Aikido of Gainesville, Inc.

March 22nd. Jack was not back from Spring Break, so Patrick and I worked on Ki-no-nagare Koshi Nages. Hip throws to be executed at speed with no pause for setup. The setup is in controlling Uke's movements from the moment of contact. Interesting thought here. Nishio Sensei's saying that "Victory is determined at the moment of contact." I have always been aware of this but have not thought much about it for years. Today that was what Patrick and I were studying from punches, overhead strikes and angling strikes. I was not really trying to throw him at first. I normally teach these high fall techniques up to the load, but not the following throw. The throw is almost nothing compared to the setup and load for the throw. The reason for study is to help Chris and Jack. They love these throws and keep trying to do them in a freestyle practice. At first, I have discouraged it. But it keeps showing up. So, the solution is to adapt it to no-pause development and determine where Uke will end up depending on the physics of the throw so Nage will and Uke will be safe with Uke falling in front of another attacker trying to get at the thrower.

This section demonstrates some proficiency in both Iwama Style
Weapons and Nishio Style Weapons. The techniques for Nikyo and Sankyo are displayed in the Nishio Style Weapons. This is the URL for the 6th section of Christopher's Shodan Test.

6 Chris Shodan Test Ken tai Jo Section 2 5 26 This section demonstrates some proficiency in both Iwama Style Weapons and Nishio Style Weapons. The techniques for Nikyo and Sankyo are displayed in the Ni...

Great practice of Jo Dori (walking staff take-aways) with Chris this afternoon. He's coming right along on focusing for Shodan (1st Black Belt) test. We're aiming for February 5th. I expect he's going to do a wonderful test. It will be a mix of Iwama Style and Nishio Style. This afternoon we worked on a Nikyo take away that I mixed concepts from both styles. Interesting stuff.

Wonderful practice this afternoon 11/30/25 with Jack and Patrick. We worked on Nishio Style Shomenuchi response with Nishio Sensei's rake-the-eyes-sweep-the-arm type starts. We started with Irimi Nage, very normal Nishio technique. Then we added Nikyo, then a lift and project around Sankyo, then Koshi Nage. We could have done Tai Otoshi, but Patrick, taking most of the ukemi said it's a hard fall for him so we passed on that. Then I tried a San/Yonkyo with the lift and project start. It took a little refining then it worked pretty good. From there I tried an Ude Osai or Roppkyo. That also took some development. What ended up working best was a draw off to the side like the Nishio Nikyo movement with an arm bar beginning while drawing Uke off sideways and down and, after getting Uke pretty far down, raising his hand up and slipping the elbow over the front of Uke's arm to set the Yonkyo. Very interesting and fun afternoon, thanks to Jack and Patrick.

Keith and Carlos at one of the old Asian Arts festivals at the Thomas Center.

Keith's Memorial service will be this coming Sunday, 3pm at Depot Park in Gainesville. 11/23/25 3pm.

It's a sad sad time for Aikido of Gainesville. We just lost my top student and friend, co-instructor, political global conversation compatriot, fellow truth seeker Keith McInnis early Friday morning around 6 am. He took the Covid shots believing in them being able to protect him and his wife from contracting the disease while she was hampered with a congenital kidney disease.
He was fine till about a year and a half ago. He contracted a cough that kept getting worse and ended up in the hospital. They determined that his lungs were being destroyed from within. It turned out that the shots had compromised and messed up his immune system. His immune system was attacking his lungs and destroying the air sacs so this was depleting the oxygen he was breathing. I think he started breathing high content (100%) oxygen about this time last year.
His computer and internet knowledge has been a great help to me over the years. He brought his sons to learn Aikido maybe it was about 2010. He had learned a branch of Ki Aikido which was headed by Tohei Sensei ( O'Sensei's top student and son-in-law) Keith claimed he had brain damage from multiple traffic accidents while he was a Sherriff's Deputy. He always called it "dain bramage". A few years later he was improved and claimed the Aikido I was teaching had saved his life.
We practiced a lot of Nishio Style techniques, especially onl Sunday afternoons. There are so many different things happening at the same time requiring you to move your arms and legs in various directions at the same time while executing techniques and analyzing them. We called it the "Aiki Lab". We learned and improved so many kenetic and physics based concepts. We both felt that this complete coordination of all parts of the body at the same time was building lots of Neural Pathways in the brain across the brain barrier between the hemispheres.
When we would run a Women's Self Defense Seminar, we made a great team. I could explain in detail how to execute techniques and he could explain the psychological reactions during attacks and statistical results of attacks and various helps available for women after being attacked. He also could covey his experiences from working female assault cases.
Loosing my friend and helper leaves a huge hole in the depth of what I can teach. God Speed Keith McInnis. I'll miss my best friend.

Sunday April 21, 2025 a student from down in Sarasota came up to learn some Nishio Style techniques. I was trying to find some Nishio video of him teaching everything for either a full Nikyo or Sankyo application, meaning Ken vs Ken, Ken vs Jo, technique holding a wooden sword, technique holding a walking staff and empty hand applications. This is hard for me. I don't have the videos classified in short snippets of whole technique applications. Normally Nishio Sensei would do the empty hand first with weapons stuff at the end of class. Unfortunately my video camera would finish the 60 minute tape and turn off just as he was starting to show the weapons stuff. It just wasn't feasible to watch the camera and change to a new tape about the middle of class. But during the time, he referred to Sensei's book "Yurusu Aikido". I got out my copy and showed him there was a Japanese & English version. I told him I had read the text portion, but not paid a lot of attention to the techniques in the back. Probably this was because the techniques were still fresh in my mind. After 28 years since I left Japan, my memories have faded. After he left, I was perusing the techniques and realized Nishio Sensei has written a tech manual. This is great! It doesn't show very much tebiki (executing technique holding the weapon), but that's something I can easily put together. I have already been teaching more tebiki because it gives the students greater understanding of how to execute the empty hand and why it is done the way I show it. I hope Aikido Journal can still provide printings of this book because I plan to wear this book out just like my old Saito Sensei hardbacked "Traditional Aikido" books. This is equivalent to finding a gold mine for me.