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NY Aikido Center
Traditional Aikido Instruction - Long Island, NY |
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Sung Chong receives the first-ever Shodan from Matsuoka Sensei
As the Chief Instructor of a dojo it can not be overstated the importance of one's first student. No matter who or how many come after, there is never another first student. I first met Sung Moon Chong back in early 1999. He contacted me via email and informed me that he was interested in training together. We met soon after in a small cafe in mid-town Manhattan. We had a brief, formal introduction which was followed by what I like to call the "interview process" where we each get to ask some questions, provide some answers - all while evaluating the stuff "from what" the other person might be made. We each passed the other's test and then silently agreed to move forward to what has now been seven years of a true partnership. Neither of us could have could have forseen the past seven years, nor the effort or growth which would be required of us. We started out with the goal of training together. Yet just barely a few short months later we both agreed to attempt and actually managed to put together and pull off the Human Spirit Festival, a week-long cultural event highlighting several traditional Japanese Art forms with included demonstrations, seminars and exhibitions, all by August of 1999. It was a huge undertaking, a completely insane thing to do given our numbers (grand total = 2) and our lack of experience. However, will power, sincerity and a true belief in what we were trying to do seemed to have allowed us to overcome any perceived shortcomings. Together, this would be the method by which we have moved through each and every challenge we have come to face. It can be said that there are no students without teachers. It is just as true that there are no teachers without students. There are no dojos without both teachers and students. What began with two people practicing on fold-out Swain mats in my Brooklyn Brownstone has progressed through many iterations and forms, from traveling to other's dojos to teach their students, to the proud opening and eventually closing of our own beautiful Dojo (complete with ritual misogi room) in our public training facility in Lindenhurst to our current (even more beautiful) private training facility, Sung Chong has always been there. He has been a constant fixture upon which I could rely. Regardless of national crisis (on the night of the North-East blackout he showed up to teach class for one person, in the dark) or personal crisis (he struggled to come back from completely shattering his foot to help build our private training facility) he has been the senpai around which all the students rally. He has stayed late, arrived early, carried heavy loads, folded my hakama, made dojo-related telephone calls and answered the call of the dozens of other tasks that needed to be done from time to time - all without question, comment or concern for his own personal agenda. This he has done countless times. However, while the extent to which he has contributed to what is now NY Aikido center can not be accurately measured, it has certainly not gone unnoticed. His quiet demeanor and unassuming nature has been a guiding inspiration to each and every person that has come in contact with NY Aikido Center. On this New Years, 2006 I would like to congratulate Sung on receiving his Shodan. With it he embarks on the rest of his life's training. I am sure that he learned more than what he might have been expecting to learn through his training over the past seven years. Yes it is said that there are no students without teachers and that there are no teachers without students and that there are no dojos without both students and teachers. I want to take this opportunity on behalf of everyone one at NY Aikido Center to publicly say thank you Sung, because it is we that have learned so much from you. The reality is that we are all both teachers and students and it is our training together that allows this hidden truth to be revealed. This is shugyo. May we each continue to have the strength, foresight and will power to continue practicing... together. Ganbattemasu, |
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