Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 13:24:48 -0600
From: Jun Akiyama
Subject: Aikido-L Seminar Review [2/5]
Saturday
The morning came up with less snow on the ground but with ligh rain
still coming down. I went to the dojo early to handle registration.
The first two people to walk into the door were Jon Strauss and Don
Rojas of the Rocky Mountain Ki Society. Soon, all of the rest of the
Aikido-L members and non-Aikido-L members filed into the dojo
including those mentioned above as well as Mike Bartman, Alan
Drysdale, Anita Spitz, Chuck Gordon, Emily Dolan, Robert Wyatt (and
his friend Diane Pan), Joe Steger, Julian Frost, Peter Boylan, Michael
Cornelius (and his friend Matt Carlson), Frank Gordon, Neil McKellar,
and Dave O'Farrell (and his friend Larry Iwamoto). Everyone shed
their street clothes and got into the dogi and started stretching out
on the mat.
The first class of the day was with Hiroshi Ikeda sensei. Ikeda
sensei emphasized his feeling that we are all developing our own
aikido and that seeing, feeling, and accepting the variations that
exist amongst all of the practitioners as being very important. He
encouraged us to individually take what was good and let go of what
was bad and for each of us to realize the potential of our own
aikido. The class was also filled with very subtle yet important
applications of developing one's center, establishing connection with
one's attacker, and being able to break their balance to make the
partner's attack that much weaker.
After this class, Peter Boylan gave an hour-long introduction to
Shinto Muso Ryu jodo. He led us through a couple of its suburi (honte
uchi and hiki otoshi uchi) and emphasized these martial and aggressive
movements with a partner. At the end of the hour, he and Sean showed
us the paired jo-versus-bokken kata of Shinto Muso Ryu jodo which was
extremely fascinating and beautifully done.
A big group of us went to the local Chinese Dumpling House" for some
dumplings, noodles, and tofu salads. We ended up pretty much taking
over the entire noodle store with various List people. I wonder what
the owner thought...
We went right into Philip Akin sensei's class right after lunch. He
based his class on the infamous Yoshinkan "95 degree pivot while
keeping the back leg straight." The 95 degree pivot I can handle; the
back leg straight thing really did make my brain hurt. Akin sensei
emphasized that the Yoshinkan system is based off of six basic
movements and let us go through different techniques ranging from
sokumen iriminage to some ushiro ryotedori techniques. As usual, Akin
sensei made Yoshinkan accessible with his warmth, humor, and candor,
even to the writer who just can't do basic techniques -- of any
system!
After a brief 30 minute open mat/resting time, Julian Frost sensei
took to the mat. Starting out with a brisk suwariwaza shomenuchi
ikkyo, Frost sensei continued on through the class with crisp,
sword-like techniques which included chokes, arm locks, and head/neck
throws. Yes, it was in fact a wonderful "wham bam" class that raised
some dust off the mats and scared the bats out of the rafters. Frost
sensei's angles and movements are quick, precise, and to the point.
If I were a little bit more bouncy on the ukemi side of things, I
would have loved to have taken some ukemi from him.
After all of this falling and rolling around, Emily Dolan graced us
with a real quick 30 minute massage class. Working all the way from
head to toes, Emily gave us some pointers and techniques to help
relieve our otherwise stressed and overworked bodies. Scott and
Barbara Danglemeyer were the lucky volunteers who served as Emily's
demonstration "uke," but I got to pair up with Chuck "Lord of
Exquisite Pain" Gordon who, despite the monicker, was able to get me
nice and loosened up for the night's festivities.
We went to the local Chinese restaurant which is situated,
conveniently enough, across from the Golden Buff (not "Bluff") Hotel
where a lot of folks were staying. The set meal was pretty cheap and
I don't think anyone outside of Mike Bartman who couldn't stomach some
of the too ethnic food (sorry, Mike!) and Julian who had to bow out
back to the hotel to rest his hurt back was hungry after the meal.
After the meal, Philip gave tokens of appreciation of some wonderful
pieces of ceramics to Ikeda sensei for opening up his dojo for the
Seminar, to Scott and Tarik for being his chew toys, and to me for
helping organize the Seminar. Thank you very much, Philip -- the
piece is utterly beautiful and now resides with the other pieces of
ceramics that I have.
I then went over to the Golden Buff to get the key to the Executive
Suite which I had rented out for the night. Surprisingly, the night
staff there told me that the room was "under construction" and wasn't
available! I asked if they had any other rooms such as the meeting
room (which I had originally asked for a couple of months before but
was told it was already booked), the staff let me know that the
meeting room was quite open and they would be happy to let us use it
-- for free! It helps to ask nicely yet with conviction, I suppose.
The meeting room was, strangely enough, filled with a lot of massage
tables which we all moved aside to create a nice ring of chairs for us
to congregate. Pretty much everyone was there. Philip brought a
video tape of Takeno sensei from Japan which we all watched, some of
us oohing and aahing at some of the big ukemi that Takeno sensei's uke
took. Mike Hacker brought out his "Bad Budo, Volume One" tape and
subjected us -- nay, enlightened us with some of the most, um,
interesting footage of budo ever captured on tape. I believe it's
sufficient to say that those present in the room now all understand
the magical allure of aiiii-ki as it was defined in ancient Japan
circa 1899. Luckily for us, Mike had put footage of Kyuzo Mifune
sensei (10th dan, judo) at the end of the tape to cleanse our
palettes. Whoever said that aikido and judo aren't the same need to
view this video. I left a small group of scotch, balance-breaking,
and nikkyo enthusiasts a bit after 1am and went back home for a bit of
sleep.
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