My Aiki Journey

Author: Bret Gordon

Anyone who is familiar with me or the American Yoshinkan system knows that my primary instructor is Steven Hatfield, the previous headmaster of the art. However, when it comes to the internal arts he is not my only source of information and that shows in my personal expression. More than one instructor has seen their influence in my work, and it would be dishonest to say everything I do and understand about aiki comes from one person. So in this article, I thought I'd pay tribute to all those that have directly and indirectly helped me grow in my journey of aiki, as well as chronical my time with each of them. 

2010-2011
​My first introduction to the aiki arts was actually Shodokan Aikido under a gentleman named Steven Mumford. He ran an Aikido class out of my dojo for several months in 2010, and even after his classes had ended we stayed in contact for several years until some philosophical differences ended our relationship. 

2012
In May of 2012, I first met Steven Hatfield in person after speaking online for several months. Shortly after, I asked to be his student and my first official class in American Yoshinkan Aiki Jujutsu took place. During the first few years, what I learned from Hatfield sensei was primarily Jujutsu (various joint locks and throws) with the principles of aiki hidden in the teachings. Unlike myself, Hatfield sensei is an extremely private person and believes aiki should only be revealed to the closest students and quite simply, I hadn't earned my place yet. To this day, I look back on those initial training sessions and see the internal principles he was trying to convey, that I was too ignorant to perceive. This quick clip from 2013 shows the type of material I was working on with Hatfield sensei at the time. 

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