Martial arts center roughs it out

Unless you know someone who has been to the area, you won't find Paul Smith's martial arts training center -- the Yobushin Dojo near Lake Lemon in Unionville, Ind. \nMapQuest won't tell you that after winding through roads lined with fall-colored trees then landing on a gravel road, you will have to find an unmarked drive to find the small, unmarked wooden building.\nSmith, 50, who has been practicing martial arts for over 30 years and teaching for more than 15, opened the Yobushin Dojo four years ago. He had lived next to the location since 1990, but when Smith purchased the property, he transformed it into a place to practice and share his obsession with Japanese martial arts, primarily a style called aikido. \nIn 1985, he first heard about aikido, which means "harmony energy way," in an airplane magazine. Aikido techniques are designed to use an attacker's weakness against them in a way that leaves no one seriously injured. The idea fascinated Smith. \nHe was already physics-minded -- a technician with IU's Department of Physics from 1976 to 1979, when he was promoted to a position as an electronics engineer designing electronics for subatomic particle research experiments.\nHis interests in physics and engineering piqued his interest in aikido, he said.\n"It was these ideas of using the attacker's balance," he said. "There are other possibilities than fighting or running away."\nHe joined an IU club in 1986 and practiced aikido there until he began teaching it in 1989 at Harmony School and Lynda Mitchell Yoga Studios.\nToday, he is a third degree black belt in aikido and a second degree black belt in iaido, a sword-based art. He also practices jodo, meaning "way of the stick," which involves using wooden poles. He practices the arts about five hours every week.\nSaturday, Smith had three students practicing aikido at the Dojo. Matt Feldmeyer, who works for Tabor Bruce Architecture and Design in Bloomington, said the physical release is the main reason he enjoys practicing aikido. \n"I sit in an office eight hours a day," Feldmeyer said, "so the physical release is a major draw. I'm just not thinking about work at all. I just let it all go." \nHe has been practicing aikido three months. Heather Beery, an aikido student for two years, gave a more general reason.\n"I mostly come just because it's fun," she said.\nSmith agreed, laughing.\n"Where else do you get to knock people down and they just laugh?" he said.\nThey practice one-on-one, the "attacker" making a move and waiting for the "defender" to evaluate the move for weakness, like a chess game, Smith said. Once they find a weak point, the defenders try to take their attackers to the floor. \nFor those practicing aikido, getting comfortable with falling down is a major battle, said Smith and his students.\n"I think it's a natural fear," Smith said. "You have to de-synthesize yourself to it. You do it so many times, it doesn't push your buttons anymore. We're also trying de-synthesize ourselves from the idea of being attacked."\nIf he had to, Smith said he feels confident he could use what he has learned in real-life situations, but "it hasn't come up." He isn't looking for fights, though. Extremely relaxed, he doesn't seem he would ever raise his voice, but he insists he does -- even if it's only to call his 12 cats.\nSmith and his students said aikido also teaches relaxation techniques, which Smith said has helped him stay calm and not get stressed about work or other issues.\nIn a fast-paced aikido spar, "if you're stressed out, you lose every time," he said, and he has learned to apply the concept in his life. \n"Almost, really, nothing stresses me out anymore," he said.\nAlex Dzierba has known Smith 20 years through the physics department, where they now work together in the IU Light Quark Physics Group.\n"He's a very friendly guy," Dzierba said, "and an extremely confident electronics engineer."\nAnd Smith still isn't quite sure whether his electronics and physics side is influencing his aikido skills or vice versa.\n"It's more of a synergy I guess," Smith said. \nIn the same way, he has embraced aikido's principle of "maximum benefit from minimal effort," or efficiency, in many areas of his life -- from exploring ways to maximize benefits from the smallest pieces of matter to his environmental concerns about the amount of waste in the world.\nHe met his wife, Linda Greene, in 1986, while both were fighting against placing a Polychlorinated Biphenyls incinerator in Bloomington. Now, he is concerned about a general overpackaging -- too much use of plastic he sees as bad for the environment, he said. \nHis main hobby remains practicing aikido and other martial arts, though, and he has no plans of giving it up.\n"It's an obsession, you know," Smith said. "If I can't do it for some reason, it just feels like something's lacking. I just want to keep on doing it as long as I can." \nFor more information about Yobushin Dojo, visit http://dustbunny.physics.indiana.edu/~paul/yobushin/