Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 10:10:06 -0700
From: Jun Akiyama
Subject: Aikido-L Seminar Review [3/4]
Sunday
Sunday came much too quickly. Peter appropriately had a big bottle of
Vitamin I in front of him as he ate breakfast, and I noticed more than
a few people were drinking coffee.
Our small group had a bit of trouble getting checked out and were
afraid of being late for the first class, but Jim Baker sensei's class
started out with Dave Liebreich as the emcee for "Which one is Jim
Baker?" With Gordon, Baker sensei, and a furby doll as the
contestants, Dave had George, Wendy, Chuck, and Philip ask questions
to try to determine just which one of the three was, indeed, Jim
Baker. Hilarious. Although the popular vote did go towards the furby
as being Baker sensei, the real Jim Baker stood up, had Kjartan warm
the class up, and went on to teach the "real" class.
I got called up first to be uke, and Baker sensei threw me around,
down, back up, then back down in a roller coaster ride of an
iriminage. I swear I heard Donald Duck during the last throw, but
that might have been my imagination. During this technique, I worked
with Dave Shaw who admirably kept up with my "down-up" pace (as I was
entering "training" mode during this class). Baker sensei then went
on to teach a non-wrist-cranking version of nikkyo, kotegaeshi,
shihinage (of course), a couple of neat kokyunage, and seated kokyuho.
It was fun to see people like Philip and Alexei Alexiev "mixing it up"
during this class. All in all, I felt very much "at home" with Baker
sensei's class as it very much resembled the kind of aikido I do back
here at my home dojo. Baker sensei's class was a great balance of
technical precision, wisdom, and weird animal noises.
We went out to lunch again to Chevy's, but this time with a group of
about 40 people. It was one of the longest tables I've sat at. At
one point when I looked down the table, I saw Monica's arm being put
into what looked like sankyo above the dishes by Chuck -- a true
indication of a bunch of aikido addicts, I'd have to say.
We were a bit late in getting back from lunch as I had to stop by a
local drug store to pick up a replacement battery for my digital
camera. (Pictures soon -- I promise!) I held up the the last class
from starting as Chuck Gordon sensei waited for me to put on my hakama
and get on the mat. Gordon sensei teaches an eclectic mixture of
various martial arts which he basically calls Aiki Budo. Whatever you
may call it, I'll be sure to call it effective. Starting with a very
deceptively simple seated technique that was like a reverse
kotegaeshi, Gordon sensei worked this into a very compelling version
of shihonage. He also taught a "Steel and Feather" version of nikkyo,
a "Circle, Square, Triangle" version of sankyo, and went through some
beautiful solo forms with a sword. Gordon sensei's teachings come
straight from the heart with a wonderful mixture of effective
technique and principles.
The day wasn't quite over yet after Chuck's class. Peter and Emily
brought out their sharp and pointy swords to go through the amazingly
addictive art of tameshigiri -- cutting through bamboo, in this case,
with their live swords. I am proud to say that I was able to cut
fairly well through the bamboo on my turn. I think the highlight of
this session was seeing Wendy's eyes gleam and glitter while she held
Peter's gunto; perhaps she was thinking of taking it home with her to
add to her collection of tools? I'm now thinking of buying a blade
sometime; I'll be sure to give Peter a call when I finally take the
plunge. Maria got hurt from a flying piece of bamboo during this
session; I hope her ankle heals quickly and well.
I also got to get a tiny, tiny taste of jodo with Peter. I love the
way the hiki otoshi (?) felt; it's very much the same feeling (just
amplified a lot more) I feel when I work with good people at our dojo
in kumitachi and kumijo. All I need to do next is to learn to get out
of the way when the jo comes into my face so it doesn't impact with my
nose as much, huh? I wish I had more time with jodo; it seems like a
lot of fun.
A relatively small group of us which included Robin Armstrong, Carol,
Alice, Peter, Maria, Kjartan, Steve, Laura, Dave (Carol's husband),
Beate, Andreas, and a few others ended up at a steak house where we
spent the last couple of hours together in Merrifield. Maria,
Kjartan, Beate, Andreas, and I headed to our hotel in DC where we
spent the night. The next day as we were admiring the sparkly rocks
in the gems section (with the Hope diamond) in the National History
museum, we managed to bump into Emily as she too looked at all of the
pretty rocks. We had lunch at the Old Post Office and with one last
round of hugs, I went onto the Metro back to the airport on my way
back to the real world.
|