Iron Balls and Elbow Power (Paperback)

A semi-fictional account of aikido training under a fictional aikido master called Alex Essani.
The book is in two parts.
Part 1 describes aikido training principles and exercises. Part 2 contains a number of illustrative anecdotes of the narrator's experiences training under Alex Essani.

The characters in this book are fictional composites of people that I know, or have known, or have heard about.At the outset I must stress that Ian (the narrator), Peter, Alex Essani nor any of the other characters actually exist. They are intellectual bits of me, my teachers, friends and acquaintances that I have collected over the years. The training philosophy and methods used by my main character, Essani, are closely based on personal experiences with my real aikido teacher. However, many of the personal details I ascribe to him, for instance his private life, are completely fictitious. Similarly, Ian is not me, though of course we share many of the same opinions about aikido. The conversations between Essani and Ian are inventions used illustrate some point or other. As my real aikido teacher would put it after telling a tall story, "This is a true story; only the facts have been changed". Insofar as I have fictionalised real incidents and actual conversations, this book is the same – it is fiction based on fact.
I have tried to produce a thought-provoking, readable book rather than a technical manual of aikido (which I do not feel qualified to write anyway). Most of the training suggestions are based on real practices and have been tested in the field (or at least, in the dojo), so I hope that some of the ideas I present will motivate you to try them for yourself in your own practice.
My experience of aikido books is that they generally fall into two distinct categories: those that describe and illustrate aikido techniques, and those that talk about its deep spiritual roots and their implications for daily life. I have tried to write a book that is somewhere between these two ends of the spectrum. My intention is to present tools that have the potential to allow aikido skills to develop; I describe practical training methods rather than detailed specifications of aikido techniques.
The ideas contained here are the result of decades of aikido practice, contemplation and experimentation mostly by my aikido teachers and, to a much lesser extent, by myself. As I have already mentioned, many of the ideas and training methods I describe originated with my current teacher but, though I have tried to explain them as clearly and accurately as possible, please bear in mind that they have still been filtered through my much more limited knowledge and experience. As a consequence I might still be missing the point here and there, or may be presenting only part of the whole story. Although I know for certain that most of them are not, one or two of the ideas could be mine – I am not sure whether I really thought of them first or just think that I did.