Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 11:24:20 -0500
From: Susan Mellott
Subject: Quick (not) Seminar Review
Well I'm going to try to write a quick review in between work and
getting ready to go to the dentist for some nasty dental work
that I am *not* looking forward to! But I am categorically
unable to write *anything* short so here goes...
Got into DC on Wed. Checked into the hotel Harrington (nice
place, old but cozy and great service) and then went to shop for
shoes. Got just what I wanted - Danskos. Sean got a pair too.
Great Shoes! Grabbed a bite to go at the old post office
pavilion right across from the hotel and took it to the hotel and
watched Wrestling Hemmingway. Good day!
Thurs went to the Freer and Sackler art museums at the
Smithsonian. Great exhibits of asian art. Had a nap and then
off to Zuki Noodles to meet Kjartan, Maria and Scott (Jenkins?).
Food was OK, company was great! Another great day.
Friday we'd hoped to go to Saotome's dojo but slept in. Got up
late and had a leisurely ride on the metro to the next hotel.
The metro rukes! :^) Wow, what a nice hotel! I could have
stayed there for a looong time. Full kitchen, 2 large rooms,
great TVs with VCR, you name it. After a little rest and some
"Last Emperor" on TV, we went down and hung out in the lobby to
meet the listka as they arrived. For quite a while I was doing
pretty good with names but eventually they all ran together and I
was hosed. Still, I amazed myself at how many I remembered. It
was just soooo much fun and so exciting to meet all the listka in
person. A group would come it with either weapons bags or aikido
related t-shirts and we knew they were with us! All the listka
names now had faces and "flesh" and it was great. And it is
surprising how much you can get to know people in just a few
minutes of chatting, so much more than just on the list. I wish
we'd had more time.
The instructors headed over to the Silver Diner and a group of us
went to the Sweetwater Cafe for a pre-class snack. Then off to
George's dojo for class. What fun! It was nice to have a good
class on Friday. Got us limbered up and "in the mood". Then on
to the chinese place for another dinner (good food!) and more
chatting. More and more people kept arriving and we had quite a
group by then! This is about when my capacity to remember names
gave out.
Then back to the hotel and theoretically early to bed for the big
day. But Peter Boylan and Dave Shaw stopped by our room and we
broke out the Dunmorgan (I think was the name) and after a glass
or two we decided to see what Chuck Gordon was up to. After an
unsuccessful attempt to call his room (Sean called room 512 and
woke a poor woman up), we called the front desk and found out he
was in room 515. So we headed down. There was a nice group of
aikidoka hanging out there and we all proceeded to have more
scotch samplings and conversation. Chuck was going like the
energizer bunny (after a 12 hour drive!) but poor Tim and Leanne
looked like they were ready to drop and of course we were all
sitting on their bed. I hear they caught up on their sleep
Saturday - good!
So we stumbled up to our room about 1am and hit the sack.
Saturday morning it was up early and off to the gym. Everyone
was rarin' to go! The gym was huge and the mat area was large
and nice. The mats were soft, thank goodness. Actually there
was a nice selection of mats to choose from. If you wanted a
nice soft landing you could go to one spot and if you wanted a
little firmer grip on the feet, to another. But all the mats
were much softer than we are used to and it was the one saving
grace for avoiding maximum "exquisite pain". :^) The only
problem was, after a while I'd fall down on the soft mat and
didn't want to get up again. It just felt good to lie there.
Before I get to the teachers let me just say that they all were
great and I thoroughly enjoyed every class. Just so I don't have
to repeat this for everyone. :^) It just goes without saying
from this point on that I was completely impressed and really
enjoyed everything.
First teacher was George Simcox. Since I've had no ki training,
I was about as useless at the ki tests as you could get. But
with help from some of the Ki Society people, I got better and
learned a bit about it.
Then Phillip Akin taught. Talk about precise! I was
probably the most useless at his style. It was the most
different from what I am used to. Still plugged away at it
though and got slightly better by the end. I'm afraid I'm one of
those who as he said, probably doesn't have the patience for this
style. Actually, if I'd started with it, it would be different.
But now it is the hardest style for me to try to pick up.
Somewhere in here Jun did an ukemi class and showed several
different types of ukemi. I think most of them were on the Ukemi
tape from Donovan Waite. We have just recently watched the tape
but could not for the life of us figure out how he did it.
Seeing Jun do it in person and then practicing it was great! We
actually got the rudiments of some of the ukemi and have been
practicing it in class. I have to say that we got some strange
looks from our teacher (it is very stylistic ukemi and looks a
little peculiar if you haven't seen it commonly before) but it is
fun to work on and is definitely another tool in the toolbox.
And it's not easy! Jun, you have beautiful ukemi.
Then lunch at the hotel (we just got carry-out from the Silver
Diner - we needed a little rest) and back to the gym. We didn't
have a car but had no trouble getting around thanks mainly to
Alan, and also the shuttle and a few other nice people.
Last class of the day was Alan Drysdale. Finally something I
could do! I really liked his shihonage exercise in the beginning
(palm to palm). I'm going to remember that for later when we have
to teach. A great way to end the training day!
As an aside, Gordon (I sure hope it was gordon, I'm almost
positive it was - you took a lot of ukemi for the teachers), you
have amazing ukemi! We were admiring it all thru the seminar.
(oh-oh - I'm running out of time to write this, better hurry!)
Dinner at a chinese buffet and the awards ceremony. I didn't
realize that we were having the awards ceremony then or I would
have brought my video camera. BTW, is there a tape of the
seminar and can we get a copy? I took a little video but was
training too much to do much taping. And Chuck, any possibility
of seeing the Indy Seminar tape? And do we have one for Wood and
Steel?
Then we got a conference room at the hotel to hang out in (which
I am sure the other hotel guests appreciated that we were not
partying in the room next to theirs). Lots of food (cheesecake!
- thanks Wendy!) and scotch (thanks everyone!) and assorted other
food and drink. And good conversation that lasted until the wee
hours. Sean and I left around 1 or so and it was still going
strong. One thing I wish we could have done was had more time to
hang out and party and visit without the threat of classes the
next day looming over us. Maybe next time we can try to meet a
day early or stay a day late or something (en masse) so we can
party and then just sleep in. We were taking it easy because
these old bones were achy enough as is and I didn't relish the
idea of trying to train with a major hangover. However there
were plenty of people the next day who looked a bit peaked....
:^)
So first class Sunday is Jim Baker. After a "guess the Jim"
contest, we hit iriminage. Geez, of all the techniques
guarenteed to promote maximum exhaustion, that has to be it. I
guess he was keeping with Wendy's "exquisite pain" theme. Sure
got the blood pumping! Naturally, Sean and I got partners who
must have not trained the day before (or sure had more energy
than we did!). Sean really got a workout. After the first 3
goes at iriminage, he sat down next to me and was pouring sweat.
He has way more stamina than I do so I know he got some killers.
So we trained a little together and took it easier for a little
bit.
I think Carol did a hakama making class in here but we got
confused and missed it. Actually, I was shopping at the
booths... :^) Too many goodies! Then lunch at a tex-mex place
and back to the gym.
Chuck's class was last but not least. I got to hear Carol's
chipmonk imitation! (sorry Carol...). Chuck taught us some very
interesting nikkyo and sankyo pins and while they were very
strong (and painful) I found them to be very aiki as well. They
fit in well with everything we'd done. And Chuck taught a bokken
kata that was very interesting and I wish we could have finished
learning it but we had to change to get ready to head out. BTW
Chuck, tell Leanne that her bokken kata work was very nice. I
was admiring it during your demo of the whole kata.
We caught a ride to the metro, hopped on and had a very pleasant
ride to the airport (did I mention how much I love the metro?).
A leisurely wait for our plane and soon we were home, tired but
happy. My only regret? That it wasn't a "aikio-l camp" (like a
week long) instead of just a weekend. There just wasn't enough
time!!!
I won't even go into how great it was to meet everyone and who
all we got to talk to since there were so many. Suffice it to
say that this was the most enjoyable and interesting seminar
we've ever been to, and we've been to a lot. And Sean thought so
too, even though he didn't know any of the listka. And to all
the people we met, it was great meeting you and I sure hope to do
it again soon!
Susie
Just a few more things I forgot to mention...
The iaido mini-session with Peter was great but too short. I
wish we'd had enough time for a class. Actually, we had some
mini-session times that were not being used, they would have
worked. Next time if we have more time I'd really enjoy a full
iaido/jodo class. OK, so it's not aikido... I'd still like it!
We completely missed the tameshigiri. How was it? Did I hear of
a bamboo injury? (to a person not the bamboo, which I'm sure was
pretty well worked over). Would sure have enjoyed that. Someday
maybe. Right Peter??? :^)
The award for biggest oxymoron goes to the guy who came down with
Dave Shaw (can't remember his name) who was wearing the "Relax"
t-shirt. Does he *ever* slow down? Wish I had that much
energy. On second thought - no, I don't.
Our weapons bag didn't arrive with us at the airport and we had a
tense day and 1/2 hoping it would show up, which it eventually
did. Most of the weapons were not that important but I had my
favorite nice handmade bokken in there and was worried it was
lost. Actually, the bag was open when we got it. Fortunately
whoever opened it decided it was just a bunch of sticks or
something. (the bokkens were wrapped in a beach towel, only the
jo was visible).
I didn't get to train with every *near* everyone! And I tried to
work my way around but there were too many people.
I didn't have an real strong ideas of what I thought people
looked like before going so all I can say is that everyone was
stronger, more attractive, nicer, more interesting and more
intelligent than I even expected. :^) And I expected all of the
above before going (naturally, we are the listka!). OK, maybe
Wendy wasn't nicer, but other than that... (GD&R)
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