Remember Me?

November 7, 2025

What’s Happenin’

●        NEW TIME – Yoga on Sunday is in person at the dojo and online at 4:00pm.  Please join Connie in this class. BTW, Sensei Jay’s wife is a regular in this class. Try it.

●        Teen Movie Night – November 8, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm – Open to kids 10 and older. Sponsored by the ASNJ PTA.

●        Veteran’s Day – Tuesday November 11 – Join our 7:00 pm class taught by ASNJ members who have served our country.

●        Wednesday November 12 ^– Shihan Lehrman will teach class 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

●        Sunday November 16, 1pm - 2:30pm Paul Manogue Sensei will teach Iaido

●        Thursday, November 27 – We are closed for Thanksgiving. Have a great day!

●        Saturday December 6 – Kid’s and Adult Kyu Testing and Holiday Party! Kid’s Tests 12:00 pm Kids and parents are welcome to stay and watch Adult tests and the party.  Wheel of Ukemi. 1:30 pm

Kyu Tests 3:00 pm (Prior to December 6, speak to Frank, Derrell, or Tom to schedule a pre-test to see if you are ready.)Holiday party to follow!

●        NYA Xmas Seminar: Friday – Sunday, December 12-14 –December 12: Classes 5:30pm-8:30⁠pmDecember 13: Classes 9:00am-4:00pm, then Dan tests and Party! ⁠

December 14: Classes 10:00am-3:00pm

●        Saturday January 24, 2026 – Dojo Road Trip to Aikido Park slope to take Lehrman Sensei’s class 12:15 pm -1:45 pm. We will carpool the from dojo at 10:45 am to drive to Brooklyn.

Where Have You Been?

Remember as a teen when you got home later than you promised your mom? What was the first thing she said upon walking you in the door? “I was so concerned about you!”?  “I hope you had a great night!”?  No, you heard “Where have you been!?!” At least that is what I have echoing in my slightly fried gray matter while I am writing this way too late at night - this email - many, many months since my last one. 

Where have I been?  Why have I not given you my regular dojo letter that I had been doing since the Covid shutdown? Why have I not written anything? What was the delay? Did my dog eat my homework? Cat got my tongue? Am I just lazy (now that is a funny one)? Where have I been??? 

All the above and none of them. Really, just a lot has been going on, and I apologize. My older son got engaged and is planning a wedding and buying a house (I am in real estate, so he gets free expert advice), my younger son just moved into a new apartment. My wife has been traveling for work monthly and ran a large conference for more than 100 people. We have been very busy up in Maine each month and my many jobs have been crazy. I can’t really tell you what happened.  I get up around 4:30 am and go to bed after 10 pm at night.  I don’t watch TV or movies.  And there is always something to do.

So, I will give you the same response I gave to my mother – It won’t happen again. (It worked back then.)   I might not get another letter out too soon but, possibly, with the extensive therapy I might get my mother’s voice (“Where have you been?”) out of my head.

NY Aikikai – It Could Only Happen There

Some fun stuff happening at the NY Aikikai.  They now have AC in the dojo.  Welcome to the new age of climate control!  We removed the through-wall fans in the kamaza wall and sheetrock installed: no more heat loss. You might not notice as it is only a wall now.  All the electricity is run up onto the roof for the rest of the HVAC system.  Just waiting on ConEd to bring the additional power required.  We have finished building out the cellar’s electric room and put up the service equipment for the new electric.

We put up walls in the deshi area to enclose the new ductwork and trimmed it out on the mat area.

We are finishing up the new stairs on the east side, sheetrock the walls and ceiling, running the lighting, installing the doors and installing a temporary door at the street level until The Landmarks Preservation Commission issues the final permit. We also installed all the ceilings in the lobby area and the women’s locker room in preparation for the Xmas seminar.  We will most likely need to open some of this again, but we all wanted the place to look nice for the seminar.  Many members of the Technical Committee are teaching so it should look nice. And you guys are worth it.

I think everyone should celebrate. The NY Aikikai has new sweatshirts and tee shirts for sale.  Hope I see you at the seminar, so I don’t have to ask, “Where have you been?”

Keeping Busy

We have done a bunch of stuff at ASNJ since my last letter, and I figured I can list some before I fall asleep.

●       We took a trip to the NY Aikikai with a great group of teens to take Steve Pimsler Sensei’s class in the Big Apple. Steve and everyone at NYA were welcoming and wonderful. We went out for a Chinese food lunch before heading back to Penn Station for the NJ Transit ride.

●       A large group of us attended Summer Camp in Galloway, NJ hosted by the NY Aikikai. We got to train with Doshu and met and practiced with many Aikidoka from around the world.

●       We had a seminar in honor of Rick Stickles Sensei for his 10-year memorial. Original students of Stickles Sensei who currently have their own dojos taught.

●       We added a Judo class on Sunday and a Weapons class on Friday evenings.

●       Paul Manogue Sensei has graciously offered (after I asked) to teach an Iaido class four times a year on Sundays at 1:00 pm, WHAT DATES?  It is open to all dojos. There is a $20 mat fee for visitors.

●       Sunday’s Yoga class is now at 4:00 pm in person or on GoogleMeets

Carrot and the Stick

I have used the metaphor ‘carrot and the stick’ metaphor for many years teaching Aikido.  It’s how I think of keeping a lead (No, not the heavy metal. I get that a word has different meanings, but is the same word spelled the same but pronounced differently as well? I hate English, LOL.) or moving ahead of the attacker.

I mentioned “the carrot and stick” metaphor to Hal, and he asked, “Do you use the stick to hit uke?” “No,” I said, “The carrot is on the end of a stick that you use to lead [not the metal] a donkey. So, now I had to look up the term “carrot and stick.”

The Collins Dictionary notes “If an organization has a carrot and stick approach or policy, they offer people things in order to persuade them to do something and punish them if they refuse to do it.” Right in line with Hal’s definition (No ukes were injured in the making of this article). According to Wikipedia: “In religion, the concept of Heaven is considered the "carrot" while Hell is the corresponding "stick."”  Again, in line with Hal’s understanding.

In the mid-1800’s, there was a reference of two donkeys racing. (I am not making this up, it was written by Edward Montague in 1849 (almost the same name of the first Earl of Sandwich, Edward Montagu (no ‘e’) whose great, great grandson was known for the present day staple takeout food named after him) The losing donkey was beaten with “blackthorn twigs” (Blackthorn twigs are from the prunus spinosa tree, known for being black-purple, dense, and tipped with sharp spines. If you hit me with that, I would have probably would have run much faster.) while the winning donkey had a carrot tied to the end of a stick held in front of him (There was another version luring the donkey with a turnip.  I guess donkeys like running after soup ingredients?).

Additionally, the New York Times printed Winston Churchill’s weekly letter in July 1938 with this reference "Thus, by every device from the stick to the carrot, the emaciated Austrian donkey is made to pull the Nazi barrow up an ever-steepening hill." See? There are even historical records of my understanding of the carrot and the stick!

Back to Aikido, when you offer uke your wrist, it is like the carrot tied to a stick in front of a donkey, always just out of their reach.  As they move, so does your wrist always just out of uke’s reach.  Like the moving donkey, it is driven by your whole body.  Uke moves quickly, so do you. Uke moves slowly; you follow and move slowly. Whatever uke does, you follow. You lead uke by following them. You lead by following.

This is the same for strikes.  When uke tries to hit you, you move out of the way (off the line – I did that article before) and you move with the attack, keeping exact pace with uke, preserving their energy of the attack around you.  Whatever speed you are attacked, you match and follow, like the carrot on the end of the stick.  You are the rider holding the stick and uke is the donkey underneath you.

Confessions of an AikiChuan Addict

I have often told students in my Tai Chi Chuan class, if I teach them only one thing, it would be to pay attention to what they experience at the bottom of their feet.  We focus so much on our arms. If you study diligently, you might understand and focus on your waist area, but few get experience of how to move from their feet. Our feet are our connection to the earth and source of all movement (This will make sense in a few paragraphs.).

I have had an Aikido experience that I have been exploring for maybe 20 years now and it moved up the mental ladder last month when Hal taught a class in ASNJ that I have seen him do many times.  He started class with a double legged breathing exercise where he holds his arms in a rounded shape in front with his fingertips almost touching.  When you breathe in, the fingers move apart, when you exhale, the circle gets smaller. As he instructed, you focus your awareness on the outside edge of your arm. When I studied Chi Gung and Nei Gung, I found the ki would form a circle on the outside of my arms, around my back (it was called an “iron circle” in Chi Gung).  This feeling would extend down my back, through my legs and into my feet.

Then Hal directed us to rotate our arms, so our palm faces outward, making a circular motion when you rotate them. It also has expansion/contraction effect when you breathe, but you focus your awareness on the inner side of your arm. In this exercise, I felt a complete circle (remember “iron circle”) going around my chest and down the front of my body, down my legs to my feet.

I used Hal’s exercise during Tai Chi Chuan class and asked my students to tell me how they experienced this in their legs and feet. (See, I told you it would make more sense!).  I asked, “Is there, if any, change in your weight/awareness when you shift from the inside to the outside of your arms/torso?”  Some in the class could not feel it but one person had a similar experience as me. When you are on the outside of your arms and back, you experience the weight move to the outer edge of your legs and feet. And the inside of the arms and chest on the inside of your legs and feet. Try this. (Sometimes I think I should make a quick video to accompany these letters to show what I am writing but let’s face it, I cannot find time to write a letter, when would I add video? For now, use your imagination, you know, like some internal YouTube viral video).

After half an hour of this, I changed the focus to the center of the arm starting with the middle finger in between the inside and outside of the arm all the way down to the feet. This is how you would focus if you were doing Tai Chi Chuan or Chi Gung.  When you rotate your arms, they do not move in a circular way, they only rotate on the bone, not moving except to twist (unlike the Aikido version). The ki is experienced in the center of your chest and down the middle of your body to the center of your legs and the center of your foot. The spot is called “bubbling well springs” and is the origin of your root.

The difference in my practice (you know, the AikiChuan Addict) is that in Aikido, the energy travels on the outside of the arm, torso/leg.  In Tai Chi Chuan, it travels along the center of the bones.  It moves in a spiral in both practices and travels from foot to fingertip (See? The foot thing makes more and more sense) and it moves with your breathing. Our breath is our body’s engine for ki movement.

Which is better? The answer is ‘Yes.’ You use a screwdriver to put a screw in wood, or you can use a hammer, but it does not work as well. Try using a screwdriver to drive a nail. It will work but not as well as a hammer. OR you can cook steak in the microwave, but it would not taste good. Use a hot pan (try a cast iron one and put it in a 500º oven for 30 minutes before cooking the steak. OMG what a crust you will get) and you will be happier. On the other hand, popcorn in a microwave works great. Get it? Depending on what you are doing, you use the tool that works the best.

Access to the best tools helps you to be able to be a better carpenter or chef. But it is still your skill and awareness that makes you the better cook, the better carpenter, the better martial artist.  And knowing what tools works best for each application is just practice and experimentation. That is the beauty of seminars, you get exposure to many people who share their understanding of their favorite tools to give you more things to practice. 

Did I mention the great seminar the NY Aikikai will be hosting on December 12, 13 and 14? Think of it as tools on sale. My company has a lot of tools locked up there. Don’t touch them. Just take the seminar before you are asked “Where have you been?”

--Jay Tall

Chief Instructor

Aikido Schools of NJ

The most famous quote attributed to the Earl of Sandwich is a retort to John Wilkes:

"Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox."

Wilkes is said to have replied, "That depends, my lord, on whether I embrace your lordship's principles or your mistress".