|
Hi folks,
I just flew back from Indianapolis last night from "Wood and Steel" and,
boy, are my arms tired.
Seriously, both of my arms are still suffering from the syndrome known as
"swinging sticks and swords in new and different ways for two days
straight." It's good to feel, though, that the parts that are sore are my
forearms and not my shoulders; makes me think that I might actually have
learned something from having people tell me to "relax my shoulders" all
of these years.
We started things out on Friday night with Chuck going through some fun
aiki-budo stuff from a variety of attacks -- katatedori, kosadori, and
tsuki. We had some fun trying out some different pins from kotegaeshi
including some nice arm bars. Always good to have a few of those in one's
repertoire, I say.
We then congregated at Chuck's place for a night of scotch and videos.
In attendance were Chuck, Emily, Scott, Tim, Leanne, and Kris. Of course,
I don't know just how much of the videos Chuck remembers as he spent most
of the night under Emily's capable pain-inducing hands as she massaged his
back and made Chuck actually whimper, snort, and purr throughout the
evening. Peter and Jody joined us a bit later in the evening when they
arrived from Michigan with a whole carload of videos, swords, books, and
equipment. I was surprised that neither Chuck nor Emily killed the two of
them for the beautiful tessen that they brought, much less the rest of the
stash.
We tried really hard to get to the dojo by the scheduled 7am start, but we
ended up at a greasy joint called "Steak and Shake" for breakfast as
nothing else was open at that ungodly hour. I operated pretty well
throughout the day considering I only got about three hours of sleep as
well as getting up at what would have been 3:30am in my own
timezone. Nothing like being sleep deprived while waving sticks and
swords, right?
We were joined by Scott and Susie as well as Josh Walker and his
instructors for the day. One or two others were in attendance from
Chuck's dojo, but I didn't catch their names.
We finally got to the dojo around 8am and started out to learn some of the
movements for the All Japan Kendo Federation's seitei kata for jodo.
Peter has said in the past that the only commonality between jodo and
aikijo was that they used basically the same stick. There were many
differences like the emphasis on extending _really_ out there at the
forward apex of the swing (for a lack of better terminology) and the
feeling that you were "punching outward" with both hands for a lot of the
strikes. However, I found that the principles underlying the
effectiveness of the jo techniques like hikiotoshi uchi and makikomi were
pretty much the same as that which I learned previously in aikido.
In the afternoon, we went through Peter's presentation of the first
half-dozen or so of the Eishinryu iaido kata. This was pretty much
totally new for me as I'd never done iaido before. Fun stuff. Here, I
was told time after time that I needed to have "bigger cuts." But then
again, pretty much everyone else in the group (including Chuck) was told
the same thing. I was happy to be informed on Sunday afternoon that my
sword was actually "swooshing" as I made the cuts; I can't say that _I_
heard it at all, but people told me that it's tough to hear your own
sword swooshing. I guess I'll have to take their word for it...
Peter's teaching style is informal and personal. He is not at all
hesitant to tell each and every single one of us to correct our "habits"
from our various backgrounds. The love he shows for the stuff he does is
obvious and infectious. He seems always willing to share with us the rich
experiences he had while training with a veritable plethora of high
ranking instructors while in Japan.
In the evening, we went to a neat pub and grill place called "Aristocrat"
which had a really good band which played Scottish folk songs (I
believe). Fun place, good food, and great company.
We got up the next morning and ended up getting a big mound of bagels and
cinnnamon buns at the dojo, most of which we ended up packing into Peter
and Jody's car for their long drive home that evening. Nonetheless, we
went right back into Peter's jodo and iaido that morning and afternoon.
To wrap things up, Chuck showed us some fun stuff from his kempo system
which included some soft, relaxed, yet effective ways of "thumping"
another person's body with an open palm to send them reeling a few feet
back. Good stuff.
Interspersed throughout the weekend were impromptu sharing and
experimentation of stuff that each of us knew. We all showed each other
the way we did hijinage (tenbinnage). Peter showed Scott some of the
finer points of judo newaza. Tim was the target of many of Emily's chain
punches, and Jody was the recipient of more than enough abuse for one
person throughout the weekend. After a good round or two of newaza with
Tim and Jody, Leanne jumped into the foray and proceeded to try to stuff
Tim into the mat, too.
All in all, I had a great time throughout the weekend. It was great to
see old faces as well as meet the new, and I hope we can do this again
some time soon.
Jun
|