I just got back from the Summer Camp in Glenwood Springs, CO, and I thought I'd share some of my experiences with it.

This was my third of three week-long camps I was scheduled to go to this summer, so you can say that this summer has been pretty busy as far as aikido camps go.

The Location

I left early Sunday morning on 26. June from San Francisco International Airport with three other people from around the area. All in all, there were about eight of us from this general vicinity, so it made for a good group of people from the same area. We flew into Denver Airport, rented a couple of cars, then drove down to Glenwood Springs.

Glenwood Springs is about three to four hours southwest of Denver, right off of I-70. The camp itself is about fifteen minutes from downtown Glenwood Springs and about the same distance from Carbondale which makes it an easy drive but pretty much inaccessible unless you have a car.

The camp itself was held on the Colorado Mountain College campus which sits pretty much atop a hill. The campus itself is very small -- only a handful of buildings -- but well designed. There was a lot of pipe laying being done on campus with a lot of piles of dirt which made for muddy walking at times. However, with the campus overlooking Mt Sopris in the distance and the open sky above, it was a very nice place to have a camp. There was a pizza place, a liquor store, and a gas station at the bottom of the hill of the campus, but I never went to any of them.

The weather was very interesting, ranging from beautiful cloudless skies to thirty minute thunderstorm downpours. We saw everything from rainbows to rolling clouds to even one falling star one night.

About the only complaint I (and many others) would have was that the food on-campus was pretty bad. Breakfast wasn't too bad (as it's usually really difficult to mess up biscuits and oatmeal in my case), but lunch and dinner were pretty unpalatable at times. My group very often went off-campus to get "real" food to the envy of others.

The Training

Each day, there were four classes at 75 minutes a piece. You had an option during the first (9:30-10:45am) and fourth (4:30-5:45pm) classes to either stay inside the gym for empty-handed practice or to head outside to the soccer field (which was sometimes a bit soggy) for weapons practice. The other two classes (11am-12:15pm and 3-4:15pm) were held indoors. There was also a morning class from 6:30-7:15am as well.

I attended most of the classes normal classes and actually attended one of the 6:30am morning classes. I missed two classes on Friday evening, as I wanted my body to rest up from its Rolfing session, but I went to all of the rest of the classes. The one morning class I went to was taught by my teacher, Wendy Palmer sensei; the other three morning classes were taught by other sensei including Tres Hofmeister, Pee-Wee from Sarasota (I don't know his last name), and Wendy Whited from Chicago. All in all, I went to 21:45 hours worth of classes last week -- not bad for a week which I considered to be more a vacation than an aikido trip.

I went and tallied whose classes I took:

7 classes with Saotome sensei
8 classes with Ikeda sensei
3 classes with Doran sensei

I opted for Ikeda sensei and Saotome sensei's classes over Doran sensei's, as I can pretty much go down to Aikido West and attend Doran sensei's everyday classes whenever I want.

Overall, I ended up going to 13 taijutsu classes and 5 weapons classes.

The training was really good. Although I only went to three of them (as I opted to go outside for weapons training more often than not), the first and fourth classes of the day tended to have more room indoors which was nice. The second and third classes during which everyone trained indoors did get a bit crowded, especially during that one class in which I trained with Tres.

Saotome sensei presented some wonderful classes which illustrated his belief in teaching aikido principles like kokyu and musubi. His classes seemed to be the most well-attended of the three instructors. Saotome sensei's classes ranged from sessions with ten minutes of speaking and three minutes of training all the way to one "combat" aikido class which consisted mainly of atemi, sweeps, and many other direct "martial" applications of aikido. It was great.

Ikeda sensei emphasized his idea of "catching" the attacker's center as soon as (or even before) nage gets grabbed or attacked. His techniques may, at one glance, seem very difficult to grasp and understand, but from what I have felt, Ikeda sensei's aikido is like everyone else's; he just uses a much tighter application.As always, Ikeda sensei's techniques were effective and powerful. I love being thrown by him, even if it does mean I have to clean my teeth of mat pieces after every class.

Doran sensei's classes were technique oriented, presented with clarity and precision. He uses such vivid images in his teachings that it becomes hard to forget them. Although his style of teaching would be hard for me to take as a daily teaching (as I am not very technique oriented in my approach), I really do enjoy watching and feeling his aikido. He's like a veritable encyclopedia of aikido techniques, and his lucid teaching style really breaks down each technique into easily digestible pieces.

I liked having these three sensei at the camp. Three is a good number -- enough to present a variety of teachings while not becoming too cluttered and confusing with too many. The three instructors who taught here obviously know each other very well, and they were able to work with each others' teachings excellently.

The Social Scene

I actually had a lot of fun during this camp as far as the social scene went. Although it helped that about eight of us from the Bay Area came to this camp and that I'm actually starting to know a fair amount of aikido people, I think that this camp is just a nice, social event. Many people attending this camp have known each other for years, even decades, and it really shows.

Social activities ranged from sitting around each other's rooms until 2:30am (including my room one night -- sheesh, who would have thought?) with fellow aikidoka to going out to sushi at a local Japanese restaurant to heading out to the local brewpub. One night, we sat around in the Multipurpose "study" room downstairs with a few people dancing (the Foxtrot, the Charleston, the Waltz, and the Tango), some others of us juggling and playing with a "kendama," and generally having a good time.

Wednesday was a very welcome day off, falling on the middle day of the camp. Although we were hoping to just lounge around and not do much, we ended up going on a mile hike (1000 feet elevation change) up to Hanging Lake, a beautiful lake complete with a waterfall under which we all gathered and performed "misogi." We then went to some "secret" hot springs that one of the locals pointed out which was _right_ next to the Colorado river -- a very nice place to hang out, if you ask me.

Other activities I did included a Rolfing (bodywork) session on Friday _and_ an hour-long massage on Saturday. Very nice.

Friday night was the "hoedown" at which we had "Conan" the stuntman show us some of his cowboy moves in the form of line dancing and other cowboy dance steps. Oh year -- I got wrangled into doing a juggling skit at the talent show with Charlie from Boulder, too. To be honest, I had a great time getting up in front of people and juggling.

Overall, a great time socially.

Afterword

Out of the three week-long camps I went to this summer (ASU Weapons Camp in DC, the San Rafael Retreat, and the ASU Summer Camp in CO), I have to say that I enjoyed this one the most. The training was great (including all of the weapons classes!), the company was wonderful, and the location was just beautiful.

I have to commend the people at Boulder for putting on such a wonderful camp for the rest of us. Their hospitality and welcoming manner was an example for any of the rest of us who may be putting on camps and seminars. They organized the camp so well that it really looked easy to run -- no mean task. Kudos to everyone who helped run the camp, both actively and behind the scenes.

Regards to everyone whom I met for the first time at the camp. I hope to train with you all again soon.

Jun