Training in Japan

Hi there,

I know, again, a long time since my last post.

I'm now back from my trip to japan.
Besides of a group of judokas and tourists, we were 3 aikidokas travelling from tokyo to sendai, to kyoto/osaka and finally to okinawa.

The first 3 days we've spent in tokyo. There we had the chance to attend to training sessions at the Hombu Dojo Tokyo, the headquarter of aikikai. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures there, so I have nothing to present here. It's one of the dojo rules and one has to accept it. It weren't that bad trainings but quite straight forward aikiakai style. I didn't it like too much because the tatami was heavily crowded with so many tourists that I had the feeling of very strong anonymity and couldn't therefore benefit that much.

After 2 days relaxing in sendai (Onsen, mmmmh), we travelled back south to kyoto. We stayed in a very nice Ryokan there and met our friends of the Osaka Buikukai Aikido who guided us through kyoto and nara during the days. In the evenings, we were able to participate on 4 training session.
At the first day, we arrived and went directly for the training. Kimura Sensei warmly welcomed us. It was located in a public training hall and they had childrens exams at that moment. They've put some mats behind the scenes so they could train explicitly with us. It was like beeing thrown into the cold water: No warmup, directly hard training. I was very exhausted.


The next day, after a exhaustive sightseeing through kyoto, we attended a regular training lead by kimura sensei. A lot of focus on irimi tenkan moves and irimi nage throws.

The last day we spent in kyoto, we did another exhaustive sightseeing through nara. In the evening we could first attempt a special jo training,

followed by another regular training session led by kimura sensei.
It was very nice meeting these people there and we were very friendly welcome there. I'm really looking forward to meet them again here in switzerland in october, when kimura sensei plans to give a stage.

Me with kimura sensei while dinner:
The last week we spent in okinawa. The other 2 were able to attend an aikido training (ki-aikido) there. I couldn't because I've already sent my Gi to Tokyo beforehand as we didn't plan to train anymore. Too bad, it showed that it was a very fruitful training session.

Sincerely yours,

Lemy

Passed 4th kyu!

Long time no post, I know. Sorry for that. I've just had too much going on.

Aikidowise, many things happened. Japan is coming nearer and nearer, I've trained a lot in the meantime and on Saturday, January 6 2007 I passed 4th kyu!
Of course I still made a lot of mistakes but as our Senseis pointed out, those errors are meant to be as a motivation in future and we showed quite
a good exam considering our level. Even more, while the others (higher ranked) congratulated, they meant that we youngsters have a very good level for beginners.
E.g. that we're interested and doing already techniques they were just dreaming of on this certain level.

Anyway, I've weared the orange belt 2 times so far and he's so new, my dogi has some orange bands. I will have to wash the belt at some point. Dogi needs to be clean white ;-)

Here are some pictures from the exam. You can get more of them on my flickr account.

Me doing shihonage:




Me doing Iriminage:




Mago doing kotegashi with a big grin on his face (nice!):




And here's a video showing me doing kata-tori nikkyo:



All photos and videos were taken by daria, many thanks for this.

Yours,

Lemy

Lemy goes Japan

I got a cold the last days and couldn't go to the training for about a week now. I missed aikido a lot and was more than happy to get up this morning and heading straight to the training.

It was a good training as there were not that many people on the tatami and I could train my test exam program a little deeper.

Daniel Sensei divided the training into 3 parts today:
- Shinkokyu, Warmup and Stretching
- Aikido
- Aikijo

During Aikido, we focused on our exam program and I was able to do shomenuchi iriminage with a sempai who came back to the training after over 2 years. It was very good as we performed it very fluently and dynamic, which is always fun fun fun (and exhausting).

Aikijo mainly consisted of basics training. It was good for me though, as I didn't use the Jo at home as often as I planned before.

But what's even more important, I've put myself on the list for the dojos trip to japan in april. There's no getting back now. The only thing is, that I'm not (yet) fluent with money at the moment to pay for this trip (a flight to japan is very expensive).

That's why I decided to add a donation button here on my blog. Normally, I hate it to beg, but given the situation, I will have to do it anyway. Maybe some of my readers would donate me a little bit for this trip. That would be so wonderful of you and I would be very thankful. You only need to click on the button on the left and then follow the steps there. You may ask now, what you would get for your money? Well, you will get a nice report about the trip (japan in general and about trainings there), some very nice pictures and maybe even some short movies.

I will write another post on a later date about the trip in more detail.

With warmest regards,

Lemy

An insight into aikido3d

I already wrote about aikido3d and that i've bought it. Since there were some comments on this, I thougth to make a quick screen capture so you get an idea how it looks. I hope I didn't break any copyright rules but since installing this software is not possible illegally, I think it's just good advertisement for the creators.

Yours,

Lemy

Daniel Sensei is back...!

Today Daniel came back to lead the training. It's now quite a long time he wasn't able to train because of his surgery (knee and legs). He still has to take care and is not able to do ukemi at all. But anyway, it's good to have him back. (He was actually quite amuzed to see me back in the training. He said now he has to insert his lenses in order to fight with me a little harder than expected haha).

Warmup as usual with daniel (the other coaches don't do most of it. Each one has his very own warmup style). It was good to do shinkokyu again all over and slowly. Stretching, gyms and we were ready.

As first, I had to show the nikkyo kata with michael. Daniel was quite satisified and had only something to mention on the final pin (i came up from seiza a bit while applying the shoulder lock, which is not good - you get out of balance). After that michael showed sankyo which will be his kata for the 3th kyu test.

Then daniel came back in action and performed his first aikido technique for a long time: katatori shihonage. He was very amuzed and had so much fun. It was a pleasure seeing him doing the technique.

After that, we went on for Jo training. Many different suburis at the beginning (suburi means training basic movements with weapons). After more than 20 minutes of suburi, we went on to the kata we're training for so long now. I really remarked, that I hadn't a Jo in my hand for a very long time. I nearly forgot everything of the kata. But now I got some more inputs to train at home with my own Jo. We'll see.. ;-)

Yours,

Lemy

Video....

Thought it's easier for you when I put the video linked to youtube directly here in my blog, so you find it easier. You can see mago (yellow belt) training aihanmi katatetori ikkyo with sabine (white belt) and our oldie (but goodie) romolo explaining some entry details. As mentioned in the previous post, please ignore the bad quality, my mobile phone has a poor cam in it (if you want better quality, send me a newer mobile ;-)

Yours

Lemy

Tuesdays Training

Yay! Good news! Both Daniel and Ruedi Sensei want us (mago - on the pic left - and me) to have the 4th kyu test somtime in december this year! The next step in my aikido experience is coming up!

Of course, markus mentioned (he's still teaching as daniel still is curing) that this will need us to visit the saturdays class + afterclass more regularly as we would focus on the test program during these sessions. I'll have to reduce my outgoing on friday nights until then. Though but possible :-)

Today was a good training session. There were 5 Students (2x 4.kyu, 2x 5.kyu and 1 6. kyu) apart of Romolo and Markus who took the lead.

At the beginning as usual some gymnastics, warmups, some tai-sabakis, sit-ups (uff) and stretching.

Then, which was quite fun, we did kind of a pre-randory-style walkaround. This means all of us were just walking around the tatamis and if 2 of us spotted each other (eye contact), one attacked with yokomen-uchi and the otherone did a tai-sabaki around him. It's quite exhausting and sounds easier than it actually is. You have to be very focused! Fun fun fun :-)

Rest of the training mainly consisted of:
- katatetori shihonage
- katatetori ikkyo
- aihanmi katatetori ikkyo
- katatetori kotegaeshi

Since we were 5 students, one was always looking and not training (well not for long of course). This gave me the chance to take some pictures. Unfortunately, I only had my mobile phone with me, which only has a 1.5 MPixels cam in it. Nevertheless some good ones came out. I also did a short video. I've put the pictures to my flickr account and the video under youtube. Check them out! Not a lot but at least something, right? ;-)

Yours,

Lemy