Fight Mag Website
	Sensei Mike Selvey regularly contributes articles. Free to access, a site for all things Martial Arts
	Nine Circles
	Suppliers of Swords and equipment
	Blitz
	For all martial arts goods.
	Barringtons Swords
	Supplies of fantasy swords as well as Japanese Katana.
	Tozando
	Japanese site for all things Iaido
	Dai Nippon Butoku Kai (DNBK)
	Official website of the DNBK International Division. Link removed by request
	Seishin Judo and Iaido
	Bruce Scrivens 5th Dan, website for Judo and Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido
	Aikido in Norwich
	Sensei Steve Fyffe 4th Dan Aikido and Cane master blind from birth studies aikido, cane and Tenshin Ryu Iaido
	Yamabushi Yodokan Website
	Website link for judo and Tenshin Ryu Iaido

 

Wales November 2007

Geoff Murray 3rd Dan Doshi

Thoughts from the Path

I started my Martial Arts career back in 1988, i was looking for a club for my young son to learn Karate but didn’t want him going somewhere where all they taught was to fight and the high grades used the low grades as cannon fodder. This had been my experience from the past. I found a club teaching Wado Ryu karate with a heavy emphasis on Morals and etiquette; within three months of my son starting I began. I enjoyed the structured approach and discipline, I was also taught about the history and lineage of the art.
I entered a few tournaments but found them to be not much more than street fights with the ultimate goal of securing a plastic trophy at seemingly any cost. I saw young lads walking away with broken noses and their martial arts career over before it had a chance to begin. What was the point of learning a traditional art for it to be tossed aside once faced with an opponent, I saw very little in the way of technique and control and decided that was it for me, I never entered competition again. I did not feel the need to prove myself on whether the techniques I had learnt would work; I had faith that if it was good enough for the samurai it was good enough for me.
After 6 years of training and gaining my black belt I felt the need for more than physical techniques alone, I wanted to find out more about the philosophy and history of the Japanese way of life and how they had perfected the art of combat.
My brother introduced me to his father in law Kancho Alf Bates and I was immediately impressed by his depth of knowledge of the Japanese Martial Arts, I spent long hours with Alf and he gave me real insight into philosophy, strategy and history, he had a knack of asking you a question that you found yourself pondering over for weeks.

I had always been interested in the Katana, so one day Alf introduced me to Hanshi Tudor Box, we hit it off immediately, his good humour, knowledge and willingness to teach impressed me greatly. I had never met men such as Alf and Tudor before and knew straight away that this was the path for me.

Tudor introduced me to the idea of principles, that all martial art techniques had to obey certain principles and if you understood them you would understand all martial arts. I found the study of this to be difficult and came to the understanding that it would take years of study to grasp. I trained diligently with Tudor never wanting to miss a class.

The highlight of those early days was to attend the Easter course at Hemsby in Essex, there I met more true martial artists, the likes of Wayne Taylor, Leighton Jenkins and Hanshi Charlemaine to name but a few, I really felt part of a family, the thing that struck me most with everyone I met was their humility and willingness to pass on what they knew, there was no bragging about grades or superiority complexes just down to earth nice people who wanted you to grow.

Not only did Tudor teach me more than I could take in but he constantly encouraged me to teach, he would often out of the blue say “ Geoff will now teach so and so technique” it really kept me on my toes and forced me to look deeper into the Iaido forms he had taught me so I could better understand how to pass that on. The years passed in a period of my life of great harmony, I attended every seminar and training session I could and felt I was really getting somewhere, the path seemed clear to me.

One day during our training session Tudor introduced the class to Sensei Mike Selvey whom he described as a Ronin (a master less Samurai) a man forging his own way on the path. My first impression was of a fierce looking man, he gave a demonstration of Iaijutsu, something I had never seen before, I must have sat there open mouthed at what I had just seen. Mike encouraged us to all have a go, it was then I was struck by how gentle he is combined with a quiet power simmering away under the surface, he reminded me of tales of the samurai where they could be kind and gentle but in a split second could unleash devastating power, I had never come across anyone in all my years with such discipline and focus.
Tudor told me that this was the man in where my future lay and that what ever sights I had set for myself Mike would guide me ever higher and be there for me. At that time I did not realise how true that would become. I knew I wanted to learn more but the years passed with mike and me training sporadically. With Tudors failing health Mike came more often to teach and it was inevitable that we were destined to become firm friends. Mike trained me almost on a one to one basis leading up to the 2002 Dai Nippon Butoku Sai in Kyoto Japan, where I was to demonstrate Tenshin Ryu Iaido and some of the new techniques I had learnt from mike in Iaijutsu. It was a direct result of Mike’s teaching that I acquitted myself so well in Japan and also gained my 2nd Dan from Hanshi Hamada. As a lone swordsman representing Tenshin Ryu and the then Tokushima Budo Council I found the strength and discipline to carry out the techniques given to me by great men, I could not let them down.

My life took a turn for the worse with my marriage failing, business worries and just life in general, the path became foggy, my discipline started to wane and my training faltered. The more I drifted from the path the worse I felt.
All at once the path I had envisioned for me and my family was gone, I was in limbo.
I had come to a crossroads in my life where a path had to be chosen, a choice I did not want to make. Mike and the Yodokan were very supportive, after long chats with Mike I could see a new path forming but again was reluctant to take it.

I took myself up to the Lake District and rented an isolated cottage for a week to gather my thoughts and enjoy some solitude. After three days without seeing a sole I decided to climb a mountain and set off up the Old Man of Coniston. After a long tiring climb I sat on the top and found that all my problems were there with me like a black shadow, it dawned on me that the problem was fear, fear of going back and the fear of going forward, I also determined it was unfounded fear, nothing could be more scary than performing Iaido and Iaijutsu in front of twelve masters in the Budokuden in Japan. I remembered all the wisdom given to me by Tudor, Alf and Mike and came to the conclusion that if I don’t make a conscious choice to choose a path then one would be chosen for me by circumstance. I have made my choice..

My martial arts training and study of Kyushindo philosophy has no doubt helped in my decisions, it helped me see into the true nature of myself and gave me the discipline to find the way.. the moral of the story I guess is, the path is not always clear, not always in the direction you think and you may fall off the path once in a while but the path is littered with good people who will genuinely help you along it, search them out and hang on to them, they are there for your whole life. Learn to be flexible and bend with life’s changes.

Geoff Murray 3rd Dan Doshi

November 2007