I attended Boulder Aikikai's Spring Seminar with Hiroshi Ikeda sensei and Frank Doran sensei last weekend, and I thought I'd write up some of my impressions from it.

It's been pretty much about two months since I've really trained. In the interim since about mid-February or so when I pretty much stopped training, I've only been to one seminar in the Bay Area, a couple of classes in Denver, and taught one class -- that's really about it. All of that coupled with my starting a new job about four weeks ago and also just having completed an interstate move really cut into any kind of physical activity I was doing. Frankly, I was a bit worried about how my body would handle this seminar, especially coming off of injuries (elbow hyper-extension injury from October, knee injury from mid-January).

On Thursday night, though, I pretty much jumped back into the deep end (or, rather, was sort of thrown back in) of things when Doran sensei started using me as uke. Phew. What a wake up call! I guess I did pretty well since he used me off and on for the rest of the seminar whenever he was teaching through the weekend. I'd say I was at around 80% of "full uke capacity," though; I felt pretty heavy, slow, and sluggish.

Doran sensei through the seminar displayed his usual precise, beautiful movements coupled with his characteristic lucid teaching filled with vivid imagery and explanations. From constructing kaitennage from a step-by-step analysis of how uke would respond at each juncture of the technique to his demonstrations of ikkyo through sankyo from ushiro kubishime techniques, Doran sensei reminded me why I felt he was truly a comprehensive encyclopedia of techniques that teaches to all levels from basic footwork to the taking of uke's balance and center. It was a great honor and pleasure for me to be uke for him so many times during the seminar; I really got to feel quite a lot of the techniques he was showing (especially his nikkyo -- wow!).

Doran sensei's techniques, as I wrote above, are very precise, and it feels like he derives a lot of power in his techniques from this precision. Doran sensei's throws are sharp and very much to the point. Where I might feel as uke with some practitioners that I might feel a split second to react to what they are doing, Doran sensei's techniques hardly have this kind of "buffer" time; everything happens right then and there with hardly any time for me to react except by letting my body "do the driving." Totally fun.

Ikeda sensei really went through the importance of developing and controlling center as well as finding the right "place" to derive the most "power" to affect uke. In his usual manner, he had people come up and grab his wrist as strong as they could, and with the tiniest motion, uke would have their center taken and be unable to stop him from having "freedom." He showed that by feeling where uke would be the weakest and by moving from your center, uke couldn't have control over you. In what I believe is a record for all the times I've seen him, he had _five_ people grab his wrist/arm at the same time; of course, Ikeda sensei was able to move them all by affecting their collective center. Amazing, that.

Another amazing thing that I noticed was when Ikeda sensei takes someone's center by turning and bending his legs, his entire upper body basically sinks down -- perfect posture. Even more amazing is that he retains the same exact balance after uke falls -- he's not leaning on uke nor anything, even when his legs are in that little crossed-over-and-bent position. Me? I fall over like a wobbly top whenever I try to do anything like that.

One thing that did bother me through the seminar was that the person who was being used as uke for a demonstration in front of the class (who was me at times) was very usually left looking around for a partner with whom to work. Personally, I was left having to squeeze in as a "third person" with another pair after I was up there as uke unless someone I knew happened to be in the front row and wasn't already lined up to be someone else's partner for the class. I personally think that whoever is being used as uke during a demonstration should be the first person grabbed after a technique; after all, he or she felt the technique in the first place! In any case, this thing of having the person whom the instructor used as uke just wander around after the technique and miss out on half the training since he or she has to look around for a partner bothered me. Just so you all know.

There were many visitors from all over the place whom I knew including a few people from the Bay Area, a few from Chicago, and elsewhere. It was nice to be able to train with all of them again.

Overall, I only have a fuzzy recollection of the seminar since, I think, it's been so long since I've trained. A lot of my energy just went into making sure I didn't self-destruct during the seminar and just trying to keep up with the whole thing. Plus, I probably could have used more sleep through that week...

All in all, I will say that I had a good time at the seminar. There was a good group of people there, the teaching was top-notch, and the training was sincere. Hard to top that, huh?

Jun