YouTube: Kayla Feder Sensei at Aikido of Berkeley

Here's a video clip of Kayla Feder (6th dan, Aikido of Bekeley) demonstrating some #Aikido for some prospective students at her dojo.

From her dojo website: "Kayla Feder Sensei began her Aikido training in 1973 at the age of 9 and has trained continuously for 43 years. She studied directly under Morihiro Saito Shihan, 9th dan traveling to Iwama, Japan in 1980. Saito Shihan was an apprentice to the founder, Morihei Ueshiba (O'Sensei). He was one of O'Sensei's longest training students. In subsequent trips to Japan Feder Sensei trained with a number of other Shihan who trained under the founder. Feder Sensei has also trained with and been strongly influenced by Doran Shihan, Nadeau Shihan, Saotome Shihan, and Ikeda Shihan. She received the rank of 6th dan in 2004."

What are your thoughts on this video?

-- Jun

Jun Akiyama wrote: Here's a video clip of Kayla Feder (6th dan, Aikido of Bekeley) demonstrating some #Aikido for some prospective students at her dojo.

IMHO, this is the Aikido I like to watch and learn. Honest clean fluid techniques taught to her by the late Saito Sensei. Such a credit to preserve the art in its purest form. There is also a Video of her and Patrica working with a live blade produced when they were much younger Aikidoka.

I have seen her at two seminars several years ago. What I really enjoyed about Feder sensei was her obvious joy in her practice. I also especially recall that she had an approach to teaching koshinage that I would like to explore some more. Until then I have pretty much given up on being able to do any sort of koshi ever because my knees are pretty bad and I could never maintain a stable position in the narrow stance that I had been seeing taught. As I recall she had a more wide set stance. I also got some good pointers on ukemi rolls and some interesting breakfall practice. And she taught a really cool class on the 13 jo kata ,as a paired practice, that I would really like to work on again so I know it better.

Overall I really enjoyed my experiences with her and hope to get other opportunities in the future.

Cherie Cornmesser wrote: I also especially recall that she had an approach to teaching koshinage that I would like to explore some more. Until then I have pretty much given up on being able to do any sort of koshi ever because my knees are pretty bad and I could never maintain a stable position in the narrow stance that I had been seeing taught.

I too had difficulty with Koshinage. The first Aikido club I trained with had the same approach. Small stance and bend at the knees. If you are tall this was very difficult to perform, especially if Uke was of small stature. I now train under a student of Saito Sensei and Koshinage is a breeze. Large wide stance and you can support your body weight by leaning on one knee. The smaller your Uke is, the wider your stance becomes.

Thanks for posting, Jun! I got something tangible out of it.

I love Iwama aikido, and I've always liked watching demos from Feder sensei. But I still get worried about whether uke is choosing to play along, as opposed to having little to no choice. I like seeing the latter (Ikeda sensei, mentioned in the excerpt in OP, is along those lines).
That being said, that uke's ukemi was inspiring. I've heard of soft-landing breakfalls, but this goes even further-- he turns a breakfall into a kind of a roll (see 0:08 and 0:12 in the vid). I wasn't sure if that kind of breakfall was a great way to fall gently, or a great way to hurt your shoulder or spine.
But I figured don't knock it till you've tried it:

Video here.

Now that I can kind of do it, I think it feels much less precarious than it looks. But not sure about higher force loads (like if I am thrown hard, or fall from full standing position). Also not sure if I can easily do this without preparation, when my balance is taken-- in other words, if it really works. At least it doesn't hurt anymore, now that I can kind of do it. It did hurt to learn it though.

The way I did it, it looks like a forward roll, but note that the lead arm doesn't even touch the floor after all. I deliberately set it up to look like I would do a regular forward roll on my right side. But then, I stopped my right arm from being used at all, and instead used my left arm like in the video. I continued the "roll" all the way to sitting, but you can see my landing is left side down, like if I was taking a normal breakfall from a kotegaeshi applied to right hand.
If I had instead done it wrong by just changing it at the last second to a left-side forward roll, you would see my back to the camera at the end of it, rather than my front as shown here.