Aikido Summer Camp 2009 - Day 3

Murashige Sensei taught the first outdoors class (I was feeling a bit under the weather with the brown-bottle flu from last night to make the 6:30 am class). He had us practice with the sumau irimi first and then tenkan. Murashige Sensei mentioned that O'Sensei emphazied the importance of irimi and then tenkan. Using the smaller sword changes the distance and timing as you imagine, especially when being attacked with the bokken. We worked in groups of four with the focus on getting close and deep with the smaller sword. Murashige Sensei came over corrected my footwork which made the technique actually work for me.

I took this photo of the shomen (shrine) with the really big photo of O'Sensei. One of the two individuals to the right of the shrine facing the camera is my roommate.



Saotome Sensei taught the second class and he started off talking about energy and responding to an attack. He then said the following and I tried hard to remember exactly and it was "ki is a sound, ki is a wave, ki is the ocean, ki is lighting". I interpret this as we too often in Aikido ascribe mystical properties or "magic" when referencing ki but ki is just energy and energy is wave. In one demostration, Satome Sensei humed while he was throwing his uke to show how the technique's ebb and flow resembles sound. Saotome Sensei started off with surawazi kokyunage where in one technique nage actual jumps to the side while in full seiza. We then moved on to some techniques with two attackers where nage needs to do a full tenkan before the second attacker completes his or her punch or overhead strike. We then worked on tskui iriminage and kokyunages to finish off this excellent class.

The third class was taught by Ikeda Sensei. He started off by asking how does one overcome a bigger and stronger opponent? We started off with a number of exercises focusing on moving and maintaining one's balance before trying to unbalance uke. Larger and taller people have a higher center of gravity and one first establishs a physical connection with the goal of creatting a unity between you and your opponent. We worked on katatedori and morotedori ikkyo. As with all of these techniques, it is much easier to see sensei do them to actually apply them when practicing the technique.

The forth class was an outdoor weapons class taught by Doran Sensei. I learned the proper way to remove your bokken from its sabbard (since these were bokken and not live blades, we tucked the sword into your hakama or gi belt) We spent the whole class period working through bokken and then open-hand ikkyo variations.

The final class of the evening was taught by Choate Sensei from Chicago Aikikai. His classes are always interesting. Tonight we did something similar to the other classes I have taken from him. We spent most of the time working a partner who while grabbing you, you have to feel how uke energy and balance to take them to the ground and then keeping the same pressure and distance, pinning them to the mat. In Choate Sensei classes he does a lot of experimentation on different movements and body sense that nobody else in the various years I have practiced Aikido.

Tonight I am planning on doing a Zen sitting session at ten and then going to bed. Tomorrow is the scheduled free day, although there are two 1.5 hour classes taught by various Boulder Aikikai senior students. My plan is attend at least one of these classes and to do laundry.