| Interview with Guillaume Erard, 3rd Dan Aikikai |
 As soon as he stepped in the dojo, Guillaume set the tone of the class with a very tonic warm up which we realized was very necessary in order to prepare our bodies for the extensive nage waza that was to come. The students of the Gonojukan mixed up with the crew from the Dublin Aikikai composed of practitioners from Ireland, Poland, France, Canada, the US and Spain. We were delighted to see that all this occurred in a very open and friendly manner. The local Aikidoka had to dig into their notions of English before realising that the language of Aikido was more universal than any other. In front of such a diverse crowd, even Guillaume got mixed up on a couple of occasions, involuntarily switching to English during his demonstration until a timid hand rose and a voice asked "in French please", provoking a general hilarity. After this intense class, we all headed to the Chinese restaurant and we took the opportunity to ask Guillaume about the ideas that he particularly liked to bring across while teaching.
Aurore Mamet: During your class; whether it was in French or English (laughs), you introduced some of the concepts that are important to you, one of which is "do not speak on the mat". What is so important about keeping silent on the mat?
Guillaume Erard: On the tatami, as far as I am concerned, words only serve as lying to oneself and others by deforming the reality of the movement. It also follows the principles of Chinese whispers; the teacher says something that a student will interpret and then try to explain to his partner because he noticed (rightly or not) a mistake...
Please click here to read the entire article |
Latest News |
