Pirate Night at ACNJ Manasquan!

2. April 2011 by jlofton.

Thursday night we had what we called “Pirate Night” at the dojo.  We all wore an eye patch during class.  Our objective was to experience the handicap of not having sight in both eyes.  This class was inspired in recognition that one of our members is pretty much blind in one eye.  He’s mentioned before that he has a blind spot and that his depth perception is thrown off.  We wanted to experience this for ourselves to better understand what he has to deal with and at the same time challenge ourselves in terms of “what if you were put at a disadvantage - how does your aikido flow then”?

Yeah, it was different!  Sure enough, blind spots - people “all of a sudden” popping in/out of sight; depth perception thrown off …  But the beautiful thing was that if you executed the fundamentals (proper ikkyo position vs chasing the attack; staying connected so you can feel what’s happening; etc.) it all works!  Tim even did a series of techniques with both eyes closed!!!  I think I can safely say everyone had a GREAT time and we all have a deeper appreciation and respect for those who work through handicapped situations.  We really encourage others to try this sometime.

Big Ups to Tim for encouraging this exploration of our aikido.  Last month we had a “One Armed Samurai” class where we constrained one of our arms to experience the handicap of only having one arm available for use.  That was a pretty cool learning experience also (followed by some festivities and viewing of “The One Armed Swordsman”).

Check out the pix below of the training and Pirate festivities that followed.   AAAARRRRRR

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