Aikikai Kicks Off Two-Day Classes, Training

As an attacker lunged at him with gleaming knife in hand, Irvin Faust deftly stepped aside and caught him by the wrist. He then pinned the attacker face-down to the ground using one arm while quickly disarming him with the other.

The two then bowed to each other and sat back down.

Faust, a sixth degree black belt in aikido from Albany, N.Y., was one of the high-ranking instructors—called sensei—invited to lead the spring seminar of the Harvard Aikikai, which took place last Saturday and yesterday at the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center. The seminar, which drew Harvard students as well as other members of the aikido community, involved two days of classes and weapons training as well as a technique demonstration on Saturday.

Faust suggested that aikido’s nonconfrontational approach might be a welcome change of pace for Harvard students.

“It’s more than a martial art,” he said. “It’s about dealing with life in a positive way. There’s no competition involved.”

Maciej Godlewski ’07, the president of the club, said that it was developing greater connections to the aikido community through its newly appointed chief instructor, Sioux Hall. At the beginning of this school year, Hall replaced Eugene Taylor, a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, as the club’s chief instructor. Taylor had officially founded the club in 1980.

Godlewski said he was excited about Hall’s new role.

“She has been a great help,” he said. Godlewski added that with Hall as the new chief instructor, the club would be seeking to increase its undergraduate membership.

Faust said that Hall was a major reason why he agreed to come to the College for this seminar.

“We’ve traveled the path of aikido together for a long time”, he said.

The event was co-sponsored by the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.