehanna Aikido. "I was attracted to the idea that it is more non-violent (than other martial arts). It's more flowing, more of a blending with an attack than hitting," he said. "It was a different way of looking at conflict. It wasn't about punching and kicking." But like his teacher, Ames is unable to define exactly what aikido is about. "The more I know about it, the less I am able to describe it after a while," he said. "It's about controlling another person's body and redirecting their attack. It's not so much disabling them as moving them in another direction. But it's more than that." "A lot of the idea behind aikido is that we want to use our martial art to promote harmony, to bring people closer together," Ames said. "We look at conflict as an opportunity."
He said the philosophy also works in resolving verbal and philosophical conflicts, finding "ways to work with that energy, acknowledging that they have a point. It's like 'Yes, I see your point. I see where you're coming from.' Suddenly you're not fighting. And that's the point of redirecting your energy."
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