The camp was held at Catholic University of America, only two stops away from the ASU headquarters dojo. The university is right next to the Brookland-CUA metro stop which proved to be quite useful, as the lack of eating establishments around the university (except for Pizza Hut, the Chinese food joint, and the 7-11) forced me to go to Union Station (two stops away on the Metro) more than once.

I stayed at CUA's dormitory, thinking it would be convenient to stay on campus. Not so. The dorm in which I stayed (Spellman) was spartan at best and was about a 15 minutes' walk away from DuFour Athletic Center where the camp was held. Luckily, we had a room for our weapons reserved so I didn't have to lug my weapons back to and from my dorm room every morning. Next year, I'm going to try to stay with a student at the DC dojo or something.

The Schedule

The camp itself ran from Monday, 30. June through Sunday, 6. July. Here's how things broke down and who taught:

Monday:
10-12pm     Saotome sensei (bokken)
2:30-4pm    Chuck Webber sensei (taijutsu)
6-8pm       Saotome sensei (bokken)

Tuesday
10-12pm     Ikeda sensei (jo)
2:30-4pm    Mike Lasky sensei (taijutsu)
6-8pm       Ikeda sensei (jo)

Wednesday
10-12pm     Saotome sensei (nito (two sword))
2:30-4pm    Sarah Bloomstone sensei (taijutsu)
6-8pm       Saotome sensei (nito (two sword))

Thursday
10-12pm     Ikeda sensei (ken tai jo)
2:30-4pm    Charlie Page (I think?) sensei (taijutsu)
6-8pm       Ikeda sensei (shinai)

Friday:
10-12pm     Saotome sensei (bokken/kumitachi)
            Yudansha testing     

Saturday:
10-12pm     Ikeda sensei (taijutsu)
2:30-4:30pm Ikeda sensei (taijutsu)
6pm-        Barbecue at the DC dojo

Sunday:
10-12pm     Saotome sensei (bokken/taijutsu)

The Heat

I have to say that Washington DC at this time of year is much more humid than lovely Northern California. Although I'm used to humid weather (from having lived in Tokyo a few years back), I've become quite accustomed to the hot but dry Northern California weather. To counter this, I drank water in copious amounts both before and after training, all throughout the day. This made me sweat copious amounts (my belt was often soaked through on two parts under my koshiita) but this was better than keeling over from not having enough fluids in my body.

The Training

The training itself went really well overall. I'd say that the average rank of the students on the mat was somewhere around shodan or higher, which I felt led to an overall intense, high-quality practice throughout the camp. A whole lot of people at the camp knew weapons far better than I did, and I certainly felt like a "little fish" than I sometimes do out here. Almost all but two or three of the 166 participants wore a hakama which was neat to see. Only a few people wore "colored" belts under their hakama; most wore either black or white. There were people at the camp from ASU, USAF, Tomiki aikido, and even one yudansha apparently from karate who couldn't take ukemi too well.

We were in the aforementioned DuFour Athletic Center in their basketball gym. Mats from the DC dojo and from the US Naval Academy were placed in the middle of the basketball court (the baskets having been raised up and out of our way) with a beautiful wooden wall with calligraphy of one of O-sensei's doka painted on it (probably done by Saotome sensei), a small bonsai arrangement, a picture of O-sensei, and two weapons racks serving as the shomen. The mat space would get pretty crowded when there was 150+ people on the mat, but because we did mainly weapons that we could do off the mat on the hardwood floor (and since most people took the afternoon class off), it wasn't really that bad. The gym had nice, high ceilings, but I'll have to say that the ventilation was pretty bad; I don't see how they could have a basketball game in that gym, especially if there's even a moderate sized crowd there.

The sound system that Saotome sensei was using was pretty bad for the first class on Monday, but they went and hooked up a much better sound system for the rest of camp. The acoustics of the gym wasn't the best either. (Saotome sensei also speaks with an accent (that even I, a former linguist and Japanese speaker, have trouble with at times) and often mumbles which made him even harder to understand.)

As always, watching Saotome sensei with a weapon is a site to behold. He spoke frequently about not wielding a weapon as though it were a tool to use, but as though it were a part of your body, and he really exemplified that all through the camp. It's just amazing to see Saotome sensei hold a bokken with one hand, have uke parry it and try to do a shomen cut, and still have his bokken taking uke's center line. Saotome sensei also spoke about "beauty being function" wherein a lot of beauty revolves around its efficiency and functionality.

Ikeda sensei spoke about the importance of using your body in aikido to generate power. As he always says, "Hip moves, hand moves" (or, in other words, if you move your hips, your hands will move with it since they're attached). In practicing jo parries and thrusts, Ikeda sensei emphasized the importance of using the hips to create power in spirals rather than trying to use the arms to do so. As usual, Ikeda sensei showed us how to use tiny little spirals to produce a lot of power.

The Yudansha Testing

On Friday after the morning class, yudansha testing was held. Jimmy Sorentino told me afterwards that I could have served as uke for the yudansha tests since ASU allows mudansha to serve as uke. (My home dojo insists on higher ranking members to be uke for anyone testing.) Had I known that beforehand, I would have _definitely_ jumped up and have been uke at least once!

All in all, there were 20 (twenty!) yudansha exams -- 5 shodan, 12 nidan, and 3 sandan.

All five of the shodan tests were run simultaneously, and it lasted all of twenty minutes -- short and sweet. It consisted something like (from memory, so it's not exact) --

• Suwariwaza ikkyo
• Suwariwaza iriminage
• Hanmi handachi shihonage
• Shomenuchi ikkyo and nikyo
• Shomenuchi iriminage
• Shomenuchi shihonage
• Shomenuchi/munetsuki kotegaeshi
• Three varations from:
  • Katatedori
  • Ushiro ryotedori
  • Morotedori
• Tanto dori from tsuki, shomenuchi, yokomenuchi
• Kumitachi, 1-5
• Three person randori

And I think that was about it. As I said, it was pretty short and sweet.

The twelve nidan tests were done in three sets of four testees each. Their tests had a few more techniques each, the full set of twelve kumitachi or all six kumijo, and also randori with three people with shinai.

The three third dan tests revolved around teaching. Saotome sensei had each of them get up and teach two or three techniques (like yokomenuchi shihonage, kokyu tandenho, and shomenuchi ikkyo) to a "beginner" uke. All of them went through a randori immediately afterward -- two of them with uke wielding shinai, and one without.

Saotome sensei then spoke to everone after the testing. He said that when a person reaches third dan or so, that person should have enough skills to teach someone the basic techniques. He emphasized the necessity for everyone, students and teachers alike, to make these beginners, the people walking onto the mat for the first time, feel welcome and not have a terrifying, negative experience when they are learning aikido. When people feel bad or afraid to be on the mat, especially at the beginning of their learning process, they will always look back upon that process as being a negative one. He wanted to make sure we all remembered our own first days on the mat and try to convey those positive experiences that we had received onto the newer people in the art.

Et cetera

Outside of training, I was able to make friends and meet up with fellow aikidoka from all over. I met a few people from Aikido-L including Alexei Nikolaev. I spoke at length with George Ledyard sensei (Aikido Eastside, Bellevue WA) about weapons, randori, and web site maintenance.

About my only real gripe with the camp is that a lot of people tended to pair up for the entire taijutsu class. Although it's been customary to pair up for the weapons class, I found that a lot of the people at the camp tended to stick with each other for the entire two hours. I found myself having to be a "third" person quite a few times because of this. Maybe it's an East Coast thing -- I don't know.

I managed to avoid serious injuries pretty much throughout the camp, except for one fist in the left eye (which I deserved, having not moved off the line quickly enough) and one sprained index finger from a bokken whack. (Just as a side note for anyone still reading -- if you're working with weapons, _please_ be sure to take off all rings! If you get whacked on the finger with the ring, you only have a few seconds before it starts to swell!)

I had a lot of fun at the barbecue held at the dojo. I got to see a side of Saotome sensei that you don't normally see on the mat. As Saotome sensei himself said at the beginning of Sunday practice, "A lot of kokyu-ho movements (making drinking gestures) last night."

For me, the camp was worth it. Since I don't get to work on weapons as much as I would like to, being at a camp with nearly twenty hours of training devoted to weapons was quite a treat. I came home with a pretty good understanding of the first five kumitachi (required for ASU shodan testing) and some of the kumijo as well. I now have a far greater repertoire of moves with the bokken and jo, and can think (sort of) about using two swords at once. All this, for me, means that I will be able to more easily translate weapons to my taijutsu, and vice versa.

Some things I found useful on this trip:

• At the airline counter when checking in your weapons bag, when the person asks what is in them, say "sticks for martial arts" rather than use the word "weapons."
• Swimming trunks. CUA had a pool which I used a couple of times -- wonderful relief from the heat and humidity, and a great change of pace from aikido.
• Bringing a box of Clif bars (one of those protein snack things) was quite useful, especially between the second and third classes.
• A tube of arnica gel for sore ankles, knees, and fingers.
• A CD player for the long walk from the dorm.
• A lot of sleep.

Special thanks goes out to Reggie from the DC dojo for the fun training both on and off the mat, Kris (sp?) from Three Rivers Aikikai for her friendship and geeky conversations, Nick from the DC dojo for all the rides he gave me, Jonathan from Mountain View (Pacific Martial Arts) for his fine aikido and karate stories, Ted from the DC dojo for his politeness on the mat and raucous stories off the mat, and Alexei for his patience with me in learning the nito (two sword) stuff.

I'm planning on attending next year's summer camp, and I'm currently thinking about winter camp in Florida...

Jun