Seminar in Pensacola March 10th

Seminar with Frank Calhoun Sensei and Ron Myers Sensei

This is the second in a hopefully continuing series of quarterly seminars held to promote fellowship and unity in Aikido in our area.

Hope to see you there!

Date: March 10, 2001
Location: Aikido of West Florida http://www.aikidowestflorida.com/
Address: 9724-A N. Palafox St., Pensacola, FL 32534.
Phone: (850) 479-1907
URL: http://24.12.212.64/mar10.html
E-mail: phterry@aol.com
Cost: Free

Just a reminder that the seminar is this weekend. March 10th.

I'll be in Pensacola all weekend. If anyone wants to practice Iwama bukiwaza or, more importantly, some beer waza, drop me an e-mail.

Regards,

Let me start by saying that I'm one of the organizers and a student of one of the instructors so I'm not impartial.

We had three sessions. The first was taught by Myers Sensei of Capital City Aikido, the second by Pelusi Sensei of Eight Winds Dojo and the third by Calhoun Sensei of Aikido of West Florida. Pelusi Sensei is recovering from a serious auto accident that had him in a halo for an extended period, so his teaching was a welcome surprise.

The three instructors taught about footwork and its relationship to tai sabaki.

Myers Sensei, in his normal mode, emphasized basics. Correct hanmi, why hanmi facilitates tai sabaki and generation of hip power, getting off line, how to find hanmi, how to move in hanmi, etc. The principles were taught using very basic techniques: katatedori and shomenuchi ikkyo omote, ura and a henkawaza; and katatedori shihonage. Myers Sensei, also in his normal mode, emphasized the need to practice good ukemi in order to avoid serious injury.

Pelusi Sensei taught proper footwork in its relationship to catching, leading and ultimately utilizing the energy provided by uke's attack. Pelusi Sensei used a series of blending, inside tenkan technique versus yokomenuchi to motivate his teaching. The techniques built upon a simple idea of taking uke offline to the rear but doing so while tenkan-ing. Uke was thrown by the combination of the unbalancing created by taking him off line and the centrifugal force of nage's tenkan.

Calhoun Sensei taught proper footwork in the context of randori. Getting off line to the inside or outside, aligning properly for a quick shove or atemi and moving to the next uke. He used three vs. one randori and constrained uke to shomenuchi and both uke and nage to half speed to facilitate his teaching.

The seminar was followed by an organized lunch. Can't comment on that. I had to get back home. It was my wife's birthday and I was on thin ice already.

As a last comment, all three Sensei explained to the attendees that for Aikido to grow and prosper in our area, we needed to experience and value each others' techniques and philosophies. That to do otherwise would be to stagnate and to cut ourselve's off from the Founder's concept of Takemusu Aiki.

I've heard some rumblings about another seminar to be held at Pelusi Sensei's Eight Winds Dojo in Gautier, MS just outside Mobile, AL. I'm also in the (glacial) process of arranging a similar seminar with the Yoseikan AikiBudo group at the University of Alabama.

Hope to see some of you at one of these events one day.

Regards,

Hi Greg,

It sounded like a great get-together and a wonderful opportunity to train with folks from other dojo and organizations. I hope you'll be able to continue on with this sort of sharing in the aikido community in the future...

-- Jun

akiy wrote: Hi Greg, It sounded like a great get-together and a wonderful opportunity to train with folks from other dojo and organizations. I hope you'll be able to continue on with this sort of sharing in the aikido community in the future... -- Jun

Thank you for the encouragement!

I'll certainly keep trying. We've been pretty successful so far thanks primarily to Frank Calhoun Sensei.

I hope you can make it down that way (Pensacola or Mobile) sometime, Jun. I'd like to introduce you to Calhoun Sensei. He's a terrific person.

Best,

Greg Jennings wrote: I hope you can make it down that way (Pensacola or Mobile) sometime, Jun. I'd like to introduce you to Calhoun Sensei. He's a terrific person.

I'd love to get down there, moreso since my only experience in the South has been for the first Aikido-L Seminar in San Antonio, Texas. I was hoping to tag along with my teacher last year down to his Pensacola seminarbut couldn't make it. We'll see if things work out better this year...

-- Jun