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A good time was had by all at this year's Wood and Steel II
weapons seminar. As most of you know, the seminar was hosted
by Chuck Gordon, and our own Peter "The Budo Bum" Boylan was
the featured instructor.
Most of the attendees were listka: Mle, Jun, myself, Chuck,
Peter, and Chuck's students, Tim and Leanne (whom y'all should
remember from Merrifield).
Peter brought Jody, a fine uke, tachi, target, whatever you
want to call him. He took a lot of abuse from just about
everyone at the seminar -- including Chuck's demonstration of
how to put a stick in someone's eye even though their glasses
were in the way...
Joshua Walker of the list also was able to make the Saturday
portion of the seminar as well.
Saturday afternoon, Susie Mellott and her husband Sean showed
up, complaining of an alarm clock set to the wrong time zone.
It seems they were awakened by housekeeping at their hotel.
Next time, I'll bet they check what *state* they're in before
they set their alarm. ;^) But it was great to have them for
Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
The True Wood and Steel Experience (TM) actually started Friday
night, with a gathering of scotch, errr... budoka at Chuck's
apartment.
Chuck and Mle whipped up a fine batch of spicy gumbo, and Mle
provided the most wonderful chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Between that and the 5 types of single-malt on hand, we had an
excellent pre-seminar feast.
As is usually the case in these pre-seminar fesitivites,
food gave way to budo videos, which gave way to some impromptu
living room budo.
A few random recollections:
- Jody asking me what the hell Chuck was doing after Chuck
sampled much scotch and insisted that Jody grab him.
- Me demonstrating the "drunk girlfriend throw" on Mle.
- The stories of Mle breaking a shinai over Chuck.
- Chuck speaking in tongues and snorting while Mle drove her
fingers through his shoulders.
- Watching some whacky Japanese TV show, or commercial, or
something featuring a, um, school(?) training program(?)
[What the hell _was_ that, Peter?].
- Peter's very nice, very expensive tessen which I, sadly,
cannot afford to take off his hands.
- Someone having to take Chuck's knife away from him when
he started to get a little frisky.
- A game of kampai with rigged dice. (Note, sake does NOT
last very long when everyone has to drink a rice bowl
full on their turn.)
In other words, a normal gathering of listka. ;^)
Saturday morning, we started off with jodo. Since we do
practically zero jo work at my dojo, I was really looking
forward to this. I was not disappointed.
We began by learning some basic sequences from the seitei jo
kata of the All Japan Kendo Federation. The underlying premise
of jodo seems to be, "If it's comfortable, you're not doing it
right."
If your arms are in a comfortable position, then you're not
holding the jo properly. If your stance is comfortable, your
feet are in the wrong place, or your hips aren't square.
Despite all this (or maybe _because_ of all this), I see why
Peter is enamoured with hikiotoshi uchi and makikomi. They're
a lot of fun. (I suck at them, but they're still fun!)
The morning jodo session ran over about an hour and a half
or so. I guess we _all_ thought it was fun. ;^)
After lunch, we started working on the Eishen ryu iaido kata.
As I had never even _drawn_ an iaito before, Peter graciously
loaned me his so I could understand what it's supposed to
feel like. Wow! I've got to start saving my pennies so I
can GET me one of them!
Sadly, I had to leave early on Saturday. I guess that's the
_disadvantage_ to being local for a seminar -- you still have
a life to deal with. You can't just escape reality for the
entire weekend. (Of course, my grip on reality is rather
tenuous, anyway -- shaddup, Chuck!) ;^)
Sunday, we returned to the jo for the morning and continued
learning more parts of the seitei jo kata. An informal water
break somehow migrated over to the mats, where we ended up
throwing each other around. (Who'da thunk it?!)
Everyone was tossing everyone else around, willy nilly. As
it turns out, Jody fit right in with us all. He was the first
one to reach in and grab a wrist to see something new. (It
was nice for me NOT to be the designated chew-toy for ONE
seminar!)
After a lunch of pizza and some iaido videos, we did some
more iaido, building on Saturday's lessons. Now I know
what the phrase "swordsman's forearms" means. My forearms
are _still_ screaming!
Chuck took some time to demonstrate his style's kempo
component for us. Errr, *ON* us. For a striking/kicking
form, it was remarkably circular. Everything seems to
rotate in very tight circles around your own center.
Chuck talked a lot about how many of the blows were designed
to rupture the bladder. That way, as long as you managed to
survive the fight (and even if you DIDN'T, actually), the
other guy would _still_ be dead in a few hours anyway.
Much like the jodo, we all classified the entire weekend's
budo as "Not Nice Stuff".
We wrapped up the seminar with more newaza. Since this was
my first time playing around with it, I asked Peter to give
me a quick "how-to". He said, "OK, Go!"
Not necessarily what I had in mind, but boy did I learn a
lot *very quickly*! ;^) Then, he showed me some of the
principles, and we gave it another go.
I distinctly recall Peter turtled up, as I was tugging
furiously trying to flip him over. All the while, Peter was
calmly telling me that I was NOT getting anywhere, because I
was forgetting everything I already knew.
"Dammit, Scott," he said, "it's just like aikido. Now stop
screwing around and DO SOME YOSHINKAN!"
Next thing I knew, I had flipped him over his own head, and
I was lying across his chest thinking, "Holy S***! How did
I do that?"
Know what I did? Tenkan. From suwariwaza. That's it.
I couldn't believe it.
As a very wise person once said, "Judo, Aikido. Same, same."
They forgot one thing, though: "Fun."
All in all, it was a great time. I'm glad the folks who made
it were able to come, and sorry for those who wanted to come
but were unable. Hopefully, we'll all get to play again soon!
Scott
(*still* sore, two days later)
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