Monday, April 09, 2012

Crossing Paths with Greatness


It was a great pleasure to cross paths with a great Master and Teacher whom I have personally admired for many years – Sensei Roy Goldberg.

Goldberg (Shingen) Sensei is the East Coast Representative and Regional Instructor of the North American Daito Ryu Aiki JuJutsu Kodo Kai. He is the highest ranking student of Hawayo Kiyama Shihan, the president and chief Instructor of North American Daito Ryu Aiki JuJutsu Kodo Kai whom he continues to train under.

When I first saw Goldberg Sensei in action – it had to have been over 20 years ago – I was nothing less than inspired. I remember thinking to myself “Man, I hope one day I’m as good at what I do as he is at what he does.” So it was truly an honor, not to mention a bit intimidating, to notice him intently observing one of my classes at the SMAF. He even paid me what I consider to be a high compliment. He said to me:

“Very nice…”

I’ll treasure that as I would a compliment coming from Ama Guro Jun DeLeon.

I’m also very happy that my students took advantage of the opportunity to be thrown, locked, and twisted in horrible ways by such a Teacher. Believe me, it was great to watch.

Osu!

2 comments:

alla said...

Guro, the first time you told me, "hmm... not bad," I was elated for weeks.

guro jeff davidson said...

The last time we trained with Ama Guro Jun in Toronto, the only compliment *I* got was on my conga playing!