From: Richard Fox
<rfox5@earthlink.net>
The 3rd annual Aikido-L seminar was hosted by Boulder Aikikai and
Ikeda Sensei on October 7th and 8th. At a rough guess there were 50-70
participants, so the mat was approaching full but there was still
plenty of room to take big ukemi if necessary. Aikido- L is an online
email list service and web page (www.aikido-l.org). It exists because
of the unique capacity of the world wide web to reach very disparate
groups of people and bring them together. The web joins people not on
the basis of geographical proximity but on the basis of people's
interests, and Aikido-L is one of the expressions of people who have a
deep interest in aikido. Thus the 700+ membership of Aikido-L is
spread throughout the world and members practice many different
styles. Aikido-L 's seminars are designed to encourage sharing and
cooperation between the various styles, forms, and branches of aikido
that have arisen. I was looking forward to attending ever since the
announcement, in particular to see the Ki Society and Yoshinkan
styles, which I had never seen.
Ikeda Sensei opened the weekend on Saturday morning with the first
class. His opening remarks set the tone for the rest of the training,
a spirit of openness to experimentation and harmony. He stressed the
potential for growth in experiencing various things in life, including
aikido styles, with an open mind. He referred with gratitude to his
training with Koichi Tohei Sensei with gratitude for the great
suggestions he received from him. Sensei said that in order to keep
growing it is necessary to make aikido your own, that copying alone is
useful only up to a certain point. He proceeded to demonstrate his way
of catching an opponent's center and making him weaker, breaking his
balance from the moment of the initial contact, and we practiced in
this manner.
There followed a jodo mini-class led by Peter Boylan, on Shinto Muso
Ryu. This aggressive jo style was very choppy and the hips kept
square. It is a style closely related to some iaido ryu where square
hip alignment is required. One of its highlights as demonstrated was
an overhead jo strike to knock the opponent's sword out of his hands.
During practice, the crash of many jo striking bokken with as much
force as possible resounded on the mat, a. pleasure in itself. After
lunch, Philip Akin sensei's Yoshinkan class went over well with
everyone, and there was talk on the mat afterward about the unique
qualities of the movement and weight placement. Julian Frost senseis
class Saturday afternoon was a good old face-ground-into-mat workout,
fast paced and energetic. In other words, life as usual at BAK, but
some of the lowlanders were looking pretty red by 5:30 p.m. Getting a
drink of water on the balcony, I paused to watch Ikeda Sensei at the
end of the mat training with someone on a kaitenage technique. Ikeda's
sensei's partner was beet red and had to take a break, even though
sensei was being gentle with him. The heaving chest, bulging eyes,
bright red face, body bent over with hands on the knees, reminded me
of my own oxygen-deprived start at BAK a few short months ago.
Alan Drysdale taught Sunday morning, and gave us many tidbits on how
his aikido works. His style was flowing, strong, and
soft. Effervescent Chuck Gordon sensei finished off the weekend with a
class on tessen, short sticks which can be used to accentuate pins and
torque on joints and increase leverage, and cane techniques.
It was only $40 dollars for the whole weekend! The format of the
seminar provided open mat time and mini-classes. The energy at the
seminar was very upbeat, a good time being had by all in a spirit of
genuine respect. The mini-classes, most of which weren't covered here,
were popular. It was suggested that more attention be given in future
Aikido-L seminars to explaining how the particular sensei's aikido
works, and some background. I think this would be appropriate for an
Aikido-L seminar, and educational as well. There was a good balance of
BAK members vs. out-of-towners, I trained with many new
people. Unfortunately the Ki Society teacher scheduled to come had a
death in the family and could not attend.
Our deep thanks to Jun Akiyama and Ikeda Sensei for bringing this
opportunity to learn to us.
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