Aikido Summer Camp 2009 - Day 1

I arrived today without any problems, the route over Kebler Pass was fine and I arrived about an hour early before registration. As I was driving I remembered that I forgot (how is that for awkward word play!) my ethernet cable for Internet access in my room. Since I had extra time, I drove to a local Office Depot and purchased an extra cable. What sucks is that I found out when I arrived that CMC now has wireless so I didn't even need the cable.

I took this first photo of the outside of the dorm. My room is on the third floor. My roommate Greg is from Chicago and he is programmer so we had some things to talk about. I can still talk various geek and nerd dialects and I wonder if Aikido attracts us nerds.

This second photo is from my room looking down at the parking lot. The view is great.

Saotome Sensei began the first class by asking if he should be silent when teaching. He related how O'Sensei taught classes in silence and that you (as the student) had to listen with more than just your ears to learn the technique for othe battlefield one doesn't stop to ask your opponent or even a friend about how to do a technique. Saotome Sensei demonstrated why we practiced grabbing katatedori, stop nage from drawing a sword. He brought a live blade and showed the need to keep everything in front of your hara that the morotedori (I think that is how Saotome Sensei pronounced it "without sword") that you use your hand that is already extended as your sword. We practiced a two or three katatedori kokyunage variations before the class ended. (Tonight's classes were only 1/2 hour)

Doran Sensei taught the second class and started with katatedori tenkan and irimi exercise. He then had us practice kosadori ikkyo, nikkyo, sankyo all with bring the hand that is grabbed to your center and then atemi to the face so that uke grabs your wrist to prevent getting hit in the face. Nage then works on the new hand to do the technique.

During the final class, Murashige Sensei, a shihan from San Diego, had us practice katatedori kokyunage techniques. He had us practice a very smooth and new to me opening to katatedori shihonage where nage started with a throw and then with a large circle, moved uke's hand to a natural shihonage. I practiced with Troy Sensei (he is about 8 inches taller than me) so the shihonage didn't flow as well as I would have liked, sometimes I had to go upon my tiptoes to do the technique in doing so, I felt I was giving my balance too much to the technique.