After breaking too many bones (his own, not other people's) during
his year on the 1972 University of Texas judo team, Fred Phillips
wandered into
Bill Lee and Jay Portnow's aikido group. Fred had read
much of George Leonard's writing about aikido
--- without, he admits,
believing most of it. But after a half hour in his first aikido class,
he knew he was hooked for life.
Jay was a student of Kanai Sensei's, and Fred remembers his first
test (for 5th kyu) during Kanai Sensei's visit to Austin as one of his
young life's scariest moments. Shortly after, Jay left Austin, and Bill
Lee worked hard and selflessly to train a small and difficult group
(Wynne Lee, Steve McAdam,
Armando Flores, Mark Roddy, Martha Smith, Wesley Tanaka,
and Fred). Bill became the godfather of a flourishing aikido community
in Austin, with (they believe) more practitioners per capita than any
U.S. city outside the west coast and Hawaii.
Bill had affiliated with the Ki Society, and brought a number of
sensei to Austin to give weekend seminars. These included Rod
Kobayashi, Roy Suenaka, Jon Takagi, and Bill Sosa. If Fred ever writes
a book on "most memorable moments in aikido," one chapter will tell
about Koichi Tohei Sensei dancing with the bunnies when a Chicago Ki
Society member took them to the Playboy Club.
When Fred won a graduate fellowship for research in Japan, he
trained under Koichi Tohei Sensei
at Ki Society HQ in Tokyo in 1975-76.
Fred returned to Austin, trained there and in Aspen, Colorado with
Kobayashi Sensei, and in 1977 was examined for shodan by Kobayashi
Sensei.
Finishing graduate school, Fred moved to Chicago and commenced
training in aikido and zen under Fumio Toyoda Sensei.
The instruction
was wonderful, and Fred advanced to nidan, but during Chicago's Great
Blizzard of 1979, Fred and his wife decided to take a gamble on making a
living back in Austin. Toyoda Sensei (now founding chief instructor of
the Aikido Association of America) soon encouraged Fred to open a dojo
in Austin, examined him for sandan rank, and began a series of very
popular and successful seminar visits to Austin.
Fred helped several students advance to black belt rank, and feels
greatly rewarded by his aikido teaching experience and his students'
accounts of how his teaching has affected their lives. In 1989, Toyoda
Sensei advanced Phillips Sensei to yondan, which Fred says he's still
trying to live up to. Shihan Toyoda, meanwhile, worked hard to build
the Aikido Association of America and re-affiliate it with the World
Aikikai Honbu. Toyoda Sensei's successful efforts have ensured that his
students' and their students' test requirements and ranks are recognized
by this central world aikido organization.
In 1995, Fred moved to Portland, Oregon, and with Scott Prahl
(another Texas-ex), founded the Oregon Graduate Institute Aikido Club.
The OGI Aikido Club has become the Jinshinkan Dojo of the Aikido
Association of America.
Fred's day job is as a
professor and administrator at OGI. He has
two young daughters who only kibitz at aikido, but he says they'd damned
well better get their black belts
before he'll let them start dating.
Mild mannered Fred Phillips has answered
a series of questions about aikido You can
email him directly to pose
questions of your own.
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