I just got back from a seminar with Hiroshi Ikeda sensei at Shobu Aikido of Boston, and I thought I'd share some of my experiences from it.

I'd never been to Boston before; pretty much all of my "East Coast" experiences have been in New York and Washington DC (with the latter being my only experiences in aikido), so I was looking forward to attending this seminar. I think it's always fun to train where basically no one knows you. Four students from our dojo (including myself) went to the seminar, although a couple of them were routed through Phoenix on their way in; we didn't see them until Saturday because of this. I recognized a few faces in the crowd including Peter from DC, Camena also from DC, Jean-Rene from Canada, and a few other faces I recognized (Jane, Elaine) whom I officially met for the first time.

Although the extent of the city that I saw was limited to what I saw while getting shuttled to and from the airport, my hosts' house, and restaurants, Boston seems like a very nice place. The weather was beautiful over the weeekend -- sunny but not humid. The city has some very nice architecture and city planning, making the city look European at times. (No wonder why they call it New England, huh?) There were a lot of nice parks suitable for napping at lunch during seminars, too.

Shobu Aikido of Boston, headed by William Gleason sensei, is located in Brookline, Massachusetts. The dojo is quite beutiful with a raised mat featuring real tatami mats underneath a nice, canvas cover. Although some people may find real tatami mats a bit hard for their taste, I liked it having been originally brought up on a similar surface (Judotex over concrete). There are beautiful calligraphy pieces in various places around the dojo including a couple by Saotome sensei in the main training area. A bay door opens up to the rear of the dojo where you can sometimes see frolicking squirrels rampaging through the leaves.

People from many different dojo were present, and I only recognized a few people which was nice; I like going to a "new" dojo and practicing with a whole different group of people. I got to meet our very own Katherine Derbyshire at this seminar; for some reason, we seemed to have been paired off for tenkan (tai no henko) and kokyu dosa practice about two or three times each over the weekend.

In my experience, Ikeda sensei takes the Friday night session pretty easy. This time, though, he seems to have turned things up pretty quickly. Maybe he knew that most of the people had been training pretty intensively for a few days already (as the seminar had been going on for a few days with Gleason sensei since Wednesday). Rather than just working on simple kuzushi exercises, we actually did a lot of techniques. Through the weekend, we went through a whirlwind tour of applying the principles he showed in techniques like ikkyo, nikkyo, shihonage, hijinage, and (of course) iriminage.

The basic principles that Ikeda sensei emphasized included the need to connect to your partner (musubi) at the instant that they touch and, at the same, time, break their balance (kuzushi). This he did by showing that even a slight change in your hand/wrist placement at the time of the grab will cause uke to lose a little bit of their strength. When done correctly, much of their strength will become diminished and nage will have a much easier time moving uke.

Another principle that he outlined was that although your arm was a good tool to use to break your partner's balance, it wasn't enough to really power your technique. In order to have an effective technique, you have to break your partner's balance and then use the rest of your body, driven by your hips, to create the power behind the technique. Anyone who has felt his ikkyo will understand what I mean here...

On Saturday after training, Victor from Gleason sensei's dojo took his nidan exam. Ikeda sensei had him run through a gamut of techniques including suwariwaza and hanmi handachi from quite a lot of various attacks. The test included a three person randori with one person attacking with tsuki, another with shomen uchi, and another with yokomen uchi. After the test, Ikeda sensei used me as uke to show the basic forms for suwariwaza ikkyo through sankyo (omote and ura). It's always amazing to feel his "basic techniques" since they're so clean and effective...

On Sunday, I managed to forget my hakama at the house of my hosts so I went "naked" on the mat. They said they'll try to send it to me this week, so I get to spend a few days at the dojo looking a bit out-of-place (as our dojo allows anyone to wear a hakama regardless of rank).

For "extracurricular activities," we had a nice party at Gary and Ania's house on Sunday night. I got to sit and talk to Gleason sensei in Japanese for a while in front of the fireplace which was a pleasure. We also went out to eat at a few nice places including a very crowded and loud seafood restaurant on Friday (The Village Fish?) where Ikeda sensei managed to almost finish a gigantic seafood pasta dish for two and an Italian restaurant called Vinny's that served what I would call a very hefty portion. As far as food went over the weekend, I was quite sated.

The seminar overall had a lot of good training. The mat space was a bit crowded, but the level of training was pretty good considering. Several people had enough stamina to train after the classes which was nice to see.

Overall, I had a good time over the weekend. Special thanks goes out to Jay and Karen for letting me stay at their house (I got to sleep in a room that was constructed in the 1600's), Gleason sensei for hosting the seminar as well as providing us with "chauffer" service to and from the airport, and everyone at Shobu Aikido of Boston for making this a very pleasurable event. I hope to be back in Boston again some time.

Jun