Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 10:09:49 -0700
From: Jun Akiyama
Subject: Aikido-L Seminar Review [2/4]
Saturday
Morning came much too early but upon seeing all of the already
familiar faces gathered in the hotel dining area, it was just about
time. We all ate our continental breakfasts, loaded up on
carbohydrates, and headed on out to the gym.
There were three rolls of wrestling mats on the gym floor already laid
down and ringed all the way around by other mats from other places.
Bleachers were pulled out to allow us to put our stuff onto it during
the class as well as provide people with a vantage point from which
they could watch the proceedings. Peter had, of course, set up shop
by that point on the tables along the walls as did the Virginia Ki
Society folks.
People were milling about on the mat, doing warm ups, and chatting
amongst themselves when George came onto the mat and asked people to
line up. The Seminar was finally on its way!
Simcox sensei's session outlined some of the core principles of Ki
Society aikido. Rather than using the controversial word "ki" a lot,
he used more conventional terms like "presence" and "space" which
allowed people to work from their own perspective. Starting out from
a couple of simple ki tests involving being pushed on one's chest, he
worked up through some very simple hand movements to teaching a couple
of versions of shihonage (the technique which became the theme of the
Seminar). Not only are George's classes always a joy to be a part of,
they're always revealing; the way he described how we should move our
hands in a relaxed manner starting from the pinky finger is, of
course, the same way that I've been taught over the years, too.
Imagine that. Most importantly, George himself exudes a love for the
art that ran as a common thread through everyone who was at the
Seminar.
Immediately following the class, Wendy grabbed me, wanting me to show
her how I did ikkyo. I, of course, complied, and somehow (most likely
due to Wendy's nature), this friendly twosome soon became a rumbling
randori session involving people from me, Wendy, Dave Liebreich, Neil
McKellar, Philip Akin, and quite a lot of others. It was exciting to
just go in as uke for all of these different people with whom I've
never worked before and take ukemi from them all. Philip, of course,
managed to throw me around like a rag doll; luckily, I knew how to do
breakfalls. It was great fun.
Wendy then taught her class on "exquisite pain." This involved,
basically, her method of alleviating the most common muscular aches
and pains that aikidoka get by following the muscle that feels the
pain to its origin and massaging that point. As I've felt from her
before, the pain is excrutiating at times yet ever so... exquisite.
Intrepid souls like Tony Fontaine, Chuck Gordon, and Jim Baker went up
to receive her treatments and came back with a paradoxical look that
indicated the feeling of, "That hurt so good."
I then went and led the group in a few ukemi "techniques" that I'd
learned, focusing mainly on the soft breakfalls. It helped that Mark
Dorfman whom I had met at Toyoda sensei's seminar in New York earlier
this year knew a couple of the falls that I was demonstrating, since
my falls are still "works in progress." I hope people got at least
something out of the class, although I have no idea if it was helpful
to anyone. I still have a few ukemi techniques up my sleeve including
ones for iriminage that I could share next year if people are
interested.
I have to interject at around this time that throughout the weekend,
Tim Gion was gracious enough to rotate through the three or so cameras
that were handed to him to take pictures for us training types.
Although I appreciate his taking pictures for us, I still wish you
could have been on the mat. I hope his knee heals quickly.
We then went to lunch at Chevy's where most of us agreed that their
salsa was extremely tame. We (mostly Emily) had the poor waiter
scrambling around looking for hot sauce which he finally found (all
three drops left at the bottom of the bottle) after looking in more
than a few cupboards. Gordon made rude noises with a balloon, but as
I found out as the weekend went on, that was nothing out of the
ordinary nor out of character for him.
We came back in time to get dressed and back on the mat for Philip
Akin sensei's class and introduction to Yoshinkan aikido. He asked at
the beginning, "How many of you do not like technical aikido?" I
don't know if anyone else did, but I raised my hand. (Did anyone else
raise their hand?) Philip then went on to explain that Yoshinkan
aikido was, indeed, very technical and that people who didn't like
such kinds of aikido wouldn't like it much. Au contraire -- I liked
it very much! Akin sensei's explanations were clear, logical, and to
the point. He knows how to use volleyballs to his advantage when
teaching, too. He started out with shihonage (of course) and went on
to tenchinage and iriminage and showed how the footwork in the latter
two techniques were, indeed, the same. Akin sensei also showed how to
do tenchinage with just two fingers; talk about using no strength! He
used Scott Crawford as his uke to demonstrate many other techniques
for the last fifteen minutes of class including ikkyo, sankyo, and any
other manner in which we wanted to see Scott abused. Er, used. Akin
sensei's classes are quite vigorous, very entertaining, and enriching.
Technical precision ("95 degree turn here") is a good thing when done
well.
The open mat time here was mostly taken up by Peter Boylan's
mini-class on iaido. I opted to take a mental break and not do much
through this time, but many people took advantage of this opportunity
to work with Peter in classical koryu.
Alan Drysdale sensei was up next with a sampling of his great variety
of aikido experience which started in England and took him through
USAF, Iwama, and now ASU. We worked on shihonage with him starting us
off in a palm-to-palm connection exercise (which he called the
"Barbarella technique," an allusion which I didn't quite get) for
shihonage which was quite a lot of fun. Drysdale sensei then led us
through four different versions of shihonage that would have uke end
up in four different direction -- hence, the name "shihonage" ("four
directional throw"). Drysdale sensei then worked us on up from
working with one partner to four other people in preparation to having
us all get up in front of the class to perform randori before everyone
else. I haven't been doing randori for quite a while -- probably
about a year -- so I was quite rusty at this. Drysdale sensei offered
"real time" commentary to everyone who was up, encouraging them to
keep moving and move forward. On my turn up, Drysdale sensei
commented to me, "You can throw people now, if you want," since I
wasn't throwing people yet. Silly me. Drysdale sensei's class was
clear, technically rewarding, and adventurous. Who else would have
taught randori to 60+ people who came from dojo all across the world?
After a bit of trouble in getting dinner plans all squared away, we
ended up at a Chinese buffet restaurant just a little ways down the
road from the hotel. I have to say that the hotel location was
excellent; it was close to plenty of places to eat and very easy to
get to. The choice of the Chinese buffet was good, too; I was a lot
hungrier than expected. (Greg later commented that he was quite
surprised how much I ate; I guess I just have a high metabolism...)
The Awards Ceremony as written by Dave Liebreich, Chuck Gordon, Jim
Baker, Mike Bartman, Kjartan Clausen, Cady Goldfield, and Joseph Toman
was presented at the dinner. From the "kaiso" toothpick given to
Gerry Santoro (the Aikido-L creator) to the Gunka Troll given to Mike
Bartman, the awards were all very funny, well thought out, and a lot
of fun. Thank you for the "Hindi Bendy" doll; it'll occupy the tanto
pouch on my weapons case at the dojo for all to see.
Philip also presented a few of us with gifts of his own. To George he
presented a yagyu shinkage ryu bokuto for hosting the Seminar. To
Kjartan and I he gave a tanto made from 5000 year old tanto and
another yagyu shikage ryu bokuto for the stuff we've done for
Aikido-L. To Carol went another tanto for all of the work she's done
for the Seminar, too. Thank you, Philip -- I really appreciate your
gift.
After dinner, the vast majority of us ended up at the hotel, ready for
the "party." Rather than take over another room 558 (where we
gathered at last year's Seminar), Peter had the bright idea of using
one of the hotel's meeting rooms to hold the party which worked out
brilliantly. We crammed a few dozen people in there and proceeded to
have a great time. Some highlights included:
- All of the bottles of Scotch being passed around.
- Kjartan's Viking beer.
- Wendy's cheesecake (they were pies, although Jim was in the
room, too).
- Scott being promoted to nidan for taking ukemi without spilling
a drop of scotch.
- Wendy's six inch heels. Enough said.
- Monica trying on said six inch heels. Enough said.
- My volunteering as uke for Peter's chokes. I like.
- Paul's enthusiasm for going over to Japan when he heard women
over there liked foreign men.
- Philip's story about O-sensei, Terry Dobson, and the female
aikidoka they passed in the hallway. "O-sensei as Will Smith."
- Jim's Brooklyn Push Hands.
- Peter's stories about Japan. (By the way, I think it's "Iku
iku," not "iki iki," Peter.)
- Philip's explanation on why teachers say "Good!" when uke
manages to get them off balance.
The night came too quickly to a close, and we shuffled off to our
respective rooms to get some sleep before Sunday came.
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