Quote:
Greg Jennings wrote:
Not my cup of tea. Take that for what it's worth.
Best regards,
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Regarding the teacher, the sites says,
"Juan has been training in Aikido for the last eight years under the direct supervision of Dr. Philip Chenique, founder of Chendokan Aikido and Atemi-Ryu Ju-Jitsu."
Coming from a traditional aikido background (ASU), I've been training in Atemi-ryu Jujutsu with a student of Chenique's (Gus Hernandez) for going on a year now and am very impressed with his/their ability, sincerity, and open-mindedness. At seminars, I see similar ability/attitude. Their overriding emphasis is unapologetically on street applicability. Chenique's students are centered, quick, have strong technique and a fine training attitude on the mat. I haven't met Mr. Alberto, but if he's Chenique trained, I'm betting he's pretty good.
That said, what I have seen of their aikido does not look "traditional"--I haven't seen any SUARI WAZA nor HANMI HANDACHI, for example, and they do incorporate a lot of the Philippine-style slapping ATEMI (for which, presumably, they are named). However, the standing and rear techiques seems pretty similar. If you ended up at this dojo, it would not be a consolation prize. You would benefit from the experience, but it wouldn't be precisely "traditional" judging from my experience.