Alex Essani, the Aikido teacher and practitioner, whose thoughts about the practice of Aikido are expressed in this book, does not actually exist - he is a fictitious character invented by the author as a means of exploring ideas. However, the training philosophy and methods attributed to Alex Essani are definitely not fictitious: they are based on the author's personal experiences with real Aikido instructors, in particular his current sensei, and on many years of practising, studying and teaching Aikido. The conversations between the two main characters, Alex Essani and his student Ian, are inventions used illustrate an important principle or concept. As the author's real Aikido teacher would put it after telling a tall story, "This is a true story; only the facts have been changed"; insofar as the author has fictionalised real incidents and conversations, this book is the same - it is fiction based on fact.In this third edition the author has replaced and improved all of the images, edited a number of chapters and added two more. He has also omitted the final part of the book, previously devoted to technique notes, as there are currently many excellent books devoted entirely to this aspect of Aikido training, including "Essential Aikido" written by the author.