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One woman's story of being in the Martial Arts
Women in the Martial Arts
by: Anita Wilson
I was born in West London in 1963, my father was very involved in
the martial arts and a dan grade in Karate he was also a dealer
in ancient Japanese arms and armour, although my father has an
antiques shop in London's Bond Street, my home was more like a
samurai warriors dressing room, with original suits of Japanese
armour complete with very frightning face masks that would
frighten the life out of my friends when ever they came to visit,
there were also very many valuable swords yari and naginata
spears.
The Masters
My father would travel around the world searching for the best
quality weapons, what intrigued me the most as a child was all
these strange visitors that would come to my home, the famous
Otani family were regular visitors with Sensei Matsuro Otani 7th
dan Judo the UK National Coach, Kenshiro Abbe Sensei, Tomio Otani
Sensei the UK National Coach for Kendo, his visitors were like
the who's who of martial arts, as recently as two weeks ago I was
pleased to meet with Sensei Kazuo Chiba 8th dan when he came to
see my father.
Introduction to Aikido
As a child I did a little Karate with my father but nothing
serious until 1992 when I went to the local Aikido dojo in
Bracknell, Berkshire, UK. All those years with my father and his
Japanese weapons must have had a latent but profound effect on
me, as I watched Sensei Ellis teaching his Positive Style of
Traditional Aikido I knew there and then that this was the
martial art for me.
The Hard Training Begins
When I started Aikido I made a point of training with the men and
they treated me as one of them. With regular practice I
progressed. I had now developed the hard training bug and started
courses in physical training and amateur weight lifting, after a
few years of hard work I became a fully qualified fitness
instructor-personal trainer and amateur weight lifting coach, the
high light of all this effort was when Sensei Ellis promoted me
to assistant coach of the Ellis Schools of Traditional Aikido
(ESTA) two years later he promoted me to first lady assistant to
himself, there had never ever been a lady assistant in all the
long history of the ESTA, Sensei put me on a three month trial
and 8 year on I am still here.
In 1994 I received my coaching certificate from the British
Aikido Board (BAB) which is the governing body for Aikido in the
UK. Once I became assistant to Sensei Ellis I became involved in
assisting in teaching both men and women and also helping with
the children's classes.
The First Seminar
Sensei Ellis asked if I would like to take part in a very large
and important seminar in Liverpool in the North of England,
Sensei Ellis is not one of those teachers who has a pet uke
follow him around to fly all over the mat at a touch or a glance,
he prefers to try to involve all the students who attend his
seminars if possible, knowing this I felt very privileged but
nervous when Sensei told me there would be about 700 students
from various martial arts, I think the phrase "Being thrown in at
the deep end" is applicable here.
On arrival at the venue I was amazed to see so many students from
so many countries, UK-France-Germany-Italy-India-Austria are just
some that I can recall. Sensei Ellis was asked to take the first
class of approximately 50 dan grades from various martial arts.
Sensei had me demonstrate 100 press-ups on the backs of my wrists
with fingers pointing both inwards and outwards. When I had
finished and was in the raised position Sensei sat on my back (he
did not warn me of this) and carried on with his lecture. Sensei
suggested that those who wanted to should try this exercise. It
was amazing to see all these black belts struggling. Later I had
a little crowd around me wanting to inspect my wrists, I
explained that this exercise is standard for both seniors and
juniors in our schools.
I was now feeling a little more confident when Sensei pointed out
that there were six young dan grades who had arrived late and
were respectfully waiting for permission to come onto the mat.
Sensei asked me to show them what we had been teaching so far,
they were all wearing black gi's and when I approached and
invited them on the mat, they scowled as if to say "hey, we have
not traveled all the way from London to be taught by a women" as
I showed the first technique "nikkyo" a wrist locking action, the
first guy tried to resist me, I applied the technique as shown to
me so many times by Sensei and almost put him through the mat. I
thought he would be upset with me, but as he got up he asked "How
did you do that?". He then wanted me to do the technique on all
the others, now I had their attention and they were a great bunch
of guy's. I really enjoyed teaching them. At the end of the
seminar, as we were leaving the hall to head for the car park,
these six guy's were waiting in a line and bowed to me
simultaneously with a smile and said to Sensei Ellis " You have a
strong lady assistant there ,sensei" Sensei replied " That is why
she is my assistant". That was my first seminar and one that I
will never forget.
I have been involved in many other seminars with my Sensei and
they were always good, but I was never so overawed as I was at my
first one, or so I thought. Then Sensei Ellis asked if I would
like to visit New Mexico in the USA for a seminar. The seminar
was to be held in Alamogordo NM, where Sensei's USA
representative in the US lives and works at the Space Museum.
Sensei visits New Mexico every year and we have another Ellis dan
grade in Texas, Al Montemar. I had always wanted to visit the US
and jumped at the opportunity. We made the trip into a vacation
for friends and family. We taught members of the USAF and German
Air Force at Holloman AFB, which included a guided tour of the
base and various fighter aircraft, including the Stealth bomber.
Sensei Rogers is an instructor who teaches students from the
USAF, Highway Patrol, police and some members of the United
States Marshals.
While in the US, I also visited the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. I
intend to move to Phoenix to live within the next two to three
years. Sensei Ellis has a book on aikido coming out next spring
in the US titled "Positive Aikido" which I am pleased to be
featured in, Sensei Rogers is a journalist by profession and has
worked on this book for the past two years and it will be
published in the US. There are several publishers interested in
the book so we are all very excited about this latest project. I
hope to be visiting the US again next year and I hope to be there
for the launching of the book.
For the martial artists out there I would like to add one more
comment about the proposed book. Where as most Aikido books spend
a great deal of time harmonizing with the planets and the
universe, there will be none of that in this book, Sensei always
tells students to come out of the clouds and get back on the
tatami because "This is where it all happens" and he also often
says " leave the dancing to Fred Astair" (who is Fred Astair?).
http://www.EllisAikido.org
Anita Wilson as a child grew up meeting many legendary Martial
Arts masters who visited her home to see the Japanese works of
art with ancient swords and suites of armour a part of every day
life. Anita is the senior lady instructor of the Ellis Aikido
Schools. she is also a highly qualified personal fitness
instructor.
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