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Voice of the Fox
The Newsletter of the Martial Arts Training Service

Three Weeks in June
by Maureen Browne
Autumn 1998

It has been quite a while since I have written an article for the Voice of the Fox, and I apologize for the long delay. I would like to share with you some of the experiences I had during three weeks this June at aikido Summer Camp, the Pat Browne Memorial Seminar and the National Women's Martial Arts Federation's Special Training.

Aikido Summer Camp was an intense week-long workout during which Scott Moore passed his ikkyu test, Aaron Starr passed his shodan test, and I recertified for my fukushidoin license. The way the test are administered at camp is simple: You are called up before Chiba Sensei and the teaching committee and the 300 or so members attending camp, and you perform the techniques as they are called out with a variety of different ukes who seem to appear out of nowhere. The dan tests usually take well over an hour. I lucked out this year because I’m old, and got to do a demonstration for my fukushidoin recertification instead of the usual test.

The evening of my demo, Aaron tested for shodan before me. His test lasted about an hour. Then the younger members testing for fukushidoin were called up, which took at least another hour. Finally the teaching committee started calling up the people for demos. My legs and hips felt numb from sitting on the mat so long. Also, I had not eaten much dinner, and I was starting to feel a combination of nausea and lightheadedness.

Then my name was called. As Aaron and I were bowing in, Vasquez Sensei told me I had five minutes. "I'll take three," I though to myself. That was my last conscious thought; the rest of the demo was a flurry of movement and breath. For some reason, I was incredibly aware of my own and Aaron's breathing. I also experienced of a feeling of strength and power that surprised me momentarily, until I relaxed into it and used it for the rest of the demo.

I have had similar experiences in demos before, usually in front of very large crowds. One time in St Louis, in the summer of 1977, Rich Roberts and I were demonstrating on a mat that had been sitting on a stage in the sun at the dedication of a Japanese garden. There were about 500 people in the audience. When we stepped on the mat to bow, a red hot pain shot through my feet. Rich threw me first which was good, because I could get my feet off of the mat. Then I did a counter to one of his techniques and my segment of the demo started. The same feeling of strength filled my body, and I was throwing him so hard that we were both laughing by the end of the demo. "What happened?" he asked me when we bowed off. "I don't know,” was my reply.

Another time, in a jujitsu demo at the Last Fling in Naperville, I was doing sword-taking techniques with Rob Campbell and I swear he was attacking me in slow motion. My brother Pat was in the audience that year, and I asked him if it looked like we were going really slow. "No," he replied, "that's the way it should feel."

A week after aikido Summer Camp, we had the Pat Browne Memorial Convention at our dojo. We had jujitsuka from all over the country in attendance, and our dear friends Bob Krull Sensei and Bob McKean Sensei as guest instructors. As part of the convention, black belt tests were held and three of our members tested. Karen Kerfoot passed sandan, Jason Gussman passed nidan, and Faisal Akbari passed shodan.

Faisal's test meant that we are now producing black belts who have never been on the mat with Pat. It is hard for me to believe that much time has passed since my brother's illness and death. I know Pat was still alive when Faisal started training, but the last year of his life Pat was too sick to visit our dojo. The convention itself was two days of intensive workouts. Everyone had a great time and trained hard. I know that Pat would have been be pleased.

At the Saturday evening demonstration, I once again demonstrated with Aaron. Same demo, same uke, totally different experience. This time, my awareness focused on my three-year-old nephew, Lenny, and his six-month-old sister, Rosa. When I started to demonstrate, Lenny came onto the mat to get a better view, and little Rosa, who was sitting in my sister Joanne's lap, started yelling and waving her arms above her head when I began to throw.

I was filled with a feeling of sadness and regret that my brother wasn't there to see his niece and nephew experiencing jujitsu for the first time.

Three days later, I left for the National Women's Martial Arts Federation's Special Training at the University of Maryland. Four hundred sixty women martial artists from around the country attended. At the instructor's dinner the first evening I became reacquainted with Professor Helen Carolla from Southern California. We had met briefly at the AJJF convention in 1997.

Professor Carolla told us she had started training with Professors Ray and Marie Law and in Oakland, Calif., in 1941. It was there she met her husband, Professor Dom Carolla, and together they founded the Carolla Judo school in 1946. She and her husband both hold fourth dans in Kodokan judo and ninth dans in Dan Zan Ryu jujitsu. (I was saddened to learn that Professor Dom Carolla had recently passed away.)

Professor Carolla was surprised when I told her that I was a fourth-generation Professor Ray Law student. My brother Pat's first jujitsu sensei, Steve Paulding, started training with the Laws as a child, eventually earning the rank of yondan before coming to college here in the Midwest.

It was a pleasure to have Professor Carolla watching all of my classes at Special Training and commenting that I taught thetechniques just as she had learned them from Professor. Law. I also had an opportunity to uke for her in one of her classes.

On Saturday evening there was, of course, a demo. The gym was packed with well over 500 people in the audience. My demo with Megan Weschler went well, but it was strange to hear yelling and cheering every time I threw. Since this was the first time Megan had ever uked for me and we were on gymnastic mats that were full of gaps and wrinkles, we were both very careful with our footing. We received a standing ovation at the end of the demo.

The last demo of the evening was Professor Helen Carolla. She was awarded the 1998 NWMAF Award of Excellence for her lifetime contributions to the martial arts.

I watched as Professor Carolla choked and joint-locked her ukes with her foot massager, then threw and beat them with her cane. She explained that she visits senior centers and teaches these techniques.

All I could think of was, "I wonder if I will be able to do that at age 80?" Her demonstration was truly an inspiration to those of us who plan to spend the rest of our lives on the mat.

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