May 29th at Florida Aikikai

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[mantis]

A benefit seminar for Kanai Sensei's family will be held on May 29th at Florida Aikikai. The seminar will be hosted by Florida Aikikai, Gold Coast Aikikai, Miami Aikikai, and Palm Beach Aikikai.

for directions go to:
Florida Aikikai (http://www.floridaaikikai.com)

[giriasis]

Thanks for posting this. It was terrible news for us at Florida Aikikai to hear of Kanai Sensei's death. We have often have had Kanai Sensei for seminars outside of Winter Camp. We all will truly miss him. Our dojo will be hosting this and there is a suggested donation of $35-40 but any amount will be welcome. All monies will go to the Kanai's wife and family. I expect this to be a great seminar with those members coming from Palm Beach Aikikai and Gold Coast Aikikai. We always welcome folks from outside our affilation to attend.

[Jeff Lynne]

I have just started training in Aikido and saw the post about the seminar. Would it benefit me to attend? Can you tell me how seminars work (is there practical training, or merely lecture; should we bring our gi, etc?).

Thanks so much. This is all new to me.

[giriasis]

Jeffery,

A seminar is when aikido practitioners get together to train with an instructor that the host dojo brings in from out of town. So it is more of like a regular training session than a lecture; however, you'll be training for four hours with a lunch break inbetween. Regarding the instructors, you won't be lectured a lot although instruction is given and they're good about approaching people on the mat and helping them out. In this case the instructors will be Peter Bernath, 6th dan; Wee-Wow Dumlow, 4th dan; and Richard Wagner, 5th dan. These are the head instructors from Florida Aikikai, Gold Coast Aikikai and Palm Beach Aikikai, respectively.

Even though you just started, you're more than welcome to attend as people from these dojos are sensitive to beginners and will go at your pace. Just tell them your new and feel free to tell people if you don't want to breakfall. Also, nobody looks down on you if you sit out a class or two or sit out a technique.

You will need to bring your own gi and bring an extra one to change into for the afternoon class. I suggest bringing your own water bottle, but we also provide Gatorade to drink for breaks inbetween classes.

Class times will be 10:30-12:30, then we take lunch and return at 2:30 and go to 4:30. We will have a dojo get-together afterwards at 5:00. I recommend you arrive about 30 minutes early as the parking lot gets full during seminars.

I hope that helps.

P.S. Do you train with Josh Drachman in Boca? I know he's ASU now, and he used to train and teach for Peter. He has since started his own school, but I've always enjoyed his classes.

[akiy]

In this case the instructors will be Peter Bernath, 6th dan; Wee-Wow Dumlow, 4th dan; and Richard Wagner, 5th dan. These are the head instructors from Florida Aikikai, Gold Coast Aikikai and Palm Beach Aikikai, respectively.
Wow -- sounds like a great opportunity! If I were in the area, I would certianly be there!

-- Jun

[giriasis]

It was a wonderful feeling to see so many turn out for a one-day seminar in honor of the memory of Kanai Sensei. We had people from at least 6 different dojos from Jacksonville (UNF Aikido Club), Palm Beach Aikikai, Florida Aikikai, Miami Aikikai, Gold Coast Aikikai and Aikido Institute of Miami.

The seminar was broken down into 5 separate classes with each sensei teaching. Peter Bernath, 6th dan of Florida Aikikai, opened the seminar. He taught techniques from shomenuchi and gyakyu hanmi katatetori with some Kanai flavored techniques thrown in. Then Penny Bernath, 5th dan of Florida Aikikai, followed and featured the teens testing for 5th as her ukes, which she did not go easy on. Their ukemi was great. It was wonderful to see Penny showing her support of these young adults. Many of them started over 5-6 years ago and some couldn't even remember how long they have been training. Gus Gustavos, 4th dan of Miami Aikikai, closed the morning classes. Gus focused on techniques from morotetori and he threw in some Kanai flavored techniques as well. After a two hour lunch, Richard Wagner, 5th dan of Palm Beach Aikikai, taught a weapons class. I sat this one out. With all those jos flying around, I was amazed no one hit each other. He first taught a short jo kata then had people pair up for two and three person kumitachi. Finally, Christina "Wee-wow" Dumlao, 4th dan of Gold Coast Aikikai, closed the seminar. She focused on techniques from katatori with various openings. First, she demonstrated from suwari waza then we did standing techniques.

Testing followed the classes. This testing was more special than usual. Of the 11 testers going for 5th kyu 9 were teens who have come up through our kids program. Peter Sensei reflected on how we may have lost someone close to us and how we have come together to remember his life that we also need to look ahead to the future and support the teens entry into the adult program. All of the teens did a wonderful job in their tests as well as the two other adults testing for 5th kyu. In addition to the 5th kyu tests we had one adult test for 4th kyu. She did a wonderful job. (I should know because I took ukemi for her. ;) )

All in all, the seminar was wonderful and a lot of comaraderie was felt between dojos in remembering Kanai Sensei. His presence was definently with us that day.

In Loving Memory of Kanai Sensei,