"Some people can change their lives drastically through aikido. I'm sure that incredible things also happen to people who windsurf. It's stunning, the power that people have to tranform themselves. But it is important to remember that aikido is not croquet."
T.D. from It's A lot Like Dancing
In 1959, at the age of 22, Terry went to Japan to assist in rural development and teach English. During a visit to Tokyo, he came across an ad for the then little known martial art - aikido - and traveled to Yokahama to witness a demo. He instantly fell in love with the art and six months later was asked by Ueshiba to become an uchi-deshi. He entered the Aikikai Hombu Dojo and trained as uchi-deshi - the only American uchi-deshi during the early era - until Ueshiba's death in 1969. Upon returning to the U.S. he taught around the country while co-founding (with Ken Nisson) Bond Street Dojo in NYC and Vermont Aikido. in Burlington. In 1979 he moved to San Francisco, teaching seminars up and down the coast, while at the same time teaching with Robert Bly and his Mythopoetic men's movement. After his passing, Aikido of Champlain Valley split off from Vermont Aikido and continues to flourish on Pine Street.
His aikido, grounded in Japanese tradition and the wisdom of O-sensei, was transformed by his vibrant, irreverent, persona into a thoroughly American training, bringing the principles off the mat and into everyday life.