author: @sleepyfox
title: The absent teacher
date: 26-Jul-2026
We are told in school that when it comes time to revise for exams, the most important thing is to do revision, make notes, and then go back over those notes in a couple of days, then a week later, then two weeks later. This idea is called Spaced Repetition and is a well known part of exam revision technique.
author: @sleepyfox
title: Was Saito Ueshiba's worst student?
date: 12-Jul-2024
Morihiro Saito (1928-2002) was often jokingly referred to by O'Sensei as his worst student. O'Sensei, literally 'great teacher' is the name that Aikido practitioners use for Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969), the founder of the modern martial art of Aikido.
I always thought that this was a cunning plan by O'Sensei to keep his best student at home rather than having them running off to some foreign country to run the Aikido organisation for that country and grow the art of Aikido there, like so many of O'Sensei's senior students.
author: @sleepyfox
title: The Chi problem
date: 09-Oct-2025
Much has been said about the word sometimes written as 'Chi' in English (pronounced the same as in the English word 'cheese'), corresponding to the Chinese character 氣. This character, pronounced 'chi' in Chinese, 'ki' in Japanese, 'khi' in Vietnamese, 'gi' in the Philippines etc and corresponding closely with the Indian word 'prana' is variously translated as 'energy' in the sense of vital life-force, or 'élan vitale' from the French.
author: @sleepyfox
title: On Shu-Ha-Ri
date: 25-Oct-2024
So, fairly regularly something turns up in my inbox relating to Shu-Ha-Ri (守破離) often quoted as a Japanese model of skills acquisition. These articles, blogs etc. are all problematic in some way or other, and inevitably as both an Aikido instructor and a career IT professional with deep experience of Software Development Methodologies, I will get asked what I think. Hmmm...
So, let's start with the Wikipedia article:
This gist https://gist.github.com/sleepyfox/61d4375aa1fcfad8cb0338edb4151546 URL shortened to https://tinyurl.com/fox-sustainable-development
author: @sleepyfox
title: Taiji Tennis
date: 08-Nov-2024
So I read a bit about Tennis, and thought 'Hey, that sounds cool, I'd like to learn that', and looked around to see if there is a local Tennis club, and if there is a learners' group. Great news, I find a 'Learn Tennis' session run by a local instructor. They appear legit, are certified and insured by the Tennis Union of Great Britain, so I go down on Tuesday evening to the local sports centre and give it a go.