Guest Instructor Oscar Mistula Sensei at Makati Sports Club

Sensei Oscar Mistula, 5th dan, of Cagayan de Oro and Sydney, led training on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, at the club's Makati Sports Club dojo. Mistula Sensei practices the Takemusu Aiki form of the late Morihiro Saito Sensei, and trains in Sydney under Saburo Takayasu Sensei, 7th dan.

Mistula shared his understanding of Takemusu Aiki, which O-Sensei considered the highest form of aikido: martial movement spontaneously created without active thought, resulting in pure technique. He explained that O-Sensei's training progressed through four stages — basic technique, flexible technique, flowing technique, and finally Takemusu Aiki — attainable by anyone through practice, and that Saito Sensei, O-Sensei's longest-serving uchideshi at over 23 years, preserved and passed down the form O-Sensei practiced after World War II through to his death.