Mustard sensei is incredibly strong, incredibly powerful ... but I learned at clinics he has done in Ontario that it is not his 'muscle' that makes him strong ... it is EXACTLY the opposite: he does not use muscle to throw, and it equates to incredibly powerful technique. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HIS TALENTS.


The first such convincing technique he ever did on me was hiji-shime.  Most every other top teacher that has done this technique to me has had the ability really injure me (I am thankful that they did not do so).  When O heard about Rob Mustard's reputation of power and strength, I expected that he would CRUSH my elbow into a pulp ... this was my anticipation. 

The result was that I was put into submission aka 'hiji-shime', but the technique did not hurt, and yet it was EXTREMELY powerful (I could not get out of the lock, nor did it injure me in anyway ... a real test of my understanding of aikido since this is THE yoshinkan technique that goes AGAINST our natural joints???!!!!)


That was two years ago; since then I have been blown away repeatedly by this man's incredible teaching ability, AND his talent/understanding of what Kancho might have called 'riai' of aikido.  I had the opportunity to ask him about this, how his techniques could be so powerful, so different, and yet not cause injury to his ukes; his response was VERY interesting.

He told me about something Kancho said to him when he was training/teaching in Japan.  Kancho told him that when he throws his ukes with tremendous power (as we have all seen in the yoshinkan videos that mark the art that Kancho left for us all), his ukes LIKE
being thrown this way -  this was a key difference between Kancho and some of his peers, according to him.

What does this mean?!  It meant that when Kancho threw you, it felt like a wild roller-coaster ride:  you felt like you were going 'die', but when it was over, you were left with a thrill of having been launched through time and space, and came out completely unscathed, with no pain, etc.  Kancho, of course, could not use his 'muscles' to throw anybody ... he was a very small man, AND he got better when he was older (accounts told to me by Chida Sensei).

And that is the beauty of the Honbu Yoshinkan aikido that has been left for us!  But there is a definite formula for attaining this level, and after training and getting to know Mustard sensei's students in burnaby over the course of my vacation (I trained over 14 hours with him and his students while O was there). Ii have to say that his students have/are attaining a level of yoshinkan talent that is VERY RARE outside of the top teachers and their students in Japan - the Takeno Senseis, the Chida Senseis, etc.

Mustard sensei is extremely friendly, positively competitive (yes, yes, I know ... no competition in Yoshinkan aikido, but we all compete on some level, and the grinning, smiling cheery competitive spirit that inspires us to train is the GOOD kind of competition, imho), and sincerely powerful. 

He achieves his great power and skill by using his body to effect techniques; muscle most often cancels out the effectiveness of a technique, and usually causes pain or injury to uke (muscle, in truth, is what we do when we try to resist our ukes).  In this way, he is closer to kancho's ideal than many of us may know!

Most people are not aware that they (we, haha!) are using muscle.  Mustard sensei has come to the incredible realization of this truth and he is extremely honest with himself and his aikido.  He is able to scrutinize himself to the point of improving himself beyond levels he attained when he was in Japan. He is actually BETTER than he was 9 years ago when he left the Honbu.  I think this is because he has tremendous understanding of the precepts that Kancho has left for us all.. he tirelessly keeps working on them!

Correct centre line, relaxation, of body and mind, and moving around uke's power ... these are the fundamentals that he teaches and does.  No matter how much I tried to resist his techniques, I could not do technique the way he did it, I could not.. until he put my body in the position it needed to be in, then got me to relax (easier said than done!).  The result was that I too, was able to perform some of the incredible feats of moving uke while he resisted, and so on. I WAS COMPLETELY AMAZED.

In sum, not many people can perform the kihon waza and kihon dosa that Kancho left us, in the same spirit and understanding that Kancho had.  Kancho was a very small person (his physical size); he was never able to lean on the 'crutch' of muscle when he performed
aikido: he had to understand his opponent's power in a flash, he had to know how to relax his body on command, he had to understand his centre line, and how it can be used powerfully to effect throws, locks, etc on his ukes.  This, in the end, is why we carry his title
(Yoshinkan - house of cultivation of the mind).  The tools he left us are the kihon dosa and kihon waza (to accomplish all of this).

I think that it is 'too bad' that Mustard sensei is a man of strong physical size, because he has acquired incredible understanding of the kihon in our art: the best understanding I have yet to find.  I think that people make the MISTAKE that he is so strong that he will crush you. He, in fact understands the Great Paradox of aikido, literally, the REASON we all signed up in the first place:  we are to use the opponents power against him or her ... never colliding with it.  Instead, circular motion through effective use of our own bodies produces incredible, magical, brilliant results.  This is what the Yoshinkan is supposed to give us, and when I went to visit Mustard Sensei in Burnaby this past week, i realized that yes Virginia (I mean-- Burnaby, lol)... there IS a Santa Clause!

Marcel Booth (December 2004)