Nick Lowry was the head instructor at Windsong Dojo untl 2016, where he still remains as advisor. He is also the founder of Kazeutabudokai.
by Nick Lowry As an institutional device we can say that there is no such thing as rank in an absolute term– institutionally Rank is always based on a relative scale – some systems rank players/practitioners against each other – … Read More
by Nick Lowry If you have a lot of pendulums swinging in a room, over a short period of time they all tend to en-train toward synchronicity with the largest one. This works with people’s subtle emotional and energetic qualities … Read More
by Nick Lowry Experiment: Read the following aloud A bird in thethe handis worth two inthe bush Almost everyone reads this as “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Almost no one catches the second “the.” … Read More
by Nick Lowry Are there any such things as kata in aikido? Of course there are – it’s a silly question, but if you take it that aikido is the invention of M. Ueshiba, then originally, surprisingly No. Nor were … Read More
by Nick Lowry How do we impart knowledge in physical sense? How do imbue a student with not only the information that is contained in a physical culture of budo, but also with the fully embodied realization of said information—knowledge … Read More
As we train and practice seemingly endless repetitions of budo techniques day after day after year after year, as we pour our lives into the container of our chosen art, we inevitably find our actions and our lives being shaped and honed and turned toward an edge that transcends all that we know.
Violence will solve some problems but gentleness will solve all of them. Force has its place, we do achieve effects but employing violence, that much is undeniable, but when the use of force becomes adopted as the default strategy for responding to anxiety, then we fall prey to a pernicious and avoidable cycle.
In 2001 I instituted “black belt choice” weeks into our dojo curriculum– this helped develop autonomy and creativity amongst my senior ranks and helped them grow into their own as teachers. It was an experiment and I liked how it worked and wrote the following:
by Nick Lowry As we enter Randori (literally chaos practice) it is easy to be overwhelmed and feel lost. We are wandering through unknown territory. Kata and Kihon (including randori sequence exercises, chains, renkzoku waza, etc) indeed all structured exercises … Read More