2010 Aikido Summit

My drive to the front range on Friday night was an adventure. Monarch Pass was blowing snow and on the Salida side, I encountered white out conditions and spent most of the way down the mountain in four-wheel drive with the maximum speed of 30 MPH. I scanned the radio for the current weather conditions and closures and after I stopped at the I-285 Buena Vista stop for some snacks and other travel supplies and continued towards Fairplay, I heard that I-285 was now closed over Kenosha Pass between Bailey and my current position. I was lucky because a few miles away was the intersection with I-24 to Colorado Springs and so I planned a detour for the rest of my trip. The driving conditions did not improve and I spent the rest of the trip (7 hours total) in 4WD and with top speeds of 40 MPH. I made it finally to my sister's house in Broomfield where she and my niece were waiting for my arrival.

The next morning I arrived early to the Denver Buddhist Temple, changed into my gi and hakama, and enjoyed talking with many of my friends, most from Boulder Aikikai and Denver Aikikai. The seminar started with the Buddhist ceremony in Japanese by Rev. Kanya Okamoto of the temple who then talked about "do" from Aikido translated as a path or journey that we all individually take through life. Buddhism is translated as a 'chido' (I may have the English translation wrong here) or middle journey and the minister emphasised that this not simplely taking the middle between extremes, a position I am familiar from my philosophy education. Taking the mean of two extremes is basis of moral virtue for Aristotelian ethics. What I took from the Rev. Okamoto starting speech is that Aikido is a relevant and important journey we were taking together and in the spirit of participating in something larger than individual egos or organizations, we were complementing each others training and hence our specific buddo styles towards our own individual do.

Russ Smith Sensei of Rocky Mountain Ki Society taught the first class. We started off with paired warm-up and then started with a kokyunage from tenkan, jo tori and waza. The emphasis of his class was that nage let uke's energy pass through nage's space for the throw or reverse that energy for the throw. What I enjoyed about his class was that he has this great positive energy to his teaching and his attention to the small details was excellent.

Cindy Hayashi Sensei from Aikido West taught the second class. I always enjoy the practice of Hayashi Sensei's classes and this was no exception. Hayashi Sensei focus is always practical and martial. When she is demostrating a technique, such as a katatetori kokyunage or iriminage, Cindy will strike an atemi to the groin of a much larger uke when the opening presents itself. This is a good thing. In my own practice, while I might not strike or demonstrate such an attack, I am always aware of these openings and try to point them out to my students when I teach. I don't believe the criticism that Aikido is not effective in the "real world", Hayashi Sensei is the classic counter-example to that uninformed opinion. Hayashi Sensei started with paired practiced and moved to three and finally four person randori practice. During one of the three person practices, I paired up with Smith Sensei and a beginner and I really enjoyed that particular time working with Smith Sensei and because Cindy came over and worked with us as well. At the end, Hayashi Sensei said that both nage and uke should have the same attitude and presence with paired practice as when practicing with multiple ukes.

Seiji Tenaka Sensei of Hyland Hills Tomiki Aikido taught the third class. He is an original student of Kenji Tomiki Sensei and leads the Tomiki Aikido of the Americas. Tenaka Sensei begin his class with all of us practicing the 5 fundamental kata of Tomiki Aikido that Tomiki Sensei developed when he was imprisoned by the Russians after World War II. The first three kata were simplier but the last two I believe all of us non-Tomiki practitioners had difficulty keeping up with demonstrators. The movements were all extremely precise with the hand movements and cuts and the foot-work was sharp as well. In the Tomiki style of Aikido, they do not wear hakamas so the foot-work can be easily seen and admired. Tenka Sensei then demonstrated multiple techniques, always throwing his ukes with a breakfall, and then showing how the hand and footwork were related to the movements of the beginning katas. He even took a beautiful breakfall himself and if I have one goal in life, it would be to be able to take such a breakfall myself if I am fortunate enough to live to 71. During the paired practice, I was working with my uke and we were working through the technique and I was focusing on the handwork. Ron Abo Sensei of DBT Aikido (one of the co-sponsers of Aikido Summit) came over and simply pointed out that I need to move uke's center. That observation was a key realization and connector to my own Aikido and to the Tomiki style Aikido we were practicing. At the end of class, Tenka Sensei's senior students demonstrated their competition style of Aikido. Uke attacks with a tanto and nage responds. The point system wasn't explained but the intensive and active foot-work of both uke and nages was different from the normal pace of practice. One of the excellent senior students was Tenka Sensei's son. Dave Nettles Sensei came over and helped explain an important point of keeping the both blades of nage's hand in front during the bouts (Tenka Sensei mentioned the name of this technique but I can't remember) as a way to deflect attacks from above and from kicks below. His emphasis was that this allows nage to expanded the focus to uke's head and torso and control the attack to a more familiar Aikido technique.

Before lunch the Mirai Daiko Takiko Drum Group gave a short concert of three intense Japanese drumming exhibition songs, two traditional and one modern composition. Tenka Sensei's daughter is one of the members and he drew the parallels between their musical practice and our martial arts practice. I would recommend going to one of their performances and if I have an opportunity, I will attend a full concert.

Kei Izawa Sensei from Aikikai Tanshinjuku taught the forth class of the day. As I mentioned last year in my blog, Izawa Sensei's USAF style is very familiar to what I was originally taught by Knut Bauer Sensei in Champaign, IL. I noticed when Izawa Sensei showed a technique, he tended to throw uke with a break-fall, showing his balance and awareness when practicing kotegashi, shihonage, or koshunages. Before the seminar started, I went over and introduced myself to Izawa Sensei as he had commented on my blog in the past. For me, one of the most valuable aspects of Aikido that I enjoy the most and that I use to evaluate my own practice, is ukemi practice. During one of the techniques, Izawa Sensei came over and I took one of the best break-falls in my life as he showed my partner and I a kokyunage. That ukemi moment was one of the highlights of the seminar for me.

Toby Threadgill Sensei of Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu taught the fifth class. As he did the year before, Threadgill Sensei stressed the similarities between all of the different styles of ju-jutsu and that to him, Aikido is just another style of ju-jutsu. Threadgill Sensei talked about developing the internal center and then showed us a soto ("outside" technique that can be showed outside the dojo, he referred to other techniques they practice as "internal" or secret techniques just for practitioners of this koryu) exercise Takamura ha Shindo Ryu practice to develop this internal strength. In the same lecture, he mentioned that part of developing internal strength is to understand the human body and bone structure for aligning the bones and center. Continuing this development allowed Treadgill Sensei to keep one and then multiple ukes from disrupting his balance while they tried to push him over by pressing on his hand. Treadgill Sensei said he was able to redirect uke's energy to the ground and not through him to distrupt his balance. Like the super-structure of a building, if nage's bones and internal ki are properly aligned accomplishing these feats of balance and centerness becomes easier. We worked on a number of tanto techniques and Treadgill Sensei while introducing the first emphasized that if you are training and learning about tanto takeaways, we assume that the attacker does not know what they are doing, what could be a quick and fatal mistake.

Ikeda Sensei taught the sixth and final class of the day. Ikeda Sensei continued his focus on developing your internal balance so that nage can disrupt uke's balance with little effort. Ikeda Sensei demonstrated the differences between external or outside balance-breaking with internal balance with ikkyo. He showed how by making large movements, flowing movements, nage can break uke's balance through these overt movements but then he contrasted that approach by demonstrating ikkyo by breaking uke's balance through an almost imperceivable movement that accomplishes the same result of moving uke to the ground without the effort of the overt style. Ikeda Sensei referenced Treadgill Sensei's previous class a couple of times when referring to the development and exercises we can practice to development this internal awareness. Ikeda Sensei showed his exercise for developing this awareness of center by first moving your hips forward, backward, side-to-side, and diagonal, in motions similar to hulu-hoop. Ikeda Sensei then said to reduce the outward demonstration of these same movements by making them smaller and smaller until you are only moving your center in those directions without obvious physical cues that you are making those movements. I had mixed results (as always when I am in an Ikeda Seminar class), some ukes I could easily connect and move with my center, others, I could not budge without resorting to physical power. Whenever I work on these techniques in Ikeda Sensei's classes, I feel like I discover a small bit more in my own journey towards Ikeda Sensei level of ki awareness and movement.

Afterwards, I helped break down the mats and then drove over to Denver Aikikai for a celebration sushi dinner and party. I was able to meet new people and visit with my friends in the Colorado Aikido Community. The Aikido Summit is an unique opportuntity to share in discovery of this rich and complex martial art. Edger Johnson Sensei, of Denver Aikikai, is the major force behind the Summit, and his organization and leadership over the past ten years of putting on the summit is a real testament to his passion and dedication to the art of Aikido. As Rev. Kanya Okamoto mentioned in his opening remarks, Aikido as a journey does not stop when you leave the dojo, this path or "do" continues and imbues everything we do in life. This day and night of Aikido furthered my development as a martial artist and as a human.