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<blogEntries>
<blogEntry id="3505">
	<title><![CDATA[Seminar with Anno Sensei 2]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Today again training. Lovely place to meet a lot of new people. Somehow this seminar benefits from having the good portion of the aikidoka, aka the crunchers and other nasties were absent.

My knee is a bit sore so I have to be carefull not to overdo it. Suwariwaza is a big no-no still...even though I want to do it but I guess being thickheaded and doing suwariwaza anyway is bad. Luckily I am surrounded with friends that take care of me (aka they remind me I am an idiot and shouldnt do suwariwaza)]]></body>
	<date>05-23-2009</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3504">
	<title><![CDATA[Seminar with Anno Sensei]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Already had the first day of the 3 day seminar with Anno Sensei.
Had great fun training with people from different countries: Finland, Spain, Switserland, Netherlands and of course Japan.

It is quite interesting to see that it is very difficult to let go of the form you trained all the time and focus on the connection and Ma.

Of course it doesnt help if your partner thinks this technique can only be one way and all the other ways are wrong. Luckily those people seem to be a very small minority at this seminar.

Btw, Anno Sensei feels like a very sturdy pile of rocks that isnt there :rolleyes:]]></body>
	<date>05-23-2009</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="2196">
	<title><![CDATA[First lesson after knee surgery]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[First aikido class after being away for more than 6 month and having had knee surgery.
I agreed with myself that I would do weapons class and solo excercises only. It went marvelous.
Funny thing is that when you focus all your attention on how to move with your knee that at that point you dont pay attention to what the rest of your body is doing showing you natural movements in their true form.
I didnt expect to go to class and actualy learn something. I went to class expecting to be limping about like a silly clown.]]></body>
	<date>10-19-2005</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="621">
	<title><![CDATA[It is obvious]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Sometimes you suddenly understand something so clearly that you cant understand why you didnt understand that before. You know it has been explained to you a milion times and it didnt make sense then. ]]></body>
	<date>05-11-2004</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="453">
	<title><![CDATA[Ouch]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[If you wack yourself on the head with your jo it hurts ]]></body>
	<date>01-13-2004</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="365">
	<title><![CDATA[Going back to the dojo]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[After having been away from classes since Shochu Geiko due to several different, non-aikido related, health issues I will go back to the dojo today. Now is the time to practise what I always tell others: Start slowly, dont expect to restart at old lvl and be ready for frustration. I guess it will be tough.
 ]]></body>
	<date>11-05-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="140">
	<title><![CDATA[More of Henry Kono sensei]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Henry Kono sensei stayed at our club for a few more days and was kind enough to also teach at our regular monday and tuesday lessons. So more lessons on being out, being soft, on how yin balances yang and how to preserve your own space. ]]></body>
	<date>06-03-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="138">
	<title><![CDATA[Seminar report day 3 & 4]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Saturday the third day of the Henry Kono sensei, Alan Ruddock sensei and Tom Verhoeven took place. Due to childrens class there was no morning session. The first afternoon session was by Alan Ruddock and focussed on the impossibility to rearrange uke. The second afternoon session was by Henry Kono sensei and focussed on the balance between uke and nage. The exercises showed how nage preserves his own space without shoving uke around. There simply is no me, just the interaction.

Sunday the last day of the Henry Kono sensei, Alan Ruddock sensei, Tom Verhoeven sensei came. Henry Kono started in the morning and showed how to move your feet. He told is O sensei used to see that "what men concives is expressed through the hands, but the way of the univers is expressed through the feet.
Tom Verhoeven sensei gave the first afternoon lesson. Lots of variety. Kokyu nage, kote gaeshi, jo dori, irimi nage and some jo suburi. Together with temperatures of 28 degree centegrade enough to make you sweat.
Alan Ruddock sensei gave the last session and continued on the themes from before. The official seminar was closed by Henry Kono sensei.

Henry Kono sensei wil stay near our club until thursday so maybe sensei and he will agree to have him take over some of the usual classes, hence giving our club members another 2 or 3 days to train with Henry Kono sensei. Alan Ruddock sensei will fly home on monday. ]]></body>
	<date>06-01-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="137">
	<title><![CDATA[Seminar report day 2]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Friday was the second day of the Henry Kono sensei, Alan Ruddock sensei and Tom Verhoeven sensei seminar. Henry Kono sensei opened the day with the morning session showing us different exercises to show the balance between uke and nage, and how to work with this balance without disrupting the attention, focus and movement of uke violently.
The first afternoon session was by Tom Verhoeven sensei. After several shiho nages we did some combinations (from ikkyo to kote gaeshi to sankyo to shiho nage) and we finnished this session with some jo suburi.
The second afternoon session was by Alan Ruddock sensei. He focused on the throwing direction in Aikido. He explained that from a movement point of view it is quite strange to do a technique in such a manner that uke is forced into a full stop to eventually fall (backwards or not) into the direction that he came from in the first place when it is also possible to do the technique in such a manner that uke would fall in the direction that he was originally going (and thus wasnot disrupted that much).

In the evening our regular class, not part of our seminar took part. We practised severl forms of koshi nage. (I personnaly dont like the shiho nage like form of koshi nage, but then again aikido is not about me liking the techniques anyway). We concluded with some Aiki kempo. ]]></body>
	<date>05-30-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="134">
	<title><![CDATA[Seminar report Day 1]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[On thursday the first day of the Henry Kono sensei, Alan Ruddock sensei and Tom Verhoeven sensei seminar at our club started. Having to pick up Henry Kono sensei from the Airport I missed the first morning sesion by Alan Ruddock sensei. The first afternoon sesion was by Tom Verhoeven sensei and emphasised on a lot of technical skill. Hard work and lots of sweat. The second afternoon sesion was by Henry Kono sensei. First we had a focus on dropping your weight when being uke and after that we examined the movements that arise from the interaction of nage and uke. Henry Kono sensei's lessons focus on (very advanced) principles. It was a nice first day with lots of people. ]]></body>
	<date>05-30-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="96">
	<title><![CDATA[Being a good uke/partner]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Being a good ok means riding the fine line between attacking to strongly and being to nice.
Somehow attacking strongly for a lot of people seems to mean that they have to attack full force and speed (and thus are no longer able to handle the breakfalling part of ukemi). How to learn people that a good attack is one that follows through. Most bad attacks you get are from people that hold back, change the speed midway or change the direction of the atack to a deliberate miss. In unarmed practise it sucks and is quite enoying, they dont offer anything to work with. But with weapons I fear these partners. Quite often the safety within the exercises lies within the certainty about what your partner is doing. I have been hit more often by people that tried to miss me than I have been hit by people that (within the context of the exercise) realy tried to wack me. ]]></body>
	<date>04-30-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="94">
	<title><![CDATA[Shiho nage]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[It seems that lately there is more focus on training shiho nage in our dojo. Of course different techniques are practised but it definitly feels like shiho nage season. It is vey nice to do even though it seems like a v difficult technique for a lot of the beginners. ]]></body>
	<date>04-29-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="84">
	<title><![CDATA[Shiho Nage]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Today we studied shiho nage with special focus on riai between unarmed technique and bokken. ]]></body>
	<date>04-15-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="83">
	<title><![CDATA[Atemi]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Yesterday while training katadori men uchi dai sankyo my teacher showed us different atemi throughout the technique. I find it very frustrating to notice that my teacher probably has some kind of "sui getsu"-magnet in his fists. Even the softest atemi is spot on and I find my self grasping for air far to often.

Love hurts ]]></body>
	<date>04-15-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="76">
	<title><![CDATA[Tamura sensei seminar]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Today I visited the seminar with Tamura Sensei. He is one of my favorite  teachers. Especialy his focus on "RELAXING" is very nice. When he invites you to do the technique on him he is so relaxed that it is like running into a concrete wall or trying to push a locomotive.
His friendly smile and the little jokes he makes in french, so hardly any dutch person understands them, are always very nice. It is always a pleasure to have the experience to meet one of the favorite ukes of O Sensei.
I learned a lot today. ]]></body>
	<date>04-05-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="67">
	<title><![CDATA[Reigi]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Yesterday we had a theory lesson about reigi, running the dojo and responsibilities of the (senior) students towards the teacher, towards the dojo, towards aikido, towards eachother and towards themselves ]]></body>
	<date>03-25-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="66">
	<title><![CDATA[Shugyo]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Yesterday's training had as theme shugyo. It focussed on the differnt ways of approaching aikido and its training. The differences between renshu, keiko and shugyo. ]]></body>
	<date>03-24-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="65">
	<title><![CDATA[Makoto no Aikido]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[A nice theory lesson again. Focus on the background and philosophical context of Aikido. Looked at Confusianism, Taoism, Neoconfusianism, Zen budism and the relations of those to our western world.
Layers in traditional Japanese society were explored (Shi,No,Ko,Sho) and the differences between the moral standards as portrait by Confusianism and the implementation of those by the Samurai (with their Kiri sute gomen). ]]></body>
	<date>03-18-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="63">
	<title><![CDATA[Mitori Geiko]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Knee hurt again, so I spent fridays class in Mitori Geiko. Very usefull ]]></body>
	<date>03-15-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="58">
	<title><![CDATA[Old dog, New tricks]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[In mondays lesson I finaaly found a way to tackle a problem I been having for weeks. Now I have to practise that a lot. I guess old dogs can learn new tricks anyway. ]]></body>
	<date>03-11-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="57">
	<title><![CDATA[Donovan Waite sensei seminar day 2]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Sunday was the second day of the seminar with Donovan Waite sensei. I like the lessons from Waite sensei a lot but I am also quite amazed about what people pick up from Waite sensei. It seems like a lot of people confuse how it looks with how it is done by Waite sensei. It looks very powerfull, but there is no forced muscle strength in the techniques done by Waite sensei. Still you see a lot of people try to force the techniques, lots of muscle with crunching teeth and veins on their foreheads that nearly explode from their use of force.
We had great fun doing kaiten nage (soto and uchi), dai ikkyo and sokumen irimi nage (which a lot of people call kokyu nage). We ended with a bit of randori.

As a little side note: a found a nice and irritating 5th kyu Shihan. Yeah my own 5th kyu Shihan. Huraah ]]></body>
	<date>03-10-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="54">
	<title><![CDATA[Donovan Waite Sensei seminar day 1]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Today the Donovan Waite Sensei seminar started in Rotterdam. I went with some other persons from our dojo.
Lesson started with a long stretching, followed by ukemi parctise. I still don't understand why people talk about special Donovan Waite Style ukemi, because it sure looks like normal and ordinary ukemi to me. Still people claim it is special.
We continued with simple tenkan and irimi exercises, which were followed by various forms of shi ho nage and irimi nage. Of course the first session was ended with suwari waza ryotedori kokyu ho.
After lunch again a nice and long stretching followed by ukemi practise. Then we practised kote gaeshi,ude kime nage and some irimi nage again and then the more complicated techniques started, two kokyu nages (yes I know this isnot very informative but my body is still processing the training and so I wont even start at describing them) followed by kanseki otoshi. End again we ended with suwari waza ryote dori kokyu ho (surprise??).
I like Donovan Waite Sensei a lot. Besides a good looking man, he is also a very soft, friendly, smiling and gentil teacher. He feels so gentil, but in the same time techniques are so good and subtile. ]]></body>
	<date>03-08-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="52">
	<title><![CDATA[Thou shall not hurt uke]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Especially not when I am uke. I am trusting my partner with my body so he should respect it. Most people understand this without even thinking about it at all, but once in a while one runs into somebody whose enthousiasme makes him forget to be gentil. And hiji osea really hurts too much when done with a lot of muscle. Of course I will survive. Coldpack, some massage and arneca. Darn fragile elbows,
I will have to survive because tomorrow is the Donovan Waite seminar ;-) ]]></body>
	<date>03-07-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="48">
	<title><![CDATA[Shu Ha Ri]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Yesterdays lesson was completely focussed on the concepts of Shu Ha and Ri. In the special lesson for senior students sensei gave a very long explanation about the normal learning proces in Aikido and the effects this has on how one should behave in the dojo. Using the western philosophical concepts of doxa, sophia and idea he was able to clarify for a lot of the senior students what we are looking for in aikido, and maybe more important, in which way we do this. ]]></body>
	<date>03-04-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="46">
	<title><![CDATA[Ordinary training]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Swept the floor. Cleaned the mats. Wipped the blackboard. Arranged the Kamiza.
Nice fast training. Dynamic form of katate dori uchi kaiten nage followed by a very dynamic katate dori sokumen irimi nage and some kokyu nage. Isn't it amazing where you can find extra energy after you are completely and utterly exhausted? Dynamic forms of katate dori dai sankyo followed by some more kokyu nage. We finished with some different kumijo. Two and a half hours is always way to short. ]]></body>
	<date>02-28-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="35">
	<title><![CDATA[Advanced class followed by beginners class]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Nothing like training very intensly. I always enjoy it when my partner discovers he needs all the air he can get and has no air left to talk. Tonights advanced class luckily started out like that. And yes it is possible to do suwari waza kokyu ho at such a level that your partners is really gasping for air.

After advanced class the beginners course, including a dozen people that only have had something like 4 or 5 lessons started again. Shifting down the gear a bit can be quite demanding as well. No more high speed training. Careful and watchful training. Try to avoid that the beginners hurt themselves. Why do some beginners instinctively move in the most dangerous directions?? One smart beginner figured out today that I was not going to tell him how to do it and that he just had to try and practice. Guess what, he did great and was really improving. ]]></body>
	<date>02-25-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="32">
	<title><![CDATA[Train train train]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Yesterday training was nice. Sensei had to go to a meeting but on of the advanced students took over the class. Simple training. Just training training training. ]]></body>
	<date>02-25-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="30">
	<title><![CDATA[I would rather train]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Sensei was ill today. I was the most senior student present when the class started.
I like training myself better, but you cannot always have what you want. Being in charge sucks, although I must admit it can be very instructive as well.
Everybody behaved really nice and put a lot of focus, attention and sweat into their exercises. I just sat in seiza and observered. ]]></body>
	<date>02-21-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="22">
	<title><![CDATA[Ooops]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I had to change the lightbulb today after accidently wacking the lamp with my suburi to. Somehow the impact of the suburi to on my stuff seems te be bigger than the impact of my bokken. ]]></body>
	<date>02-13-2003</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="19">
	<title><![CDATA[Beginners course]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Tuesdays beginners course was great fun again. Having lots of people around that only had 3 lessons makes you think about your own beginning. I guess I must have been as strange when I started, but it still is hard to recognize yourself in the disconnected arms and legs that beginners seem to have.
Some move with great ease as where others get confused only by thinking of moving.
Paid extra attention to one guy that continued to stick out his arm while tumbling backwards. He seemed annoyed by it, but heck at least he did not break his wrist. ]]></body>
	<date>02-12-2003</date>
</blogEntry>


</blogEntries>