I just got back from the Aikido of Tamalpais Winter Camp at Mt Madoona with Ikeda sensei, and I thought I'd write up some of my experiences from it.

This is the second year for me atending this camp, and both years have been very memorable and enjoyable. Last year, I was just beginning to get acquainted with Ikeda sensei and people at Aikido of Tamalpais, and in the interim, I guess I can say that I've gotten to know them all better.

The weather started out very nicely on Friday night (with a gorgeous sunset over what I can only guess was Monterey Bay that I'm sure Janet would have enjoyed to have seen), but turned slightly sour through the rest of the weekend into a lot of fog and corresponding showers and rain. I appropriately forgot my winter coat and flashlight at home in Colorado, but was able to make it through the weekend OK without them.

The grounds at Mt Madonna are very well-kept and beautiful (when you can see them through the mist and fog). There is basically a paved road running through the premises that provides for a easy access to all of the necessary buildings on-site as well as many trails through the hills for the more adventurous types.

As last year, I stayed in the Seminar House, a quaint house with a kitchen, four showers, four bathrooms, and about six rooms ranging from a single to a few doubles and triples to one large room which housed about a dozen people. I stayed in a loft-type room which housed about seven people comfortably; each room had a single mattresses which I found to be comfortable, although a change from my normal queen-sized mattress. The kitchen was well stocked with tea and fruits for in-between snacks which was very nice.

Although some people may not appreciate the vegetarian fare that they serve, I enjoyed it a lot, having a penchance for the high-carbohyrdate diet that they serve. Like last year, I found the food to be really good, plenty, and just right for training conditions. Although it sometimes felt like all we were doing was just eating and training, I very often found myself quite hungry once I started to eat.

There was plenty of training throughout the retreat, although I'll be honest and say that I didn't partake in all of it. There were three 6:30am classes taught by guest instructors (Hugh Young sensei from Salt Lake City, UT; Jim Alvarez sensei from Livermore, CA; and Sunny Skys sensei from Fremont, CA) as well as an afternoon class taught by Grayson James from Tamalpais which I didn't attend. All of the other classes taught by Ikeda sensei, though, I did manage to attend.

Ikeda sensei started out the Friday session with a few minutes of silence for Doshu's passing. The training started out lightly focusing throughout the weekend on kuzushi or taking the other person's balance at the instant of contact while maintaining your own.

Throughout the weekend, Ikeda sensei stressed the importance of finding out your partner's weakest point and reaching it in a relaxed manner and not just relying upon your strength. To rely upon your strenght, you inevitably end up clashing with your partner in a contest of pure muscle against muscle. We do not want to train in this kind of competetive manner, as aikido envisioned by the founder was not created to harbor competition but rather cultivate the cooperative spirit.

In order to be able to "control" your partner, Ikeda sensei had us work on different, small movements of our hands and wrists to break uke's balance, and then deriving power to move uke by moving our hips. He said that although large arm movements were very important in the beginning stages of learning aikido movements, they are inevitably inefficient and ineffective in the long run.

Another thing Ikeda sensei asked us to do was to keep relaxed and try to maintain a natural posture and stance. The analogy that he used was that one would not be able to walk a hundred miles with a stressed, rigid manner of walking, but with our natural walking style, we can walk a very long ways. In the same manner, Ikeda sensei had us work in maintaining a natural method of movement throughout the entire technique.

Ikeda sensei also stressed the importance of keeping our minds open to different manners of doing things. Rather than staying fixed upon one single method of achieving something, Ikeda sensei asked us to keep looking and watching for new ways of doing things that better suit our bodies and our "own" aikido.

Ikeda sensei's teaching style is relaxed, humorous, and, I believe, applicable to all people from different schools of aikido. Rather than teaching specific points regarding certain techniques, Ikede sensei concentrates on the principles of aikido which one can use in every technique in every school.

I think the part of the Retreat that I enjoyed the most was just being back with friends. As I mentioned earlier, it kind of felt like I was coming back to a place that I once called "home," and I was back with a lot of people with whom I was more than acquainted. A lot of us young (and young at heart) went out on Saturday night to a restaurant-bar and talked, danced, and just had a lot of fun.

I got to train with old dojo-mates with whom I took my shodan test, teachers from around the country whom I respect very much, close friends with whom I've shared more than a few intimate secrets, people I've never met (and perhaps never will again), and so on.

Different people from different schools and teachers, different "affiliations," different part of the country, and different backgrounds all came together just to do some aikido. I think that's, perhaps, the most important part of going to seminars and the like, moreso than the training itself.

Jun