Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 12:00:12 +0000
From: Peter Rehse
Peter Boylan did a good job giving an outline of the seminar so I'll just add a
few comments.
He didn't mention numbers. The first day we had nine, lost two and gained one
(not including the two Judo senseis that only stayed for a short time) the next
day. Not huge - let's call it intimate. A friend from work who was interested
in seeing Aikido came up to watch for a short time a did some tatami slicing
but was not really a participant.
Both venues were cold enough that you could see your breath. Once moving it
wasn't so bad although, especially on Sunday, taking breakfalls was not a joy.
I got a lot out of everybody but I do want to specifically mention the Kime no
Kata. I found them to be much more straight forward then the Koryu Goshin no
Kata developed by Tomiki with many of the same themes (pull and choke) being
repeated but several of them I really liked. I knew the attacks in the Koryu
Goshin no Kata were derived from Judo but that point was brought home and the
alternate way of dealing with them was interesting.
Kristiina Kokinen and Ki Society. She did a superb job showing us the
unliftable body and unbendable arm. The latter was not so clear since there
were some arms that could not be bent either way but the former was really
really good. There is quite a bit a difference between the iriminage that
Michael McCavish showed and what Kristiina did but there is another type which
is really close. I was uke when Kristiina first demonstrated the technique and
it was very effective. My prejudices led me to expect something far softer -
WRONG - she is good. I was also quite happy with her leading technique which
although far softer was very similar to some of the Naga no Kata Ura that we do
in Tomiki. Not so impressed with the Tenkan but that is just me. I kind of
like to have hold of my Uke and have the same problems with the Tomiki
versions.
Michael Kimeda and Peter Boylan also taught very well. Chokes I knew about
before since Peter has visited me on occaision but what I really liked was
learning the entries into them whether against sword or empty handed attacks.
The Yoshinkan has much more of a forward leaning stance then what I am used to
and I had trouble with that.
The teaching at the seminar was very good. The original idea of imparting
flavour was kept although I did find myself modifying my plan which turned out
to be overly ambitious. I had wanted to practice all 17 of the Junanahon but
dropped that down to about six. Although everyone was capable there was enough
variation between styles to slow down the uptake.
Did I have a good time. YES.
Peter R.
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