Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 10:53:43 -0500
From: scott.e.crawford@DELPHIAUTO.COM
AIKIDO-L 2000 SEMINAR REVIEW, PART 2 OF 2
Saturday Evening...
An excellent dinner at a local Chinese food restaurant began the
evening festivities. A word of advice, though. Be wary of letting
Jun set the menu for dinner. What the heck *IS* vegetarian sesame
chicken, anyway? A chicken that doesn't eat meat?
Philip presented a number of people with very nice gifts, made by
a local (for him) Toronto artist. Mine has a place of honor in the
living room, as the only piece of its kind that I own. Thank you
again, Philip.
After dinner, the evening budo scotch fest began as soon as Philip and
I found the group. As Jun pointed out, the room he reserved was not
available (?!) and the gang ended up in a different location than
advertised. Thought you could hide out and keep all the single malt
to yourself, eh? Not a chance. Philip and I have an innate ability
to home in on a fine collection of single malt from any distance.
The festivities began with a formal meeting of the First Kirk of the
Single Malt, where the members officially beatified James for his suburb
performance as the Courier of the Single Malt from across the pond.
We shall now always think of him as St. James of the First Kirk of the
Single Malt.
Chuck Gordon's Shintaido video got us all warmed up for a serious
round of heckling. The look on Ikeda Sensei's face was priceless. I
don't think he'd ever seen such a collection of... err... ummm...
"interesting" tripe^H^H^H^H^H budo.
Michael Hacker's Bad Budo Video #1 put me on an emotional roller coaster.
I was swinging between sheer disbelief, and rolling on the floor in
hysterical laughter.
I will never understand how they managed to put the Stare of Death on
the video without killing the cameraman. I guess I can understand that
a *tape* of the Death Stare won't kill (that's why we're all still alive
to write these reviews), but the guy taking the pictures must have died,
right? I guess that's why everyone attacked him from the side and from
behind -- they were avoiding the Stare of Death.
I will always remember that it was while watching this video that I
achieved the One True Enlightenment. The phrase that lingers with me to
this day is:
Ai-eee-ki applied stat-ick-ah-ly is..................... kiai.
And kiai applied dy-nam-ick-ah-ly is............... ai-eee-ki.
It's all so clear to me now. And no, I don't know how he found the
third syllable in "aiki". I guess that's part of his secret. Now
that I've told you that, I must vanquish you. Elbow Chop!!
Much scotch was consumed. We had no business "sampling" as much as we
did, or staying up so late, for that matter. After some impromptu
nikajo and scotch waza, I gave up for bed around 3:00 am.
Sunday...
Seven o'clock came early Sunday morning. During warm-ups, as we started
working up a sweat, I swear you could smell the scotch leeching out of
everyone's system. Still, most folks (with a few notable exceptions)
got along just fine on Sunday. We even had a majority of the attendees
on the mat on time for the first class. Amazing!
Alan Drysdale Sensei taught the Sunday Morning Hangover Class. He
started by taking a single technique (iriminage) and exploring how
you have to change the technique based on your timing with uke's strike.
We played with ways to modify the technique when you meet uke "early",
"late", or "just at the exact moment". An interesting way to compare
and contrast the movements you need to blend with uke.
A mini-class offered by Craig Hocker, Jon Strauss, and Don Rojas on
Ki Society Taigi #19. Taigi are set sequences of techniques performed
at a specific rhythm and timing. I think there are approximately
six hundred and seventy three of them. Maybe more.
Over the last year and a half, I've had the pleasure to train at
George Simcox's (Editor's Note: rokudan in Ki Society) dojo a few
times, as well as at the last list seminar. If not for that
experience already under my belt, I probably would have been shocked
at what I saw.
Just like Yoshinkan has a bad reputation as being stiff, hard, and
militaristic to a fault, I think Ki Society has a bad reputation to
the other extreme. Of course, neither is well-founded.
These fellas took some _very nice_ breakfalls, thankyouverymuch.
This year, I was not suprised. Two years ago, I would have been.
Thanks to the openness of the list, I have learned the old axiom,
"it's all aikido".
Except the stuff on Hacker's Bad Budo tape. I don't know what the
hell THAT was...
Peter taught another mini-class on judo newaza, that I had to miss
due to my injured toe. That was especially disappointing to me, as
I was one of the driving voices pushing for this class. Grumble,
grumble. Next time, Peter, next time.
Blend. Leverage. Keep your center. Take uke's balance.
Judo, aikido. Same, same. Fun, fun. 'Nuff said.
The last class was taught by Chuck Gordon Sensei. This is his
third year in a row as the clean-up hitter. We're gonna have to
work on the scheduling for next year.
Chuck taught us the first technique for working with tessen (iron
fan). Drop it on uke's foot. Ouch!
I worked with Alan on the nikajo technique, where you grip the
tessen from under uke's shoulder grab and fold him up into a ball
at your feet. Alan said he couldn't wait to show this one to the
cops he trains with. Compelling, to say the least.
All the tessen work was new to me (except the aforementioned
technique). You've really got to be careful using these things.
They can definitely... tingle a bit . Chuck re-confirmed that
he deserves the title Lord of Exquisite Pain.
Random Thoughts...
Some highlights that randomly pop in my head:
- Michael Cornelius, explaining how although he and his wife are
vegetarians, his daughter isn't "But Daddy, Mr. Piggy tastes good!"
- What the heck *IS* vegetarian sesame chicken, anyway?
- My newly developed and patented Tazmanian Devil Ukemi with Emily.
- Why do I always seem to break a toe at these seminars? That's
2 for 2, so far.
- Kokyu ho practice with Anita Spitz. Thank you for putting up
with my experimentation and discussion during practice. You
really helped me learn quite a lot, and gave me much to think
about. Domo arigato!
- Declaring our first martyr: Saint Tarik, the Horizontal. Hope
you're feeling better, my friend.
- James Baldwin is a rather large man. Not Bartman-large, but a
big guy, anyway. He would be an imposing figure, were it not
for the fact that his grin is at least large as he is. Maybe
larger. I've never met a more pleasant, (and constantly
grinning) fellow.
- Tarik is about twice the size I pictured him to be. I don't
know why.
- Despite his scoffing on the list, I actually watched Craig
Hocker drink single malt scotch.
- Jun, the consummate host in everything he did. You have all
our gratitude, my friend.
- Chuck Gordon trying -- and failing -- to stretch Jun's muscles
during the massage mini-class.
- Staring at all the scotch empties at 3:00 am on Saturday,
wondering what havoc we wreaked (and who would make it to class
in the morning).
- Mike Hacker is nothing like I expected, which is, ironically
enough, exactly what I expected. We need to get together and
play, buddy.
- All the people I desperately tried to train with, but never
managed to hook up with. We'll try again next year, OK?
- Ai-eee-ki applied stat-ick-ah-ly is..................... kiai.
And kiai applied dy-nam-ick-ah-ly is............... ai-eee-ki.
- Alan Drysdale back-pedaling as hard as he could. ASU? Am I
still ASU? Will I be, after this weekend?
- Hand throw! Elbow chop!
Finally, I'd like to close out the review with an observation.
Others have mentioned this, but it's worth repeating, in my book.
When we started doing these seminars, the feeling was one of wary
anticipation. Who are these people? Are they really like their
on-line persona? Do they have a clue about aikido? Do I even
want to know them?
That's not the feeling any more. As Mike Hacker said, I wouldn't
do this (make the trip to the seminar) for just friends. You all
are family.
That statement really hit me. This was the farthest I've ever
traveled to a seminar. And, with all due respect to the wonderful
group of instructors, I must agree with Mike. If this was just
any old seminar, I probably wouldn't have come.
But this was a LIST seminar, and that means something special to
me. Y'all *are* like family to me. Some of my best friends are
here on the list.
I have learned, taught, grown, and lived as a member of the list.
These seminars are not only a chance to share our aikido -- that's
still true. It's also the chance to share something we love with
our friends -- no, our family.
Here's a toast to the Aikido-L Seminar. May we have many more
together.
Yours in budo,
Scott
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