A Short Instruction:
The purpose of this article is to apply the Ki principle (mind moves the body) which is the fundamental of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido to our daily life.
It is not enough just to read, but it is important to positively practice the subject given each month. Learning through practice will be your lifelong asset.
Teaching the LA Dodgers
I had the opportunity to teach 24 LA Dodgers baseball players, called “Top Prospects,” and their head coaches in an LA Dodgers special camp in January this year. “Top Prospects” mean the young players who are closest to become Major Leaguers. There are about 180 players in the Minor League division of the LA Dodgers, and “Top Prospects” are these 24 members.
Out of the 24 players, 4 members have already become Major Leaguers and one of them is Mr. Kenley Jansen. During the game with Arizona Diamondbacks on 25th September 2010, he took the mound in the 9th inning and LA Dodgers were leading the game. He performed his job successfully and team won the game. When I talked to Mr. Kenley Jansen before the game, he told me, “Keep one point always helps me!” with nice smile.
Since the teaching for the special camp in January this year ended successfully, it has been decided by LA Dodgers to invite me to the camp for about 70 “Prospects players” out of 180 Minor League players who are also very talented.
Minor League is the place for LA Dodgers to train future Major League players and is not the place where “reserve players of Major League” stay. By the way, usually the players that LA Dodgers got from other teams through draft by spending hundreds of millions do not play immediately in Major League. In order for prospective players to be able to continue to play successfully in Major League, they must learn necessary experience, technique and toughness of mind. Also they learn the spirit of Major Leaguers such as the responsibility towards society as Major Leaguers. In other words, the Minor League is the opportunity for future Major Leaguers to make necessary preparations.
They try very hard to train baseball, wishing to become Major Leaguers even without sufficient income.
Generally speaking, it is only a 6-8% possibility that young players who came through the draft can become Major Leaguers. It means most of the other young players cannot become Major Leaguers. Therefore, if they think a certain thing will make them improve, they devote themselves to learning it.
The purpose of inviting me from Japan is for LA Dodgers to raise the rate of possibility of making Major Leaguers from 6-8%. This is really a work worth doing for me, since I can be involved in the training of such prospective players.
I taught for 6 days from 20th September 2010 (Mon) to 25th September 2010(Sat) in the camp of LA Dodgers in Arizona, USA. I taught during their usual training schedule. The camp then continues another 4 weeks (from 26th September 2010). I left my uchideshi to review what I taught for players in the camp.
Today they are training Shinshin Toitsu Aikido in their camp.
(This report was uploaded on 1st October 2010 in Japanese report)