I just read through all of my other messages, and took a nice, long, hot shower. I thought I'd write up a review of the seminar which I attended this weekend.

This time, I was up in Ashland, Oregon, for Hiroshi Ikeda sensei (7th dan, Boulder Aikikai).

Although our group of people was supposed to consist of six people, four of them dropped out due to not feeling well or their spouse not feeling well. Monica and I ended up driving up from the San Francisco Bay area, about a six hour drive through somewhat inclement weather. Michael Friedl sensei up in Ashland told Monica that the weather would be nice on Friday and Sunday but not too good on Saturday; we ended up having rain on Friday and Sunday and a gorgeous day on Saturday. So much for Michael sensei's weather sense.

Anyway, we had class on Friday night, Saturday all day, and Sunday morning, a total of about ten hours of training or so. The entire weekend held a packed mat consisting of about 70 people total, about 30 of whom were from the Bay area (mostly from East Bay Aikido, Tom Gambell's dojo in Oakland).

We went through a lot of taijutsu, only about an hour and a half of weapons, some suwariwaza (about thirty minutes of kokyudosa), and about thirty minuts of randori practice.

Rather than trying to remember exactly what went on through the weekend, I'll try to wrap up a few points that Ikeda sensei made which really got through to me.

Ikeda sensei very often showed a lot of tiny, little techniques. If you've been to any of his seminars, you'll know that Ikeda sensei very, very often shows these techniques like ikkyo, kokyudosa, and tenchi nage that looks to only consist of a tiny, little wrist twist. Ikeda sensei went on to explain that many of the techniques that we learn that have these big, sweeping movements are actually just steps that we have to take during our "beginner time" so as to prolong the actual time we take to do our techniques. As we advance in our experience, we begin to shorten the time it takes us to do each technique. At the beginning, we may spend a minute performing each ikkyo. As we progress in our experience, we start shortening this time to 30 seconds. Then 15 seconds. Then 10 seconds. Then 5. Then 3. Then 2. Then 1. Then half a second. And so on. Someday, we will be able to encompass all of the aikido techniques not in a span of one minute, but in just a fraction of a second.

Here, I have to say two things that he said that I really, really liked. One is he said that what he does when he demonstrates a technique or a movements is what works for him. He asks people to not to do exactly as he does, but to see what he does and to see if people can find something that works for them. However, he asks to please not say that "aikido doesn't work." He very often says regarding people who say that what they're doing isn't working, "Aikido works. Your aikido is not working." he says that the priniples of aikido does very well work, but your level of competence may not confer the "proper" effectiveness yet. Maybe some day.

In a way, we are like a sculptor faced with carving out a sculpture from a large block of stone or wood. A sculptor does not go and work to make a finely polished statue from the get-go. Rather, he makes a rough statue first with a hammer or even a chainsaw, then a chisel, then a small chisel, then sandpaper. When we do the big, flowing movements, we are doing the "rough" work. This is the nature of training.

Ikeda sensei also touched upon ukemi. He said that he sometimes notices people of higher rank not taking ukemi for people of lower rank. This may be due to ego or pride. He asked for us to put aside rank, experience, and the color belt we wear -- we should be training not for the rank we have, but for what we are.

In addition, he spoke about how ukemi is not about losing. He has seen how some people consider being thrown to the ground a sign of weakness. He said that he considers taking ukemi an active choice in saving ourselves from injury. We take ukemi, not be given ukemi. Instead of having to go to the hospital each time we get thrown, we learn how to take ukemi to save our bodies. He said that in "beginner time," we learn how to do a forward roll and a backwards roll, but he said that these are only falls, not ukemi. There is much, much more to ukemi than just the falls -- Ikeda sensei said that we should learn to be able to react and save ourselves from as many different situations as we might encounter.

Also (very appropriate enough for this list, at least), Ikeda sensei spoke about the "different" kinds of aikido out there. He mentioned that many of the different shihan out there like Tohei sensei, Saotome sensei, Tomiki sensei (for example) have different presentations of aikido. He mentioned how these people very often trained with O-sensei during different times of O-sensei's own teaching. If you watch some of O-sensei's earlier tapes, you'll see him bouncing around on the mat; this shows in Tohei sensei's teaching in Ki Society. Tomiki sensei's solid stances shows in O-sensei's techniques of the time. The smooth movements of Saotome sensei are what O-sensei did towards the end of his teachings.

Ikeda sensei said that all of the above approaches are valid representations of aikido, and that we should train in one of these "types" of aikido that appeals to us and fits us well. He brought up an analogy of wearing shoes. If we wear a pair of shoes that fits a professional basketball player, we would be able to walk albeit in a very shuffling manner (so we don't step out of the shoes). If we wear a tight pair of high-heels, we could walk although in a bit of a standing-on-our- toes manner. We should find a form of aikido that works well for us and fits us. Just as we can go to a store and buy a really expensive pair of dress shoes that give us blisters when going up a mountain, or we buy a cheap pair of hiking boots that provide comfort when hiking, we should seek to find a "type" of aikido that works well for us.

Overall, I had a great time this weekend.

Ikeda sensei is a very approachable man, and I was able to speak to him very freely off the mat both in English and Japanese. He is the type of man who pours your beer for you, offers his hand to shake when saying goodbye, and remembers and asks about your family. On the mat, he displays some of the most amazing techniques, embodies the most innermost of aikido principles, and conveys an open heart and spirit I wish to encounter more often in my fellow people.

I really enjoyed being up in Ashland with the folks up there, and it was also great to see a lot of people from my area trekking up there for the seminar. I finally met Krystal for the first time and got to train with her on Sunday! I wish we had more time to play afterwards, but we had a long drive ahead of us. Michael Friedl sensei, the host instructor at Ashland, is a very, very charming and witty man and did a great job at holding the seminar at his dojo. A lot of thanks go out to the folks at Aikido of Ashland for having such a wonderful space to train and for holding such a great seminar.

I'm planning on attending next year, too!

Jun