Sensei Dale Gillilan

While in Alaska last week, I was given the amazing opportunity to meet a man who has studied various martial arts for 40 years. Sensei Dale Gillilan has studied and teaches a combination of techniques from shotakan karate, tai chi, aikido, and other martial arts. He has also studied psychology, various philosophical topics, and physics as a way to increase his knowledge of people and the world around him and apply such concepts to his martial arts training and the training of his students.

Over the course of a few hours, Sensei Dale and I discussed many topics, yet I know we barely scratched the surface of his knowledge and experience. One of the areas we discussed was the idea of striking with intention--this is something we have discussed in our own training when we break bricks. A strike can have different effects based on your intention, whether you want to simply strike to cause pain, strike through (like with bricks or to knock a person down), or strike to send a wave of energy within the body creating a slight whiplash effect. Sensei Dale actually demonstrated all three types of strikes on my left shoulder, and also encouraged me to try them myself. The first two were easy, as they are something I have already learned, however the third strike took a lot of focus on visualizing the process of causing energy to bounce around inside a person's body. However, feeling the differences myself when I was struck was the part of the experience that sticks out the most. Of course, he didn't strike me hard...they were more like slaps. :o)

I found so many other concepts interesting, and I only wish I had more time with Sensei Dale to discuss them. The idea of the collective center being stronger than one center is a very useful concept with self-defense, and we have practiced it before in training wrist locks, but hearing a philosophy behind why we do something in such detail makes it sink in so much more.

There were other concepts such as the continuum from repetition to reaction to responding and so on, as well as learning to use ALL of your senses in understanding what is happening around you at any given moment. Sensei Dale actually had me close my eyes at one point and try and sense where his student was slowly simulating an attack and point to where I thought it was. Now, I have to admit this is something I was skeptical of, and it did take me a while, but eventually I was able to sense the student's striking hand a couple inches a way from my body. I could feel the warmth of his body and something that felt like a disturbance in the air. Now, I'm not saying we should spar with our eyes closed, but the experience was an eye-opening look into the philosophy behind "focus your eyes, focus your mind, focus your body."

I talked to Sensei Dale about my struggle with sparring and other intense contact parts of our training, and about how I felt intimidated at the self-defense seminar. He gave me some really good tips about how to create an energy of power and confidence within myself.

Spending time with Sensei Dale was the best part of my vacation, and I feel so blessed that I was given the opportunity.