Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 00:32:02 -0600 (MDT)

So, one of our dojo members (Linux geek) brought his laptop and he finds out that we have Ethernet access in all of our dorm rooms here at Camp. Sheesh. These kids have T1 access into their dorms. What kind of a cush college is this?

In any case, here's my quickie wrap up of day 1.

My former teacher, Wendy Palmer, dropped in at my apartment this afternoon, and we drove down to Glenwood Springs, Colorado for this year's Summer Camp in the Rockies. The drive was around four hours all together including some delays at the Eisenhower Tunnel due to rain, but it wasn't that bad. We got to the Colorado Mountain College at around 5pm.

It's an interesting feeling for me to be back at the camp. There's a whole bunch of people from the Bay Area here whom I know and it feels like a reunion of sorts. In addition, there's a bunch of people from my home dojo here since we're hosting the seminar itself. It's nice to be surrounded by people on all sides whom I've trained with in one form or another in the past.

The only bad news of the camp so far has been that Doran sensei was unable to come this year as planned, as his back has been feeling unwell for the past few weeks. I hope his recovery is quick and complete.

Saotome sensei taught a class that was a bit hard to understand due to the acoustics of the gym being pretty bad and the audio speakers also being pretty bad. Overall, I believe he was talking about how we should during practice not be so conflicting with eachother even in a simple exercise as katatedori tenkan practice, but we should start to eliminate conflict from the beginning. He joked that he was going to do a lot of "kuchiwaza" (speaking techniques) during the seminar, as his leg has been bothering him recently from an injury a few weeks ago.

Overall, the mat was pretty crowded. I believe the official camp attendance is at 180 or so. I bumped into Tarik after class right before I got wisked away by a 5th dan instructor-friend from the Bay Area who wanted to work on some "touchy feely" stuff that she was interested in doing with me...

In any case, things are going well so far in the last several hours here. I'll try to send an update each day or so, just because I can. So there.

Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 00:36:27 -0600 (MDT)

It's now 12:24am, but I'm going to write any way. Let's hope I don't start rambling too much...

I wasn't _that_ crazy this morning and opted to forego the 6:30am class. It seems that the morning classes are going to be taught by senior students from our dojo, and since I do see them every day, I'm pretty much opting out of attending. Call me a cop out, but this week is pretty much my vacation week for this summer, too...

The structure of the camp goes like this. The first and fourth classes of the day are split up into two classes -- one outside for weapons training, and one inside for taijutsu. You get to choose which class you wish to attend. This means, unfortunately, that you might "miss" things that are being taught elsewhere, but this also provides for a bit more room in the indoor classes should you want to stay there. The second and third classes of the day are held in the gymnasium and everyone pretty much attends these.

The first class of the day was Linda Holiday sensei's weapons class. The weapons classes at this camp are all held outdoors on a soccer field with a wonderful view of Mount Sopris. It was a wee bit warm during this class, but a lot better than the expected scattered thunderstorms. Linda sensei went through "bo nikkyo," a kata that she learned at Shingu. It's a neat kata; a lot of interesting whirly-gig kind of motions. I remember having learned "bo ikkyo" from her a couple of years back. The thing that she emphasized in her class was to be aware "360 degrees" around you -- not too hard when you're training outdoors with beautiful landscape all around.

The second class of the day was Saotome sensei's class wherein I got to work with my friend Jimmy from DC. He basically pulls no punches, so I don't either when I train with him. He got me once good in my solar plexus and nearly drove the wind out of me, and I got him back once in his ribs which he said he still felt several hours later. Saotome sensei went through a lot of details about alignment and connection all throughout practice. Good stuff.

I went to Ikeda sensei's class which was a bit crowded with probably about 150+ people on the mat. We went through ikkyo and iriminage and the importance of taking your partner's balance at first touch. It's always amazing to feel him just move you without any obvious "muscling" through.

For the last class, I went outside for Saotome sensei's two sword practice. I paired up with another friend named Jim from the Bay Area and we proceeded to go through a whole bunch of "basic" sequences of Saotome sensei's two sword. Fun stuff! A bit brain boggling at times, but a lot of fun.

The food here at camp is much better this year, I have to say. They've been serving yummy stuff that's actually pretty nutritious, too. Thumbs up for the food this year so far.

About twenty to thirty of us went to the hot springs and soaked in the sulphur-smelling pool-sized hot springs they have here. Very, very nice, although the water isn't too yummy. There's a "hidden" spring (actually the run-off from the hot springs pool where we were) down below that we went to last year, but this was a lot of fun with everyone from Ikeda sensei to Linda sensei to students who flew in from Austria for the camp all there and mingling. We then went to a brewpub afterwards, somehow got home, ate some M&M's, and went to sleep. (Well, _I_ stayed up answering e-mail, catching up on Aikido-L, and writing this instead of sleeping...)

I'm getting a massage right after breakfast tomorrow before the first class, since my right shoulder is flaring up again. Hope it feels better...

Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 22:38:11 -0600 (MDT)

Well, I went and got massaged this morning which was great. Unfortunately, the massage pretty much left me like a limp rag for the rest of the day which sort of made me unable to really train very hard. Oh well.

I went to Linda Holiday sensei's class for the first and third classes of the day. In the first class, she went through her "shin kokyu" exercises at the beginning which consisted partly of breathing, rowing exercise, and furitama. In the third class, she went through a lot of ukemi exercises. We broke off into groups, had each person walk past the "nage" who held a jo. Nage would then choose to either stick the jo out to "trip" or "clothesline" uke who was walking by, and uke basically had to either roll over the jo or do a back fall under the jo. I messed up a few times due to Linda sensei putting the jo at around my midsection since I could have conceivably jumped over the jo into a roll or tried to fall under it. I'm blaming the massage and not my slow reaction...

I went to Saotome sensei's classes for the second and fourth classes. During second class, Saotome sensei went through a combination grab and punch/strike/kick and defenses against it. He explained that our tai sabaki should always work in such a way to defend against any such combinations. The fourth class was a lot of fun, although I pretty much sat out the whole class. Saotome sensei went through jiyuwaza from a whole lot of different attacks which was absolutely great to see. We then went into randori with three different attackers doing shomenuchi, yokomenuchi, and munetsuki. We then graduated to these three attackers wielding shinai and attacking with those three kinds of attack. After this, Saotome sensei went into a lot of different bokken drills which I would have loved to have done, but I was already pretty wiped by that time.

After all of this, I helped out at the "Aiki Store" and sold a bunch of T-shirts, weapons cases, and "sticks" for use in two-sword practice that we should be doing on Thursday. I also went around with the digital camera and took pictures of people dancing, playing ping pong, playing foozball, and generally having a good time.

All in all, I'm pretty tired, but it's been a great camp so far...

Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 08:15:36 -0600 (MDT) Hi everyone,

Wednesday is a "day off" for people here at the Summer Camp in the Rockies. Although they do have a couple of classes taught by senior students from Boulder, most people (myself included) opt to take the day off and do more scenic, "Colorado" things.

A big group of people went off to raft. We went to wander one of the caves in the area, but due to miscommunication on the cave tours people, I was one of the few who were unable to make it into the tour. So, onto Plan B. We regrouped back at the Colorado Mountain College campus where the camp is being held and headed east to Aspen.

Aspen is pretty much a tourist town with some spectacular views of the ski runs rising up into the low-hanging clouds. Quite scenic. The town is, well, touristy. A Japanese restaurant offered Pad Thai (for some reason) for $20 a plate. We ended up eating at a bakery/cafe where we bumped into three other aikido people. We wandered through town in the rain (the only day it's rained so far), picked up some coffee, and thought about seeing the shark movie but ended up heading back.

My group went out to Glenwood Springs for people to pick up touristy souvenirs for their children/grandfathers/et al. We got back in time for the "grill" which was held indoors due to inclement weather.

I helped out at the Aiki-Store again after dinner and watched some aikido videos (Yamaguchi sensei, the memorial demonstrations held this May for Doshu's passing). One of the highlights of stuff to watch was a set of ping pong games between Ikeda sensei and Holiday sensei. Ikeda sensei puts some wicked spins on his serves and returns, and Holiday sensei has a really nice touch. Fun stuff.

I'm off to get ready to train again today. Should be another full day of fun.

PS: Linda Holiday sensei was featured on the front page of the local paper, the Glenwood Post. Guess who was uke in the picture?

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 15:56:04 -0600 (MDT)

So I got a bit lazy and haven't written in regarding what's been going on... Camp is officially over, although I'll still be here another night.

Thursday, I went to a couple of classes with Linda Holiday sensei and one class each with Saotome sensei and Ikeda sensei. To recap, Linda sensei went over some fun kaeshiwaza during her second class which were great, and Saotome sensei went through defenses for "multiple" attacks with the role of uke and nage also changing all throughout. Neat stuff. Thursday was the last day for Saotome sensei to teach, as he left for Boston for his son's wedding there. A bunch of us went to a Japanese restaurant that evening for dinner which was really fun with pig jokes and all.

Friday, I spent indoor for all of the classes again. Kevin Choate sensei of Chicago Aikikai taught the first class consisting of a lot of subtle breaking balance stuff that I like quite a lot. Linda sensei taught the second class which consisted of tenchinage and other techniques. Ikeda sensei taught another great class, the highlight perhaps being his working with Eric from Tallahassee who happens to be about 6'9" and quite large. It was great seeing that even when he's outweighed and outmuscled, Ikeda sensei can move people around. Tres Hofmeister sensei of Boulder Aikikai taught a vigorous class consisting of dealing with "failed" attempts with ikkyo and transforming them into henkawaza into udegarami, iriminage, and kotegaeshi.

Friday night was our party at the Carbondale dance hall. After a good meal there, we had a fun talent show which included Linda sensei singing, a couple of guitar players, a flute player, and a belly dancer. Then we opened up the karaoke setup and got to see people performing such aikido standards as "YMCA," "The Way We Were," "Pretty Women," "Kung Fu Fighter," and "Fight For Your Right To Party." Much dancing, carousing, and having fun were had by all.

Today was our last day of camp, and we had two one-hour classes. Linda sensei had a nice, vigorous class which involved techniques from hijidori. Ikeda sensei went through more exercises for breaking balance including quite a lot of work with the aforementioned Eric. Great classes.

After that, we stacked up the mats, loaded up the truck, and sent them on their way to Boulder. Right now, I've heard of some plans to go back to the hot springs again tonight, although all I want right now is something to eat and maybe a short nap.

Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 19:31:02 -0600 (MDT)

I'm now home from the Summer Camp in the Rockies, and I thought I'd wrap up my feelings on it.

Last night after loading up the mats, some of us went to the river to soak in the "natural" hot springs and then went to the brew pub nearby. Although there were only five of us in our party, we went ahead and asked for a couple of tables put together so that about ten people could sit there. So we sat at a half-empty table for about an hour, a couple of us (myself not included) being a bit wary about "taking" these tables without anyone being there. Who knows when people would get here?

Luckily, around 9:30pm, a few more people filtered in. Then a few more. Then a couple more. Soon, there were about thirty of us sitting in the brew pub telling more pig/ostrich/penguin jokes and recalling the week. When the brew pub closed at midnight, we went back to the dorms and sat in one of our rooms for a bit before retiring for the night.

This morning there was still a lot of laughter and hugs as people said "See you again" and walked out the door. I helped clean and pack up the place and then drove on home (although I did need an hour nap in Frisco or so).

Overall, I had a great time at the Summer Camp in the Rockies this year. It was nice to see a lot of my friends from both coasts as well as from the "middle lands." Of course, it was also great to meet and train with new people. I now have a bunch of pictures I took with the dojo digital camera to sort out...

I'm already looking forward to next year's Summer Camp which will be the 20th anniversary Summer Camp being hosted by Boulder Aikikai. It should be fun, folks; hope to see people there.

Jun