Those individuals who only look at the world through the eyes of art never see the mystery and complexity of the analytical mind. Those who only look at the world through the eyes of science never see the beauty. Aikido is a martial way, a do, which is almost wholly thought of as art. This book tries to see it analytically and define what it is that we actually do to achieve mastership.

My career in Aikido began back in 1972 at Northern Illinois University. I was going to school on the G. I. Bill and studying philosophy under Doctors Lester Embrey and G. Stormer, great guys who loved the classics and taught phenomenology. I discovered Aikido one cold, dreary night and it took all my powers of concentration to think of anything else from that time onward.

I’ve been very fortunate. Somehow, time and travel has allowed me to train under many of the truly great masters of this art. Names like Tohei, (both Akira and Koichi) Osawa, Yamaguchi, two Ueshibas, and Saotome are on that list, but my association with Saotome Sensei has been the highlight and hallmark of my thirty-plus years.
He is my teacher. All the others were visiting professors that gave much and flavored the experience of learning Aikido. Saotome Sensei was the pasta and potatoes and steak tartar. He has been my daily bread and butter. Having seen the best, I have been blessed to call the greatest my personal teacher.

In Crescent City, Florida, back in 1976, I started my first dojo. Then, in 1979 founded the Rocky Mountain Aikikai in Denver Colorado. Back in Florida, teaching Aikido to beginners at the University of Central Florida from 1985-1989 I realized that it was time to begin a serious school dedicated to mastering this art.
Shoshin Aikido Dojo is the result. Here we train instructors, have an international student body representing, Germany, Syria, Israel, Canada, Trinidad, Turkey and other countries, and focus on the essentials of mastering the art of Aikido.

My method of presenting the principles of mastership here is, I believe, unique. Although all master instructors, of Saotome Sensei’s group at least, teach the principles, I know of none who use a similar approach. It has been a challenge and a pleasure to organize and systematize these principles and to display them in common English terms using the dialog form.

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