That other aikido magazine

[John Lindsey]

The one you see on the magazine stands....Aikido Today. Anyhow, I noticed tonight that at the two local book stores nearby, it is never found in the sports or MA section, but always in the new age section.

Just an observation.

[Brently Keen]

John,

Very astute observation.

Brently Keen

[Chad Bruttomesso]

John,

You are lucky. For the past 6 months or so I haven't been able to find it at any of the 4 bookstores close to my house, at all.

I wonder if non-Aikido people perceive what we do as new age? If so, I wonder why.

Have a great day,

[Budoka]

I wonder if non-Aikido people perceive what we do as new age? If so, I wonder why.

Oh, that's an easy one. . .

It all goes back to that touchy feely nonsense. You know, the "you can't really ever know anything even after a lifetime" mentality. The new agers love this stuff. So do academics. Aikido Today Magazine has a huge readership with advanced and terminal degrees, by their own admission, compared to the general public.

If you've been around academicians much, you'll know they love the neo-post-modernist attitude that you can never really know anything. . . and in an art that has "30 year techniques" and people who've trained fifty years still calling themselves "beginners", well, they eat this stuff up.

That's why you get strange articles in ATM like that guy who said if you tickled a child he equates that to rape, or the guy who talked about doing randori with wolves and stuff; plus, they sell all sorts of New Age materials.

ATM may be a step up from Black Belt, and they do have good interviews from time to time, but I think Aikido Journal is absolutely superior to them.

Just my two cents worth. . .
--

Jared Riggs

[Brently Keen]

In this, I'd say that I agree with Jared absolutely.

Chad, perhaps you're the lucky one. You've got four bookstores in your area that aren't foisting more new-age drivel on the public.


Brently Keen

[Joseph Svinth]

Now be nice, Brently -- the US Army spent a lot of money foisting New Age on us, too. See Jim Channon's article at JNon-Lethal at http://ejmas.com and Richard Strozzi Heckler's book. :)

[George Ledyard]

ATM is quite representative of what I would call West Coast Aikido. The general focus on the West Coast is on the internal processing aspects of training, the artistic side, etc. It is quite successful at what it is intended to be. The fact is that I know very few serious Aikidoka who ordinarily do anything more than scan it to keep up on seminars and to make sure they don't miss the very occasional valuable article.

A while back I though I'd stir the mix somewhat and i submitted an article on Aikido and atemi. John Stevens sensei gave me permission to use some pictures of O-Sensei from his books. I figured that given the usual interests of the magazine readership it might stir things up a bit and start some dialogue via letters to the mag. I was wrong. There was simply no reaction from the readership whatsoever. Not a single letter. The folks who read the mag simply weren't interested enough in the issue to comment.

This is too bad because the magazine could occupy an important place in the Aikido community. Stan Pranin is very much the historian, a chronicler of Aikido events and peronalities. Although there is somewhat more now, the magazine still isn't much of a place in which there is a lot of discussion about Aikido as it being taught by the non-Japanese instuctors outside of Japan. You do not fond a lot of info about what American teachers are doing for instance. Aikido Today could be that vut its bias in favor of the New age side of Aikido limits its influence. There is room for another publication but it would be difficult to make it commercially viable. ATM has succeeded precisely because of its appeal to those students of Aikido who don't know very much. It's complete non-techncal approach has allowed it to have wide appeal. I suspect that a magazine that filled in the gap between Aikido Journal and ATM would be a very difficult publicatiuon to get off the ground no matter how many of us would be interested in reading it. It would be easier for some person to collect articles on various sibjects and edit them in book form. There are certainly a number of people who post on this board that I would be interested in reading.

That said, we could also decide to inundate ATM with the types of articles that we feel would be worth reading and see if we could change the direction a bit.

[Joseph Svinth]

Or y'all could send them to EJMAS. :)

(Why so little aikido there? Nobody has sent us anything to speak of. :o)

[AikiTom]

I don't know necessarily that one is better than the other, but I do know that neither is a suitable vehicle by itself. I agree with George that a 3rd mag is warranted.

I've subscribed to both for about 10 years, and here's my take on them:

ATM - devoted mainly to mental part of aikido, extensions to life skills, and a bulletin board for announcements. Does these very well. I noticed they've stopped asking for submissions, though, and not sure why. Editor Perry's editorials once about aikido now are mostly stream-of-consciousness with isolated small specifics being used to justify sweeping generalized conclusions. A bit like Dennis Miller's "rants" without the wit and logic.

AJ - Quality appearance, but I have had extreme difficulties in geting 4 issues in a row delivered over the past couple years. Definitely speaks more to the "physical" side of the art that is missing in ATM.
Did you ever read Ohara martial arts mags where a series of articles on weapons or kenjutsu for instance are patched together into a book? Sometimes the feeling I get is that my subscription money is funding someone's passions for documenting minutiae and that's what I'm reading as articles. (That said, I'm finding the series on O'Sensei lectures to the Byakko group fascinating. The history of Deguchi articles, didn't give me any insight to aikido at all.)
The Don Angier article in the current issue is good. Lynch is good, but could say as much in half the space. Goldsberry - why? and what's his point?

My "ideal mag" would have ATM's list of events-dojo openings, some life uses of aikido (except for the unending how-aikido-helped-my-imprisoned-whatever), and definitely "Jord's Storage Garage Aikido"! An interview with one foreign (Japanese or other) sensei and one U.S. Sensei. AJ's pictured aikido and aikijitsu features with the addition of close-up pictures ala the old Klickstein book where close-ups were called "aikido notebook" and illustrated common screw-up points. Maybe an "Atemi of the Month" feature (I'm serious), moderately-lengthed letters to the editor, and a monthly call for future articles like ATM used to do.
Give me that, and I've got some good aikido readin'!
(Any entrepreneurs ready to get together?)

[Tony Peters]

Or you could subscribe to Furyu and support Wayne. seriously though I have read all of the magazines and I prefer Furyu even though it isn't out to often (Wayne does have a real job teachin so he can only work on the Mag in his spare non Budo teaching time).

[Ron Tisdale]

Speaking of Aikido Today, in the latest issue there is an article on a yoshinkan technique, by Gary Ohama. Any comments? It would seem that it is "more technical than usual" for that magazine.

Notification of prior interest: Ohama Sensei is one of my instructors. :)

Ron Tisdale

[Budoka]

Any of y'all remember when there were some Yoshinkan videos advertised in ATM and there was this big uproar because the image was of a police officer putting a bad guy into nikkyo and all these Left Coasters wrote in "How can you dare advertise a product that shows aikido causing pain to another human being?", etc., etc.

The people at ATM actually pulled the advertisement and put a different picture. . . I'm sure if it were up to some of them, it would be the cop beaten to the ground with the word "Pig" on one side, and "Peace, Love, Dope" on the other. . .

. . . can you tell I've lost a lot of respect for that magazine. The best thing about them is the dojo directory.

--

Jared Riggs

[Stephen_Bannan]

what are the names of these mags?

[bruceb]

Maybe, it has nothing to do with martial arts? Moving a magazine to where someone thinks it will sell is the reason ATM was in the New Age section.

You never know... atm magazine could be in another section next month just to see if it has better sales?

Oh well ... as weaponry becomes more suffisicated, soon E-budo and all martial arts will either be in reference, or in the New Age section, eh? Just a thought.

[Charles Hill]

Originally posted by George Ledyard


That said, we could also decide to inundate ATM with the types of articles that we feel would be worth reading and see if we could change the direction a bit.

I think that this is important. Many times people have written letters to ATM complaining about this and that. The editors' standard response is that they are limited to the articles that people send in. They write that if you want to see something in the magazine, write up an article and send it in. With that, I don't see how anyone can complain about the content of the magazine.

Charles Hill

[BC]

The magazine doesn't provide articles relevant to how I practice and think about aikido. I don't complain. I just won't buy the magazine. It is unfortunate, because in the past there were occasionally some good articles and/or interviews. But now it's just not worth my time or money to sort through the other stuff.

[Steven Miranda]

There is?!? Issue 90?!? Don't see it Dude!

Steven



Originally posted by Ron Tisdale
Speaking of Aikido Today, in the latest issue there is an article on a yoshinkan technique, by Gary Ohama. Any comments? It would seem that it is "more technical than usual" for that magazine.

Notification of prior interest: Ohama Sensei is one of my instructors. :)

Ron Tisdale

[Julian Gerhart]

I have only read a few issues of ATM but I tend to agree with the general consensus. however it irks me a little that someone saw fit to bash Fred Donaldson to make their point. but thats a topic for another thread. I have found that books are a much more reliable medium for getting quality material. "Aikido Talks" comes to mind as a book that consolidates 20 or so good interviews from ATM into something that you can fit in your pocket. I'd like to see more collections of articles and interviews published.

[Tom D]

Originally posted by Budoka
[B]

Oh, that's an easy one. . .

It all goes back to that touchy feely nonsense. You know, the "you can't really ever know anything even after a lifetime" mentality. The new agers love this stuff. So do academics. Aikido Today Magazine has a huge readership with advanced and terminal degrees, by their own admission, compared to the general public.

If you've been around academicians much, you'll know they love the neo-post-modernist attitude that you can never really know anything. . . and in an art that has "30 year techniques" and people who've trained fifty years still calling themselves "beginners", well, they eat this stuff up.

That's why you get strange articles in ATM like that guy who said if you tickled a child he equates that to rape, or the guy who talked about doing randori with wolves and stuff; plus, they sell all sorts of New Age materials.

ATM may be a step up from Black Belt, and they do have good interviews from time to time, but I think Aikido Journal is absolutely superior to them.

Just my two cents worth. . .
--

Jared Riggs


Man you hit the nail right on the head

[Jack B]

Aikido Journal is absolutely superior to them.

Was. I mourn the passing of its print edition, which Stan discontinued in favor of all-Internet distribution.