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Women in the Martial Arts |
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 I was born in West London in 1963, my father was very
involved in the martial arts and a dan grade in Karate he was also a
dealer in ancient Japanese arms and armour.
Although my father has an antiques shop in London's Bond Street, my
home was more like a samurai warriors dressing room, with original
suits of Japanese armour complete with very frighting face masks that
would frighten the life out of my friends when ever they came to visit,
there were also very many valuable swords yari and naginata spears.
The Masters
My father would travel around the world searching for the best quality
weapons, what intrigued me the most as a child was all these strange
visitors that would come to my home, the famous Otani family were
regular visitors with Sensei Matsuro Otani 7th dan Judo the UK National
Coach, Kenshiro Abbe Sensei, Tomio Otani Sensei the UK National Coach
for Kendo, his visitors were like the who's who of martial arts, as
recently as two weeks ago I was pleased to meet with Sensei Kazuo Chiba
8th dan when he came to see my father.
Introduction to Aikido
As a child I did a little Karate with my father but nothing serious
until 1992 when I went to the local Aikido dojo in Bracknell,
Berkshire, UK. All those years with my father and his Japanese weapons
must have had a latent but profound effect on me, as I watched Sensei
Ellis teaching his Positive Style of Traditional Aikido I knew there
and then that this was the martial art for me.
The Hard Training Begins
When I started Aikido I made a point of training with the men and they
treated me as one of them. With regular practice I progressed. I had
now developed the hard training bug and started courses in physical
training and amateur weight lifting, after a few years of hard work I
became a fully qualified fitness instructor-personal trainer and
amateur weight lifting coach, the high light of all this effort was
when Sensei Ellis promoted me to assistant coach of the Ellis Schools
of Traditional Aikido (ESTA) two years later he promoted me to first
lady assistant to himself, there had never ever been a lady assistant
in all the long history of the ESTA, Sensei put me on a three month
trial and 8 year on I am still here.
In 1994 I received my coaching certificate from the British Aikido
Board (BAB) which is the governing body for Aikido in the UK. Once I
became assistant to Sensei Ellis I became involved in assisting in
teaching both men and women and also helping with the children's
classes.
The First Seminar
Sensei Ellis asked if I would like to take part in a very large and
important seminar in Liverpool in the North of England, Sensei Ellis is
not one of those teachers who has a pet uke follow him around to fly
all over the mat at a touch or a glance, he prefers to try to involve
all the students who attend his seminars if possible, knowing this I
felt very privileged but nervous when Sensei told me there would be
about 700 students from various martial arts, I think the phrase "Being
thrown in at the deep end" is applicable here.
On arrival at the venue I was amazed to see so many students from so
many countries, UK-France-Germany-Italy-India-Austria are just some
that I can recall. Sensei Ellis was asked to take the first class of
approximately 50 dan grades from various martial arts. Sensei had me
demonstrate 100 press-ups on the backs of my wrists with fingers
pointing both inwards and outwards. When I had finished and was in the
raised position Sensei sat on my back (he did not warn me of this) and
carried on with his lecture. Sensei suggested that those who wanted to
should try this exercise. It was amazing to see all these black belts
struggling. Later I had a little crowd around me wanting to inspect my
wrists, I explained that this exercise is standard for both seniors and
juniors in our schools.
I was now feeling a little more confident when Sensei pointed out that
there were six young dan grades who had arrived late and were
respectfully waiting for permission to come onto the mat. Sensei asked
me to show them what we had been teaching so far, they were all wearing
black gi's and when I approached and invited them on the mat, they
scowled as if to say "hey, we have not traveled all the way from London
to be taught by a women" as I showed the first technique "nikkyo" a
wrist locking action, the first guy tried to resist me, I applied the
technique as shown to me so many times by Sensei and almost put him
through the mat. I thought he would be upset with me, but as he got up
he asked "How did you do that?". He then wanted me to do the technique
on all the others, now I had their attention and they were a great
bunch of guy's. I really enjoyed teaching them. At the end of the
seminar, as we were leaving the hall to head for the car park, these
six guy's were waiting in a line and bowed to me simultaneously with a
smile and said to Sensei Ellis " You have a strong lady assistant there
,sensei" Sensei replied " That is why she is my assistant". That was my
first seminar and one that I will never forget.
I have been involved in many other seminars with my Sensei and they
were always good, but I was never so overawed as I was at my first one,
or so I thought. Then Sensei Ellis asked if I would like to visit New
Mexico in the USA for a seminar. The seminar was to be held in
Alamogordo NM, where Sensei's USA representative in the US lives and
works at the Space Museum. Sensei visits New Mexico every year and we
have another Ellis dan grade in Texas, Al Montemar. I had always wanted
to visit the US and jumped at the opportunity. We made the trip into a
vacation for friends and family. We taught members of the USAF and
German Air Force at Holloman AFB, which included a guided tour of the
base and various fighter aircraft, including the Stealth bomber. Sensei
Rogers is an instructor who teaches students from the USAF, Highway
Patrol, police and some members of the United States Marshals.
While in the US, I also visited the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. I intend
to move to Phoenix to live within the next two to three years. Sensei
Ellis has a book on aikido coming out next spring in the US titled
"Positive Aikido" which I am pleased to be featured in, Sensei Rogers
is a journalist by profession and has worked on this book for the past
two years and it will be published in the US. There are several
publishers interested in the book so we are all very excited about this
latest project. I hope to be visiting the US again next year and I hope
to be there for the launching of the book.
For the martial artists out there I would like to add one more comment
about the proposed book. Where as most Aikido books spend a great deal
of time harmonizing with the planets and the universe, there will be
none of that in this book, Sensei always tells students to come out of
the clouds and get back on the tatami because "This is where it all
happens" and he also often says " leave the dancing to Fred Astair"
(who is Fred Astair?).
 Anita Wilson
Assistant to Sensei Ellis
www.EllisAikido.org
www.geocities.com/britishaikido
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