Time was never one of my strongest suits, I have never worn a watch for example and never let time rule my life as it has for many of my friends. I have always made an allowance for time, if someone wanted an appointment I would suggest a time between 9-9.30 or 4-4.30 allowing both parties a window of ½ hour which has always worked for me allowing for a casual and stress free life style.
When I started practicing Judo timing became very important if you didn’t get it right you would not connect, your attempt at a throw wouldn’t work, and you could lose a point and ultimately the contest becoming ‘DOUGY NO MATES’.
When I started practicing AIKI I found it was even more important that your timing was correct because simply knowing the technique is not enough if your timing is out you will simply be relying on your strength to make the technique work.
To see and to execute a technique using timing and balance will always give you a feeling of something special which is difficult to explain, it’s like achieving the end product without any effort.
Throughout my years of practicing Judo and AIKI I have be fortunate to have seen and practiced with some of the best teachers from around the world, from England to Belgium and from Australia to Japan.
At the beginning I used to think the UKE was simply there to make the Sencei look good on his demonstrations of how the techniques should work. However when you are chosen to be an UKE you soon realize it’s not true.
