I just attended a seminar with Koichi Kashiwaya sensei (8th dan, Ki Society USA), and I thought I'd share some of my experiences at it.

Outside of the few classes that I've had with George Simcox sensei of Virginia Ki Society in the past, my experience with Ki Society aikido has been pretty minimal. One of my first instructors started out in Ki Society so her aikido did have some of that flavor, but outside of that, I've been pretty ignorant about Ki Society aikido. So, when I saw a flyer that said that Kashiwaya sensei would be in the area, I made it a point to go to the seminar.

The seminar was at the Rocky Mountain Ki Society in Westminster on Saturday. The seminar was actually in its second day, having started on Friday evening, but I was unable to attend since our dojo had dan tests that night. The dojo is in a business park about five minutes away from the highway which makes it pretty easy to get to. The space is somewhat small (I'm guessing about 1200 square feet) but has a very nice feeling to it; it felt a bit crowded with the 20 or so people who attended the seminar on Saturday, but it was doable. The mat is covered with canvas which makes it slippery for those of us not used to that surface.

Sunday, the seminar occured in the South Campus Gym on the CSU Fort Collins campus. The mats were basically those long wrestling mats, so I had to, once again, change the way I moved. I don't like wrestling mats at all. I find them sticky and not very forgiving for breakfalls. The seminar happened on the second floor of the gym in front of some very large windows so the sun shone right onto the mat through the big, hanging "ki" sign that they had; I thought it looked really nice.

Kashiwaya sensei is a pretty small person but is obviously comfortable in front of a group people. The basic idea that he talked about over the weekend was mind-body coordination and unification. Stemming from "simple" ideas such as good posture (usually achieved by standing on your tip toes then sinking down to a naturally aligned posture), relaxation, and having a "positive" attitude.

He spent quite a lot of time over the weekend going through how their hitoriwaza (one person techniques) should be performed. Rather than just treating warm-up exercises just as such, it seems Ki Society also uses these exercises as a way to practive mind-body coordination. Kashiwaya sensei emphasized being stable and unified all throughout these exercises and went over quite a lot of these exercises over the weekend, spending more time on them than "regular" aikido techniques.

Frankly, I wasn't used to doing a lot of these exercises (eg sayu undo, the exercise for doing a forward throw from ushiro ryo-tekubi tori), so I had to watch a lot during these times; I had no idea (and still don't have much) about the footwork and hand placement in these exercises...

Throughout the weekend, I found that this was a good opportunity to go and try something similar but different. The techniques that we did were, of course, familiar, but were done in a different manner than I'm used to doing. (One thing, though, that I really couldn't do what the way that they really bounced into their leg stretches...)

Iriminage, for example, was called "kokyunage" and had a much more "up" feel to it rather than the very strong "down" that I'm used to in that technique. I was also not used to the characteristic "hop" during the techniques, as I've been pretty much conditioned to keep contact with the ground all throughout my techniques, so this was interesting to try to do.

Kotegaeshi was done in a similar manner with a distinct rhythm to it. As uke, I found it not difficult to follow but different, once again. Kashiwaya sensei said that Ki Society was in a transitionary phase of calling "kote gaeshi" a different name, "kote oroshi", as the term "gaeshi" (derived from the verb "kaesu") has this sort of "wrenching" feeling within in whereas "oroshi" (from "orosu" which means to "lower" or to "drop") has more of a "dropping" feeling to it. I found that pretty interesting.

There was another technique done from katatedori that I'd never seen before. I think it was called something like "kiri kaeshi." Interesting technique, if not very martial from the way I saw and felt it. (The technique seemed too open for a punch from the other hand after the turn.) I would love to feel someone who knew what they were doing perform this technique on me...

However, I will say this. For those people who think that Ki Society people can't be effective, they've obviously never felt nor trained with experienced Ki Society folks. Kashiwaya sensei's kokyunage (iriminage) was, indeed, strong, compelling, and effective. There were plenty of other people there who would have had me scrambling to take ukemi. Good stuff.

Kashiwaya sensei also taught an interesting way of getting out of a headlock. As I was still getting over a stiff neck I've had for two weeks or so, I opted out of practicing, but it looked like the people who were going at it were getting it pretty well. I'll have to try it out once my neck feels better...

Over the weekend, a number of people underwent testing, both ki testing and yudansha testing. The ki tests that I saw were pretty close to what I expected. They went through things like getting pushed in the chest while standing and in seiza, performing unbendable arm, unliftable body, and breathing exercises. Frankly, I doubt I would be able to even pass half the tests at their lowest level...

The dan tests were pretty interesting, too. Sheesh, were they long. Three people tested for shodan, nidan, and sandan, and the whole process took about three hours. (I'm more used to dan tests taking about fifteen to thirty minutes each.) They went through the normal gamut of techniques (or "arts," as they called it), but which ones they did were up to the people testing; they would be asked to perform five techniques from shomenuchi, from yokomenuchi, and so on, and they just did the ones that they could do.

I also got to see a handful of taigi being performed, too, which was nice. (Taigi #19 (if I remember correctly) has some cool atemi in it.) I like the way that people can just go out there and do these series of techniques. The only "series" that I've learned has pretty much been ikkyo through yonkyo; the others are still disparate entities. The one taigi involving throwing with the jo looked like fun. I also liked seeing the weapons kata. I got to see the first two kata for both bokken and jo, and they looked pretty neat.

Kashiwaya sensei threw in some interesting things into the test that I'd never seen. For example:

• Kokyudosa using only one arm.
• Kokyudosa with one person holding your arms and another holding that person's shoulders from behind.
• Kokyudosa with one peson holding your arms from the front and another person holding your shoulders from behind.
• Kokyudosa while only your index fingers are held.
• Techniques being performed while nage has his or her hands in the ikkyo/nikyo/sankyo stretch.

People at the seminar were friendly and cordial to me, even going out of their way to thank me for attending the seminar. "It's nice to see someone from Aikikai attend," was something I heard more than once...

I got to talk to Kashiwaya sensei for a while in Japanese which was really nice. He said that although he would have liked to have just gone through a lot of techniques, he said that Tohei sensei had asked him the last time Kashiwaya sensei was in Japan to go over a lot of the fundamental aspects of Ki Society training in his seminars. Of course, this was just fine with me, since I got to get a crash course in getting exposed to the fundamentals of Ki Society training.

Overall, I had a good time at the seminar and look forward to training with the folks I met over the weekend again sometime.