Did some Daito-Ryu last night

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[Sam Turnage]

I have got to do a couple things now that most people here on the west cost of the United states will never get to do in there life time. The first thing was I met the Dalai Lama in a unexpected and unusual way. I am a construction superintendent and we have a very successful VIP client that my boss calls a friend and we have built several projects for him. I have either run or been involved with all of them so I remember hearing that his wife is a Buddhist and that the Dalai Lama stays at there house when he is in the Bay area.

So a few months ago I was at work in a small little city in Northern California north of Sacramento doing a small TI (tenet improvement) and I get a call from the office that my boss is coming up there we a “dog and pony” to meet the Dalai Lama. They were all laughing and did not believe it, but they were just warning me that the boss is coming, and something is going on. I knew it probably was true and it turns out that he was coming out to bless one of the buildings for them that had not leased any spaces do to the economy, and I was working in another building onsite. Only the big wigs were there the superintendent (me) and the project manager were not tolled or invited. After doing there thing for some time my boss called me over to take the group picture. So I got to meet him, everyone shook his hand but I just bowed (it seemed more appropriate to me). And my boss snapped a picture of me standing behind him for proof. It was very cool. I never would have thought in a million years that I would meet the Dalai Lama, much less at work in a small little city in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Then last night I stumbled upon a Daito-Ryu Aiki Jujutsu class. I am working out of town again, doing a small job in the Fremont for a few days. The first thing I do when asked to work out of town anymore is to look for an Aikido dojo. So I found 2 to try, Tri City Aikido and Aiki Zenshin Dojo in Fremont. I decided to go to Aiki Zenshin Dojo first because on the schedule for Saturday afternoon it said Daito-ryu. I have looked before on the internet and could not find any Aiki-jujutsu schools on the west cost. It has a very small following and they only practice on Friday night and Saturday night but almost all are black belts and they were very nice. I had a great time.:)

[oisin bourke]

Do you know what style of DR it is? How was the practice similar to your Aikido practice and how was it different?

Good to hear you enjoyed yourself.

[Sam Turnage]

Do you know what style of DR it is? How was the practice similar to your Aikido practice and how was it different?

Good to hear you enjoyed yourself.

Sorry he told me the name but I didn’t pay much attention to it I was just happy to do a DR class. He said that the master from Japan comes out every 6 months or so and that he is about 86 I think he said.

To compare it to my aikido training is hard because I only did 1 two hour class and they did a small demo for me so it is not like I got to do a lot. The style and techniques seemed very similar. We worked on a lot of aiki techniques and principles both seated and standing that seemed the same and I did pretty well with them. The techniques where all a little different and with slightly different names.

We worked on 3 of there basic techniques:

The first was against a standing shomonichi, It was basicly an ikkyo but done very different. You enter and stop the attack with your back hand not your front, to the underside of the elbow and or tricep and break there balance, followed very quickly by an atemi with closed fist but you strike with your thumb, to either the pressure point under the arm or the hart. Then you do your ikkyo bringing them to the ground but it is not an omote or ura, its somewhere in the middle. And the pin is done standing with there arm up. You hook your heel of your foot around there shoulder and into there collar bone. I felt like this pin would be much harder to do in a fight then a basic ikkyo but it was fun. In fact they later showed me in the demo several advanced classic jujutsu pins where they had both arms and legs pined, they were cool but I some them as not realistic for Self defence.

The 2nd was against a yokomon, you open and enter both arms extended slightly with or like knife or sword edge out. When you enter step behind the leg of the attacker, bring your ki down, rotate hips, grab wrist and throw. I have done this in Aikido class before. Here they really emphasized not distance or no openings.

The 3rd was standing front shoulder or lapel grab. This is very different then how we do it in aikido. One fire strike with both hands one goes to the elbow of the arm that is grabbing you but not just a strike, it is more of a push strike toward or though the shoulder to break there balance the other hand strikes up thru there face. Then bring that hand back down striking there nose, then the other hand strikes downward to the top of the elbow of the grabbing hand. Then do nikkyo, then ikkyo etc.

[Timothy WK]

Sorry he told me the name but I didn't pay much attention to it I was just happy to do a DR class.
An internet search brings up the Roppokai homepage.

We worked on 3 of there basic techniques...
From your description, I believe you practiced:

1) Ippon-Dori
2) Kuruma-Daoshi
3) Gyaku-Ude-Dori

Good ol' technique number #1, #2, and #3.

[Don_Modesto]

An internet search brings up the Roppokai homepage.

From your description, I believe you practiced:

1) Ippon-Dori
2) Kuruma-Daoshi
3) Gyaku-Ude-Dori

Good ol' technique number #1, #2, and #3.They practice the HIDEN MOKUROKU in Roppokai?

[Timothy WK]

They practice the HIDEN MOKUROKU in Roppokai?
Not necessarily. Someone with more knowledge can correct me, but starting with these three techniques seems bigger than just the Hiden Mokuroku. For example, Ueshiba begins both the "Budo Renshu" book and the 1935 "Budo" film with these three techniques (suwari-waza, though).

Is Howard Popkins around to shed some light on all this?

[Sam Turnage]

Not necessarily. Someone with more knowledge can correct me, but starting with these three techniques seems bigger than just the Hiden Mokuroku. For example, Ueshiba begins both the "Budo Renshu" book and the 1935 "Budo" film with these three techniques (suwari-waza, though).

Is Howard Popkins around to shed some light on all this?

It seems to me that If you really wanted to know, you could just email the dojo. www.aikifremont.com and ask the Daito-ryu instructor, his name was Shawn Douglass.