Why/Why Not Seminars?

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[akiy]

Now, some of you who know me know that I go to a fair number of seminars a year for my aikido training.

I want to know -- do you attend to a lot of seminars? Why or why not?

-- Jun

[Norman]

I have never been to a seminar.
Are the shugyo (severe) training sessions ?

Just curious.
Thank you,
Norm

[Chuck Clark]

The relative level of severity in any training session is entirely dependent on the level of the participant.

We have to "pace" ourselves, but we should also be putting ourselves "on the edge" often. It's your teacher's job to adjust this in ways that the student sometimes cannot do for themselves (for obvious reasons).

Seminars are great for providing the venue for new experiences with different teachers, partners, styles of practice, etc.

I travel and teach seminars frequently. I try to have my seminars be balanced between learning new things and pushing yourself to the edge of your envelope with things you are familiar with. The seminars I do are mostly with members of Jiyushinkai, so I am also involved in an ongoing relationship with most all of the students.

I recommend going to seminars as often as possible. When you're relatively inexperienced, ask your teacher for their view about which seminars are best for you. Once you have reached the ikkyu/shodan and above range, then travelling and doing "shugyo" is very good training.

[BC]

I attended my first seminar two months after starting aikido, and have thoroughly enjoyed everyone since. I try to attend at least three a year. I find them to be an excellent way to broaden my knowledge and training. I always come away from each seminar with at least one or two new insights or understandings about aikido. Plus, it is just so cool and so much fun to be with a huge group of people all practicing aikido. As far as the intensity level, I've found that you can take the practice at whatever pace suits you.

[George S. Ledyard]

In our younger days there wasn't so much Aikido here in the Northwest as there is now (15 dojos in the immediate Seattle area). We were hungry for any training we could get.

We hit every seminar that was held within a ten hour drive. That would cover all the way down to Arcada, CA where Tom Read sensei was doing magical stuff, up to Vancouver, BC where Saotome Sensei, Ikeda sensei, and Mary Heiny Sensei were apt to go in those days, all the way over to Missoula Montana wher Raso Hultgen has had her dojo for many years now.

Some of us additionally flew to as many seminars with our teachers as we could afford.

Now people are jaded. In the Seattle area each dojo sponsers a certain number of events.The vast majority of students don't seem interested enough to travel across town to train. There is either an attitude of "that isn't my style so I'm not interested" or "we'll have the Sensei at our own place later in the year so I won't bother". It is truely amazing to me. We used to have to really travel to get to these vents. Now, on one weekend last year, there were five major Aikido events held simultaneously in the immediate Northwest area and three were in Seattle! We'd have died to have that kind of access in the old days but now students don't seem to care much. I often have trouble convincing students at the dojo to attend our own events and they are covered in the dues payments so they don't even have to pay anything extra. There are of course major exceptions to this. I have some students who are traveling almost every weekend to train, they are really "hungry". But it seems not to be the main practice these days. I have unfortunately been unable to train like I did in the old days due to extensive family obligations but I still get to a few and like to get back to DC Summer Camp at least every couple years. The seminars we have held have given us some fabulous training over the years (Mary Heiny, Tom Read, Frank Doran, William Gleason, Clint George, Raso Hultgren, John Messores, Saotome and Ikeda Senseis have all taught at oure school.) The people who took advantage of these seminars received invaluable lessons! It is beyond me why more students, who fancy themselves serious about what they do, don't go out of their way to get more exposure to the wide variety of fine teachers there are doing seminars around the country.

[Chocolateuke]

I have attended to 3 seminars. one at the aikido of santa barbra it was great I learned alot slept at the dojo and we had people from san fransico ( home of the 49s) and the energy was very positive great stuff. then my sensi invited the dojo that just held the one i just talked about. great we had a lot of games ( it was for the kids and teens) the games helped with falling timing tumbling and other "Stuff"

the last one was the best. my Teachers Teacher came for two days. what a great workout we had 6 hours day 1 then 5 hours day to. seminars truly help brooden and also show aikido in true form

[jdsingleton]

I've only been practicing Aikido for about eight months. In that time, I've gone to two seminars and ASU's Summer Camp in Washington D.C. I'm planning on attending at least one more this year.

Once I have more experience, I can see myself going to a half dozen or so a year. Right now, I take advantage of being outside Washington, D.C. and being close to Aikido Shobukan Dojo, which means that the annual Cherry Blossom Seminar and ASU Summer Camp are local, as well as a seminar in the Fall. The style is the same and there are enough familiar faces.

I went to my first seminar after just four days of training. It was a "Beginner's Seminar" by Saotome Sensei ("for beginners and those who train them"). There was at least one person there with even less experience than myself. While I don't know if anything I learned there made an impact on my technique, a lot fo what Saotome Sensei said struck a chord.

Jim Singleton

[DJM]

I agree totally...
Seminars are a great thing, both for improving the style you usually practice in, and for learning new ways of seeing/doing things..
As for students not attending seminars at their own dojo, Mr Ledyard, I just can't credit it!
We get very few seminars here in the UK, seldom easy to reach without a car, but I'm hoping to attend as many as I can - style is unimportant :)
Cost can be a factor, obviously, and I have seen some very pricey seminars advertised on the web (primarily for US dojo - not Ledyard Sensei's though ;))

Peace,
David

[Nick]

kinda OT, but my shihan gave me a ride home from class one night, and he said the worst 'seminar' he ever had to give was teaching Aikido as part of a high school PE class. No joke.

-Nick

[Keith_S]

Coming from a very "soft" style of Aikido, my first few seminars were quite scary. In fact they still can be. But I gained such a lot that now I travel around and visit as many dojo and as many different styles as I can. There's nothing more useful than getting some new light on something you though you knew.

At first I had doubts because I feared my own style would get "corrupted" by practicing with different styles, but now I know that isn't really an issue, as everybody gains from the exchange of views.

[Orange]

Chuck Clark wrote:

We have to "pace" ourselves, but we should also be putting ourselves "on the edge" often.


this reminds me of an interesting situation I ran into the other day. I am trying to build up my endurance so I don't kill myself when I attend seminars so I am trying to both pace myself, and attend more classes. So I went to the first class of the day thinking I would take it nice and slow. About halfway through class I ended up partnered with someone who was seemed to have the opposite idea!

There was no recovery time between attacks. I would throw him and he would imediately be back and attacking. I actually enjoyed having to think quickly (or is that NOT think at all, just do) but would up burning myself out so I couldn't stay for the second class.

[Keith_S]

Visiting a new dojo a couple of months ago, I got to point where I was about to pass out. (Maybe I should lose some weight....) The pace was so fast and intense it nearly did me in.

Returning the next week I resolved not to let this happen to me again and tried to figure out how I would survive.

In the end I fell back on the things that my teacher is always reminding me about, which were; a soft and relaxed upper body and breathing. By wasting no energy in "fighting" my uke and keeping my ukemi as soft and flowing as I could manage when I was uke, I finished the evening feeling quite good, in stark contrast to the week before.

It took a hard lesson to force me to learn to value of the fundementals, but do we really learn any other way?

[Nick]

one of my sensei said something interesting at the end of class tonight:

"You know, I run a mile a day, bike for 45 minutes, but when I'm in the middle of a randori, I get winded. So the only way to get better at randori is randori."

-Nick