James Knight started Aikido in 1993. When work took him abroad for a few years, he opened his first club in a university in southern Thailand. Later, back in Britain, he ran the Cambridge Ki Aikido club for 7 years before moving to Scotland and opening the Lochaber club.
When did you start, and what made you want to try aikido?
In 1993 I was a student in central London waiting to meet a friend for a drink. A man walked past me wearing what appeared to be black pyjamas with a black skirt.
“Excuse me, I just have to ask: what are you doing?”
“Why don’t you come and find out?” he replied.
And that was that.
I had lived in 3 different areas in the previous 3 years, and had joined a Tai Chi club in each place. Each club taught a different form and met only once a week. Frustrated by this, I was looking for something that trained more frequently whilst still being focused on personal development. Did such a thing exist?
The man in black pyjamas demonstrated unbendable arm which I had already met in Tai Chi, so I knew I was in the right ball park. Then he showed me how to bend someone’s arm with just two fingers. Aha!
“See you next week!” I said, as I went off for my drink.
Bob Fletcher’s Piccadilly club (later to become the Bloomsbury club) was a vibrant dojo, mostly populated by twenty-somethings, so we trained with great energy, went for a drink afterwards with great energy, and even continued our training in Ceroc dance classes on non-Aikido nights with great energy. Sensei Bob was an interesting, funny, and kind man who brought us all up to black belt with great skill and patience.
Then Sensei Tim Brown took over (nowadays teaching in Letchworth). He was the club’s most senior student only by a matter of months, but through hard work and dedication he accelerated his learning in order to lead us forward. He taught me through 2nd and 3rd Dan.
During this time, Sensei Ian Aitkenhead moved down to London and our club hosted his monthly Sunday morning high-grade classes. Invariably, we had been out dancing somewhere the night before, and then studied with Sensei Aitkenhead before all retiring to the local roast-serving pub to read the papers. Perfect!
What do you enjoy most about practice?
Every time I introduce an exercise, my partner Mai says “Ooh, my favourite!”, and that’s how I feel. Everything is fascinating; nothing is done and dusted; there’s always more to learn.
Although teaching is a different practice to being taught, both require me to leave my day behind and focus as fully as possible on what’s right here. Sometimes, that is a godsend!
As a teacher, I also have the privilege of seeing people making the best of themselves, and being entirely transparent about their challenges and struggles. There’s nowhere to hide in a study of this sort – you can’t force your way through for long – and so I have the task of meeting my students wherever they’re at (good day? bad day?) and encouraging them back to a positive state of mind, and thence onwards to a better state of mind. And that doing that helps me too.
How do you benefit from it off the mat?
Life has recently thrown up a lot of challenging conversations with healthcare professionals. Understanding their point of view is central to getting myself heard, and so almost every conversation follows the steps of our Five Principles of Ki Aikido.
On bad days, I fall away from those principles and the conversations are frustrating and upsetting as I fail to put my point across. On better days, I find those principles help to navigate us all through the difficult waters of the conversation so that we are more likely to get the information we need to move forwards together.
Of course, the first step in all of that is to recover my centre, which I do by completely relaxing and thinking of my One Point. That triggers a quiet electric hum throughout my body that helps me to maintain my aliveness and purpose during the conversations.
Describe Aikido in 3 words
- Life-changing: I found and fell in love with my partner Mai through Aikido, and I’ve made friends for life.
- Fun: It gave me focus and friendships in my twenties when I had recently moved to London; those friendships have deepened in the 30+ years since; we always end up laughing and that’s the best medicine.
- Reliable: Aikido offers an embodied truth, not just through intellectual conviction, but through actual experience. That truth has developed a home in my body which means I can sit in difficult situations and be open and patient towards those I disagree with.
What is your favourite exercise and technique?
My favourite exercise is the one I’m studying.
But, really, my favourite exercise is helping my students – it develops my patience and compassion, and it encourages me to extend my mind more.
My favourite technique? Nope, techniques aren’t the point, are they? They are just the finger pointing at the moon, so I try to look beyond the technique towards spontaneous Aikido.
My favourite technique is the one where it takes me by surprise. Where I look at my partner and they look at me, and we both have the same thought – how did that happen?
What is the greatest lesson Aikido has taught you?
Aikido continues to remind me that we are all just trying to make the best of things.
I’m lucky enough to have found a practice and framework that helps with that. All of us deserve compassion and support (that may look like patience, it may look like a stern talking-to).
When I see my students working on themselves, I am reminded how brilliant human beings can be – not just for what they achieve, but for what they aspire to be. That doesn’t happen in isolation, we are all connected somehow, so we might as well be conscious and deliberate and kind about it.
What advice do you have for anyone wanting to try Ki Aikido?
Ki Aikido exercises a different part of you than thinking about Ki Aikido does. Come along, quieten your thinking mind and study the exercises without judgement. Allow that experience to inform your thinking after the fact, rather than coming along with expectations.
Understand also that much of Aikido exists invisibly – you can’t see it, you can only feel it. It’s a mystery to be enjoyed!
Anything you’d like to add?
I am lucky enough to live in the Highlands of Scotland, a region that reminds me that we are tiny, tiny specks within the greater landscape. To study Aikido as the Way of Harmony with Universal Energy is to find one’s allotted place in the biggest of big pictures, and that is utterly liberating.
James Knight
Lochaber Aikido Club