Chuck Gordon wrote:
We did 4 hours of Shinto Muso Ryu jo work outdoors (wonderful stuff, very
powerful and I SEE the potential for amazing flow, but that's a loong way
off, I fear). Peter and I were both amazed at the turnout. We had about 20
folks (including us) playing with sticks that morning.
We missed this :^( But it started at 8am and with a 2 hr drive,
we just couldn't do it... Next time I hope!!!
After a quick lunch at a local sandwich shop, we returned for another four
hours of training, inside this time, and Peter introduced about 16 of us
survivors to the mysteries of the ZKNR iaido seiteigata. We worked through
Mae and Ushiro and STILL hadn't enough time ...
Made this one and had an EXCELLENT time! It was great to just
concentrate on mae and ushiro for a long period of time and
really work on it. Peter is an excellent teacher, very patient,
knowledgable and interesting. Peter, it was great, thanks!!!
And I got to try using Chuck's *monster* iaito! Geez, like I
don't have enough problems with my little one... :^) I got to
where I could (albeit, poorly) drawn the thing, but notto...
fuggit-about-it! I had to resort to a two-handed "hara-kiri"
sort of move to get it back in the saya. I gotta say though, if
I could ever get it down with that one, mine would seem like a
breeze. And it was *heavy*! First time I did a downward cut I
thought I'd never get it stopped. I didn't realize the power it
would have. It almost felt like it had a mind of it's own
(Chuck, you sure that isn't some sword like you read about in
SF?) Sure would build up the old arm muscles!
I did have some people oohing and ahing over my iaito! I'm not sure
why (I didn't actually hear the conversation). Probably because it is
very neat looking. You know how most people's are black saya, sageo,
hilt, etc? Well, mine has a really pretty gold-speckled brown saya
with a mustard yellow (except it's turning greenish from the blue dye
from my hakama) tsuka and sageo. I really like it! Got it from Peter Boylan's company too (plug,
plug).
Took another hour break and returned to the mat for what was supposed to be
a couple of hours of Kime no Kata but stretched out to about three. Only
about 10 of us remained for the judo class.
Now that was interesting! I've never done judo before and we got
a nice taste of it. First thing Peter says is "OK, we're going
to go over some of the basic chokes". Of course, I was nervous
about Judo to begin with and hearing that scared the pants off
me! But since I was in public, I had to act like it was old
hat... (don't know how well I did though, probably the look on my
face was pretty expressive when he said that). But it was not
near as scary as I'd imagined and it was nice to find that out.
Now I can say I've have been choked and know what it feels like.
We were very gentle though so it wasn't devastating or anything.
And when they said to get partners, Sean and I lunged for each
other and hung on for dear life... :^) I know it's not very
sporting to hog one partner but...
And many of the techniques had chokes in them and that really
made a big difference in their effectiveness. It really puts a
good hold on a person as it is, and just a little squeeze really
does the trick, if you need it. But even just the hold was
strong, without the choke. And we learned a really effective pin
that you can use in ikkyo that isn't hard and doesn't hurt but
*really* immobilizes the person. Also did some neat throws (one
was like an iriminage with a leg sweep and one was like a
kneeling koshi with a roll).
I don't know how judo people do it though. Sean and I both had
headaches afterwards (from the chokes) and I found it more
intense than I would probably want to do regularly. Got to
admire people who do it regularly - it's pretty intense. I think
I'll stick with Aikido... it's the kinder, gentler art... :^) (at
least on *my* old body!).
Sunday morning was just as pleasant, only a bit cloudy. We returned to the
lawn outside the VVA center to play with sticks and spent another four hours
wrestling with SMR. About 10 folks survived Saturday, four of 'em new faces
who hadn't made it in the day before.
Sorry we had to miss Sunday! Sean had to get up early to leave
for a conference so we could only come down for the day on Sat.
Great weekend, great training, great folks. We had students from the two
Yoshinkan dojo here, almost all of my folks (five folks Sat., four today),
the long-haul drivers from Penn., a wandering newly minted PhD who's budo
bumming through the midwest for a couple of weeks (Hi John!) from St. Louis
en route to Chicago then Boston and a few miscellaneous others.
So we're the "few miscellaneous others"???? Geez, make *me* feel
special... ;^)
My body IS experienceing some discomfort, however. Especially my
left knee. I'm gonna take some anti-inflammatory drugs then a hot
shower and might, if anyone's interested, I'll post more later about
what we did.
I can't *imagine* how you guys must feel after going thru the
full weekend... I have to go down the stairs sideways today just
from the 4 hrs. of iaido yesterday. Still, I *was* undoubtedly
the oldest person there so I'll hide behind my old age... :^) I
didn't really notice it at all yesterday, but today my body is
reminding me. I am surprised that it is only my legs though. I
figured my upper body would be sore from all the swordwork. I
think that is a good sign that I might be doing it better than I
thought. Still can't get that neat "whoooosh" when I do my cuts
though most of the time. Sean was next to me and he was
"whoooshing" to beat the band. I was jealous!!! :^)
I have video, digital images and film to be processed and will post
the best images to the website and send some stuff to Jun for
inclusion on aikido-l.org. Anybody want video copies, one of my
students can get 'em for about $6 apiece, I think.
I'm hoping my pictures turned out well too. I was using a new
camera that I got for my birthday and it took me a while to
figure out that I had to turn off the "red-eye". It was delaying
before it took the shot so I'd snap just when I wanted the pic
and by the time it took it, the action was over. I did get it
figured out later though.
Chuck, thanks for your (as always) wonderful hospitality. And
Peter, your classes were excellent! It was great to see you guys
again and to meet new people and we had a great time and look
forward to doing it again!
Susie
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