Interview with Longtime Judoka Joe and Becky Condello: Takahiko Ishikawa in Virginia Beach, Part I
Joe Condello began training judo in Philadelphia with Takahiko Ishikawa. During his summer break from college, he and his then-girlfriend Becky visited Ishikawa and Helen Foos in Virginia Beach. The latter asked the couple to relocate to the southern state to assist Ishikawa and Foos. The couple accepted and spent the 1970s in Virginia Beach…
Reflecting on The Resilient Shinai: Past and Future
I recently read and finished the book about Canadian Kendo entitled, The Resilient Shinai, from Hirokazu Okusa. Reading Okusa’s book was in an effort to understand Kendo as it exists and how it is organized outside of Japan, as Japan has much of the focus for kendo history and discussion. To be fair, Kendo originated…
Solve or Submit: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as Real-Time Problem Solving by Michael Martin
What BJJ Really Is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is commonly described as a martial art defined by leverage, technique, and positional control. While these descriptions accurately capture its mechanics, they remain incomplete. They explain how BJJ operates, but not what it fundamentally represents. At a deeper level, BJJ can be understood as a system of creative…
Interview with Chicago Aikikai’s Historian Dwight Sora: Culture, Archives, and Aikido, Part III
Combined with the recent move of Chicago Aikikai and a former student finding dojo boxes in his storage, Dwight Sora found a window into Chicago’s Aikido past. Some were archival footage of the school’s early days as Illinois Aikido Club with Koichi Tohei, others were newsletters and seminar posters of years and decades past. Today,…
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Martial Arts of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 