With the flick of his wrist, internationally renowned martial artist and instructor Robert Mustard flips a grown man onto a mat at Totem Hall.
The assembled crowd oohed and aahed in unison as, Mustard – ranked 7th dan Shihan – proceeded to stay upright as a line of men, including one off-duty police officer, tried to push him over during the Japanese aikido demonstration on Sunday at the opening ceremony for Aikido Yoshinkai Squamish.
The new Squamish not-for-profit martial arts program and cultural exchange for youth and adults starts next week at the hall.
The word aikido translates to “the way of harmonious spirit.” With aikido, if energy is coming at you, you don’t resist it, you harmonize and redirect it, Mustard explained to the crowd. Done well, aikido looks fake, as if the practitioner is using magic against his opponent.
As the demonstration continued, the eyes of young Squamish Kirkpatrick brothers Cole, 9, and Jack, 12, widened in wonder. Their mother brought them to see the demonstration and they were considering joining the classes this fall, they said.
“I am pretty excited to see what they are going to do,” said Jack, as Cole nodded in agreement.
Mustard said often young students sign up for aikido because they want to learn to fight, but that isn’t the goal.
“I have been training in martial arts now for 40 years, and I have never hit anyone in anger,” he said.
“Most of them start because they want to learn how to fight and then they realize it is better just to learn how to live.”
According to Mustard, aikido is about discipline, balance and letting go of the ego.
Mustard said he was first introduced to martial arts when he was a young boy from a broken home who was dealing with alcoholic parents.
“A Japanese-Canadian family from across the street kind of adopted me and they introduced me to judo,” he said. Eventually Mustard transitioned to aikido and later opened his own dojo, aikido training centre, in Burnaby. He travels the world demonstrating the traditional Japanese martial art, he said, adding he will be in London, Toronto and Malaysia during the next few weeks. Mustard will lead the Squamish adult classes about once a month. Other aikido instructors will head the youth and adult classes to be held in Squamish every Thursday evening starting Sept. 10.
The students don’t achieve coloured belts or take tests in his classes as in most martial arts, Mustard said.
“Each class at the end I say ‘You did a great job, you tried your best, I am really proud of you,’ that is all I do,” he said.
The classes are a mixture of games, fun and discipline. Students learn that power isn’t about size or strength, according to Mustard.
With aikido people of any size and strength can maximize their own power and at the same time turn their opponents power against them, he said. Youth also learn how to focus, sit still and listen, he said.
In addition to the classes, volunteer Aikido club members and First Nation elders will host a free children’s After Mat program that will serve as a cultural exchange, according to Patricia Jones, who organized Sunday’s opening ceremony and is herself an Aikido practitioner. There will be light snacks, drinks, games, crafts, songs and language learning.
The program is operated in collaboration with the Squamish Nation and the Integrated First Nations Policing Unit. The program is supported in part by the Positive Pathway Foundation.
For more information go to aikidosquamish.com.
