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The person I refer to is Mick Slider Sensei, owner and chief instructor of The Dojo, a school of Judo, Jujutsu, Aikido and Kyusho jutsu (pressure point atemi) located in Washington, PA. During the recent Rinpa kai Shugyo, Sensei Slider, his son Jason (also a Sensei in his own right), and one of his top students, Dr. Gene Skiffington, came to visit us, to participate and observe. I first met Sensei Slider there and spoke with him at length, which was very pleasurable and intriguing. Later, Sensei Hennum suggested that I should pay a visit to Sensei Slider at his dojo, practice with him and interview him. I was more than happy to do this. After all, martial arts blackbelts are pretty commonplace nowadays. But men who are Okinawan trained masters of Bugei, AND military combat veterans whose experience in the crucible of war includes close quarters, hand to hand fighting are something very rare, and very special indeed...

So one sunny day in June, I packed my bags and drove to Washington PA to visit a real, honest to God dragon in his lair. And this is what the dragon had to say:

YB: Sensei, thank you for having me as a guest at your dojo this evening. When we first met at the Rinpa Kai shugyo at Carnegie Mellon, you told me that you have been training in martial arts for 49 years. That means you began your career in budo in 1958, a year so long ago that my now elderly parents were still kids in college then, and the world was a much different place than it is today. Can you tell me something about the dawn of your long and storied career in the martial arts?

SS: I was in the Army Rangers, stationed in Okinawa at that time. The first thing I ever practiced was Goju Ryu Karate.

YB: Okinawa! I was there, for six short months in 1989. And that place continues to haunt me to this day. But tell me Sensei, were you Chojun Miyagi's student?

SS: No, he was already departed from this world by the time I arrived in Okinawa. But I learned Karate from some of his top students.

YB: How did you find Goju Ryu Karate? I ask this because today you are a teacher of Aikido, Judo and Jujutsu, which are considered "soft style" arts. On the other hand, Okinawan Karate is famous, or even infamous, for being so "hard style" that many consider it nothing less than brutal. Why the change?

SS:  Well, I practiced Karate for a while, and although the art and the techniques were good, I didn't much like what Karate was doing to my hands.

YB: Are you talking about makiwara training?

SS: It goes even beyond that. We weren't just punching wooden posts wrapped in straw and rope, to toughen the first two knuckles of each hand. They also had us thrusting our outstretched fingers into big earthenware pots filled with heated sand and gravel. After about a year, I had lost considerable articulation and sensation in my fingers. And you know, I'm an artist, so this didn't sit well with me. So I started looking for a different approach.

YB: I see. Where did your quest lead you next?

SS:  I started practicing Judo at the USO club. One of the people practicing there was my own house servant, a nice young Okinawan guy named Hiro who also went by the name "Stebe" (Steve), which was a common practice for Okinawans employed by the U.S. military. Anyway, sometime after I started practicing Judo, Steve said to me, "Why don't you come to my dojo and try an art called Aikido?"

YB: And so you did?

SS: Yes, and soon after I started, I met my teacher. We were in the middle of practice one day when suddenly I felt a presence. I turned and looked, and there in the doorway, silhouetted in the golden evening sunshine, was an impressive looking figure in kimono and hakama. He entered the dojo, strode across the floor, and strangely enough, he walked straight over to me and said, "I want you to be my student".

YB: That's extraordinary! A Japanese master asked you to be his student on the first meeting?

SS: Yes. That man's name was Jiro Miyagi Sensei, and he became my teacher of the art of Nihon Goshin Aikido.

YB: And that's the art you teach today, along with Jujutsu and kyusho jutsu?

SS: That's right.

YB: How does Nihon Goshin Aikido differ from, say, Aikikai Aikido?

SS: Come to the mat and I'll show you?.

We bowed in and practice started. There were about twenty people in a dojo of only about fifteen by thirty feet. It was crowded to say the least, but they made do with the limited space in efficient and innovative ways. Sensei Slider oversaw the session while Sensei Scott Snyder demonstrated the techniques. We did a number of kansetsu waza, a number of leg reaps similar to aiki otoshi #1 and 2, and a few that combined kansetsu waza with aiki otoshi. We practiced several versions of kotegaeshi, including one combined simultaneously with a leg reap and a shotei strike to the opposite shoulder. All techniques were done from a straight lunge-punch (to the face) and the tai sabaki and blocking movements were very crisp, compact and economical. Teenage girls who I outweighed by 100 pounds were knocking me down with little cooperation on my part. By the end of the practice, it was clear to me that Nihon Goshin Aikido is not far removed from Aikijujutsu, even less so than the "pre-war" styles such as Yoshinkan and Tomiki Aikido.

We bowed-out, and I had a few minutes to speak to Sensei Slider once more?.

YB: Wow! Sensei, that was unlike anything going by the name of "Aikido" that I have ever practiced. In fact, it wasn't much different from what we practice at the Traditional Martial Arts Society in Pittsburgh, which is Aikijujutsu?

SS: Well, that's not surprising. Miyagi Sensei['s teacher, Shodo Morita*] was originally from Hokkaido. He [apparently studied] Aikido from Ueshiba Sensei [but] decided to break from him and preserve [techniques from his own previous Ju-Jitsu studies.  Miyagi] later, he moved to Okinawa. And that was a good thing for me?.

YB: Because you never would have met him otherwise?

SS: Yes, of course.

YB: How long did you practice under Master Miyagi?

SS: For about two years. I practiced every evening, when my military duties would allow it. And every weekend, I would stay at the dojo and practice exclusively for the whole forty eight hours?

YB: So every weekend for two years, you had an Aikido "shugyo", so to speak?

SS: Yes, that's right.

YB: Very impressive. And during this time, were there any other arts that you studied?  I mean, you were in a special forces unit. Did the army provide any special close quarters combat training outside of what you did on your own initiative?

SS: Oh yes! In our unit there was a sergeant, a Filipino named Seiro Franco. He wasn't very big, but he was meaner than a junkyard dog! And he schooled us in a set of really vicious and effective hand-to- hand fighting techniques called "Combat Jujutsu".

YB: Was that a system of military hand-to-hand similar to, for example, Defendo?

SS: Well, something like that, but not derived from the same source. But you know, it's time for me to teach jujutsu. I call my jujutsu class "The House of Pain". Can you stay and participate?

YB: Absoutely! I wouldn't miss it for the world!

We bowed in again, and this time Sensei Slider taught the class directly. The techniques we practiced were similar to the techniques of the Aikido class except that the emphasis was more aggressive and the use of joint pain and atemi techniques was liberal. Sensei Slider also demonstrated some Kyusho Jutsu techniques. One of these was a simple finger jab to a meridian point on the side of the neck, and when he did it to me, it had a very telling effect, to say the least (as did his shuto chops to the side of the neck). When the class had run it's course, I talked to Sensei Slider once more...

YB: Well, I can see why you call it the house of pain! Those techniques were similar to, and yet so different from the Nihon Goshin Aikido that we practiced earlier. Did you also learn this art from Master Miyagi?

SS: No, I learned this art later, after my tour in southeast Asia. Miyagi Sensei wrote me a letter of introduction to a teacher of Aikijujutsu located near Osaka. That teacher's name was Ito Oshito. Oshito Sensei didn't have many students, and he didn't accept new prospects willingly, so whatever was in that letter must have portrayed me in a good light. Most of the practice I had with Oshito Sensei was one-on-one. That goes to show what an intensely private teacher he was...

YB: Was the art that he taught Daito Ryu, by any chance?
 
SS: I don't even know. I just know that it interfaced very well with the
Nihon Goshin Aikido I already knew.

YB: Yes, I could see that from the two classes this evening. It was like the same techniques done with a different emphasis. But how about the Kyusho jutsu? Where did you learn that?

SS: I also learned that from Oshito Sensei....

 I was reaching an impasse. I knew that sometime between 1958 and 1964 Sensei Slider had learned several martial arts to a high level of skill and served as a special forces commando in Laos and Cambodia. I didn't have all the dates clear in my head, but to ask him more would have been to doubt the veracity of his story. He had shown me the numerous scars from both bullets and blades on his arms and legs. He had demonstrated his impressive technical skills. He had told me that he had stories to tell about his experience as a warrior. But I felt it would be indiscreet to question him in detail about those days of darkness and pain, to reawaken those ghosts. So I asked him some questions about his teaching experience....

YB: Sensei, it's getting late now and I have to hit the road soon. Before I go, can you tell me something about your philosophy as a teacher of martial arts?

SS: Well, I only started this dojo eight years ago. Before that, I was an instructor for Sensei Steve [Turk], for many years.   It was o.k. teaching for him, but it wasn't everyting that I wanted. I taught for him for a long time, and then for a while I got real busy making a living and didn't teach at all. And then eight years ago I opened this dojo. And now I'm happy. This dojo isn't very big, and I don't make much money from it. But I don't care about money. I only care about giving quality, one-on-one instruction to my students. I evaluate a prospective student for about six months, and if I find they have a sincere attitude, then I teach them all I can so that they can defend themselves in a realistic way.

Many of my students are young women, and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I thought they weren't learning real self defense. On the other hand, I don't want to teach people with attitudes who want to go out to a bar and start trouble so that they can test their skills....

I am sixty seven years old. I've been teaching sincere students here for eight years now, and my only wish is that I may still be teaching these arts twenty years from now... 

YB: Well, I guess that says it all. I only have one more question for you: What do you say to people who come here and doubt the efficacy of Aikido?

SS: Come get some! YB: Didn't Steven Seagal say that in one of his movies?

SS: Yeah, but he stole that line from ME!!

But I'm telling you for real, the unvarnished truth. These techniques saved my life many times. This aint no Hollywood movie. Otherwise, I would not be here, standing in front of you today...

My visit to Sensei Slider wasn't just a visit to any old martial arts school and an interview with Sensei Anybody. No, it was much more than that. It took me back to a time and place long ago and far away, first to Okinawa, a mythical place where I spent six months as a US Marine in the springtime of my life; then to a karate dojo near camp Lejeune, in a sleepy grove of trees beside a tobacco farm where I learned Karate from my first teacher, a retired career Marine and three-tour of duty Vietnam veteran who was cut from the same cloth as Sensei Slider......

My visit to Sensei Slider wasn't just a visit. For me, it was more like a magic carpet ride?..a ride to a place in the past when the world was young and green, and there were truer and more important things to believe in than just making a living and getting by in life?

* Sensei Slider is unsure of the connection to Shodo Morita.  But, because Morita sensei is the founder of Nihon Goshin Aikido, it is assumed.  He continues to try to verify this link.

(Reprinted by permission of the author)
[Changes in brackets made by editor for accuracy]

About The Author:

In 1989, Scott Wyble began on the martial arts path in Okinawan Karate, mixed styles based on Isshinryu, with Sensei Tom Mosman of Jacksonville, North Carolina. Received shodan rank in 1992.

Practiced Judo and Shorinji Kempo in college. No rank in Judo, third kyu (brownbelt) rank in Shorinji Kempo from Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata City, Japan, 1993.

Practiced Aikikai Aikido at Central Illinois Aikikai in Champaigne/Urbana, Illinois from 1994 until 1996 (no rank). During the same period, also practiced Jujutsu and Shorin ryu Karate with Sensei Bill Shannon of Juko Kai USA.

Started  practice of Aikijujutsu at the Traditional Martial Arts Society in Pittsburgh in 1996 under Senseis David White and Joseph Urich. Continued until 1998, at which point he went to Japan to teach English and seek instruction from Japanese masters of Aikido and other arts.

From 1998 until 2002 he lived in Japan and practiced Tomiki Aikido continuously the entire four years under Shihan Nariyama Tetsuro of the Shodokan Aikido Hombu Dojo in Osaka. Also practiced Daito ryu Aikijujutsu under Shihan Takeshi Kawabe of the Takumakai, and Sensei Richard Carlow, student of Shihan Okabayashi Shogen of the Hakkuhokai. Received Shodan in Tomiki Aikido in 2002.

Other experience includes Tai Chi, Hsing-I, Chi gung, Hapkido, kickboxing and Brazilian Jujutsu. The Tai Chi teachers were Master Lu in Honolulu and Master Zhang in Chicago.

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