DMF-002-Own the Mat Young Man!

This episode of AikiCast-Diamond Mining Friday is about Toyoda Sensei's vital lesson to me about how to eliminate my fears about teaching Friday night Aikido classes at Tenshinkan Dojo. He gave me some sage advice which was a 2 part formula: 1. Develop my point of view on what and how I wanted to lead class and 2. "Own the mat!". I focused on the latter when he wanted me to focus on the former, develop my own teachable point of view.

The term teachbale point of view came from author Noel Tichy from his book Cycle of Leadership. I applied the term to what Toyoda Sensei's was saying about developing my own point of view because thats exactly what he was saying. He was explaining how to become more 'followable' by having a teachable point of view and said that those who are very followable will 'own the mat'.

Enjoy!