Kuribayashi Shihan Aikido Seminar March 2013

This was the first time that I participated at a big seminar with so many aikidoka attending. I loved the silence of the mokuso and the swift sound of the hakamas as we were doing the stretching and preparing for the techniques. There was a variety of styles and approaches that I could see. I had to adapt to each new person, take the fall, execute the technique, take the fall again, switch, listen, concentrate, understand… or at least try to better understand. It energized me a lot. Gave me new perspectives and a lot of motivation, too. I do want to get better. When you train with people who have been doing it for 10 or 15 years, you feel small, but you also feel motivated because you see that people can hang on and follow this path. I find that great. I also had the opportunity to be thrown once by Kuribayashi Sensei. He was concentrating for a few seconds when I took hold of him, I think he even closed his eyes, and then I flew in the air. There were many associations present from whole Hungary and also from abroad. However, the associations in Hungary need to be more united and there is still a lot of work to be done. I am hoping for a brighter future!

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Aikido on Saturday

Those of you who follow me on Tumblr. know that I usually post my training notes there. But this time as the event has a certain importance, I dedicate a whole post to it. We had a training camp in a town near by and it was awesome. Students from several different associations gathered and trained as one big family. It was great to see all the hakama students doing their flowy moves and swirling around in shiko dashi. The Senseis leading the demonstrations present there were the following: Elsner László Sensei (6. dan), Várszegi Rudolf Sensei (6.dan), Shidoin Pivony Attila Sensei (5.dan). 

We did all the five teachings in suwari waza, then some knife techniques and and the end our Sensei was demonstrating a few more intricate techniques. The camp had as a purpose the preparation for the dan exams. At the end we all gathered in a big circle, held each other’s hands and did some breathing exercises. It was all very exciting. As for how it was for me personally, sometimes I got confused with the techniques, but then I asked for help. Before the whole seminar started I felt butterflies in my stomach, a feeling of uncertainty and eager to try out something new, it was all really new and intriguing to me. Each time the technique changed, we changed partners, too. This way we had the chance to blend with a lot people who were around and practicing. Somehow I felt connected to them through the fact that we all dedicate a big part of our life to this martial art. I hope this was the beginning of a series yet to come and the path towards a unified aikido in Hungary.

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>The Aikido Effect. Techniques and their Names

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There are a lot of new words you learn once you start aikido. One cold say this is one of the effects of aikido on you but for sure not the only one. As the names of the techniques are in Japanese it is rather hard to keep them in mind and for a beginner they are rather overwhelming. At the moment I am there where I at least know the name of the attacks (which are of course much easier and less numerous then the neutralizing techniques). I still find it hard to keep in mind the names of the techniques we practice. Today we did a lot of things from ushiro katatedori and katadori menuchi, (these are some names of grabs) but I could not tell what the names of the techniques were. This is really bothering to me and I tried to do something against is. I sometimes watch YouTube techniques on the web and try to memorize the names. Some other aikidoka from the dojo suggested I should write a training jurnal…but how? As soon as I get home, I forget the names. All in all, I am having a lot of fun at this training camp. It is the first one where I can really enjoy myself, because I can fall better and don’t have severe pain in any part of my body. Earlier, when I fell really badly, it was hard to pull throught a three hour training. But now I can enjoy it and pay attention to the details. Maybe at a certain point I will remember the names of the techniques also. Tomorrow the seminar is continuing and there will be some exams also. I am not taking one this time because one needs a lot more knowledge to be 4kyu.

Update: In the end I was supposed to take an exam to correct errors from earlier. See my post about that here.