The Journey Of The Shinbu Aikido System ©

Hi my name is Seth Black and this is the story of how I got my start in aikido and a little background on how the Shinbu Aikido System came to be…

Many years ago when I was 18 years old I was working at Bo’ jangles in Hickory NC when a co-worker came in to pick up her check. I noticed that she was wearing a Hickory Aikido Club t-shirt so the first thing out of my mouth was do you study aikido? She responds with no my husband teaches it. ( Woo Hoo Oh Yeah ) an aikido class in Hickory NC so I promptly got all the information I needed to contact her husband, a 5th Dan in the Tomiki Aikido system, & the man i would soon know as Sensei I called as soon as I got home & Sensei gave me the direction on how to get to the class. Now when I arrived at the “dojo” it was actually an old barn in the middle of an old field surrounded by nothing else. When I stepped out of my car all I could hear were these screams & loud thumps and all I could think to myself was.

“ do I really want to go in there “

Well I managed to release my sphincter long enough to walk inside and find me a quiet little seat in the back row where I could watch and still run for it if I had to. What I saw would change my life forever here were a group of aikidoka (aikido students) doing what I’d only seen in the movies. What I did not notice was the fact that sensei was headed my way to where I was sitting and now wanted me to step out onto the mat and play as he put it.

“ Absolutely Not “

So as I was stepping out onto the mat in a Tenkai-kote-hineri hold that sensei had put me into he walked me around, introduced me to everybody (On my toes) then let me go and told me to attack him.

“ Absolutely Not “

So as I lay there completely stunned because I had no idea how I got down on the mat I realized that this was it this was the pooo and I had to know everything about aikido everything. So I signed up for classes that night which by the way were offered as follows:

Monday – Thursday evenings from 7 – 9 & Saturday From 10 – 12

Yes that’s right your math is correct that’s 5 days of aikido training a week ( Shangri-La )

For the amazing price of…

Are you ready for this

$20 a month

Yeah I couldn’t believe it either and it sounds ridiculous even writing it now but that’s how much aikido was when I started. I trained under Sensei for about 10 years before by chance of an e-mail I stumbled into a really unique system of Daito ryu Aikijujutsu called Roppokai. I knew that Daitoryu was a huge influence in the creation of aikido so I thought the class might help me underdstand aikido a little better. The class was being taught by Mr. Tom Cohen (Current head of the NC branch for Daitoryu Roppokai) & Okamoto Sensei from Japan had just sanctioned the official class so I thought I’d check it out.

(Daitoryu Roppokai is amazing)

As it turned out I ended up training with the Roppokai organization for about 4 years before starting to adjust the techniques I had learned in the Tomiki Aikido system & as the techniques began to change I did not feel comfortable calling what I was doing Tomiki Aikido & in 2006 introduced the Shinbu Aikido system.

Oh yeah that’s me holding my new son (Xavier Ronin Black) he was 4 days old when he entered the dojo for the first time.

 To all of the amazing instructors I have had the pleasure of training with Thank you.