Wednesday Training Session

Today Ruedi Sensei took the lead.

Monika, Reinhard, daniel sensei, me and one guest (beginner) participated as well.

Shinkokyu and stretching at the beginning. My feet still hurted but i managed to not remain too long on the knees ;)

Some handgrabbing techniques, followed by iriminage. I did it with the beginner and was not able to do the technique correctly. I think only advanced aikidokas can perform a technique correctly with beginners. I had to concentrate to not push him to hard intot the ukemi since he had some problems with that.

Then grabbing the shoulder technique together with monika. Quite fun for both of us since we were not able to do it exactly as ruedi showed it but we came into some weird other technique which was very effective and we were both extremly surprised :)

Followed by bokken training. We mainly focused on shomen attack and getting out of the line while trying to cut uke in moving up the bokken with one hand. It was good to do this with daniel sensei because he mainly focused on my shomen and my movements. I learned a lot in this short training.

At the end some more stretching (shaking the feet of your partner, stretching his knees over his breast).

It was good to go to training over lunch today because my working day did not start good today. In the afternoon, everything worked again. Could that be because of aikido? Hmmmm ;-)

Yours,

Lemy

Hooooot - Tuesdays Training

Daniel Senesi took the lead, supported by markus.

Since it was still very very hot in the dojo (especially on the tatami zone where they had tae-bo training beforehand, i think you get the picture :) we did not much moves and difficult ukemis today.

We had two guests who did aikido for the first time today.

At the beginning shinkokyu as usual followed by some stretching exercises.

Then we did some different ukemis along the tatami zone whereas markus did it with us more experienced aikidokas and daniel focused on the guests, showing them how to roll correctly.

For me it's still not easy to do that much ukemis. I think this has mainly 2 reasons:
1st of all, i still have problems with backward rollings. Somehow i never manage to finish them correctly.
Then i think i'm not breathing correctly during ukemis. As most aikidokas know, this can be very critical (only seeing black a.s.o.). I have to work on this!

Continued with irminage but on knees (because it was really hot), both positive and negative. Quite good, i had the chance to train this with markus (2nd dan). He was a big help especially in reminding me how to move correctly on the knees (veeery difficult if you're not used to it. My feet hurt like hell!).

Then same with shihonage (on knees). My feet hurted more and more until the first piece of sking rubbed away (burns like hell). I had to bite on my dents very hard :)
Since daniel showed each piece of shihonage very slowly, we did this technique a couple of times. At the end we went up and did it on feet (at last, uff!).
Then he showed some conter-technique for the more experienced of us (where I don't count me on ;) We did this in a kind-of randadori style: Walk around the tatami zone, grap a partner, and do the technique 2 times (each one playing uke once), then move along and get another partner. Quite funny this way.

At the end daniel showed the whole repertoire of the basic technique using 2 opponents (markus and reinhard) with one jo (taking jo, using jo etc.) for the guests to get an idea how far aikido can go. Veeeery amusing and interesting. I enjoyed very much!

At the end again some stretching and then we were finished.

After daniel asked me how the training was for me, I showed him my feet and he get big eyes and explained me I should move correctly on knees (he actually showed me again). Funny, markus stood asaide an was smiling, hehe. I told daniel that I enjoyed the training and markus already told me how to move, but I have to work on this :)

Quite fun and not so relaxed as usual but i think this is because of the heat in the dojo :)

Yours,

Lemy

Bokken - Saturdays Training

Since i did not have the time to blog on weekend, i write this entry a bit late. Therefore i cannot remember each detail, sorry for this :)

Daniel Sensei was back from holiday and joined the training, whereas he already took the lead again. (They mentioned he was already back for thursdays training but i'm not training at thursdays...)

Warmup with shinkokyu as usual and stretching.

Then we did some handgrabbing techniques from behind with shihonage at the end. I trained it with romolo. Funny he had quite the same problems as i had. Didn't expect this from a dan aikidoka :) But this tells me: Learning will never end! I have to remember this forever.

Then, since it was really hot in the dojo, especially in the tatami zone, we spent the rest of the lession with bokken training. We begun studiing a kata from Walter Oelschlaeger (a well known profi-aikidoka sensei here in europe, sensei of the 3a / Académie Autonome d'Aikido).

Quite fun again and really relaxed after class.

Yours

Lemy

Iriminage - Wednesday Training

Today again, ruedi sensei took the lead.
Monika (blue belt) and Reinhard (brown belt) were there as well.

As warumup our kokyu exercise and afterwards some stretching. Really fast done today.

Today we trained mainly iriminage.

First we repeated the entering technique without doing anything further. I have to keep in mind to get the correct food in front in order to be on time. Quite good to practice such basics again.

As first, uke entereing with tsuki. Then uke entering with shomen. Both are quite basic irminage throws and i got it quite good today. (well, sometimes i forgot my legs and did not move correctly... ...very dangerous if you think about it ;)
Then with a tsuki to the head. This is a bit more tricky, you'll have to load up uke on your arm which leads in a bit different move then. Most problem for me was changing the side of ukes arm. Had really problems making this smoothly. I had to repeat it several times veeeery sloooowww, then I got it :) Ruedi even showed us another approach to such an attack. Just take ukes arm shortly and push a bit in the direction of the uke... ...no way he can handle that.

If you wonder how iriminage move looks, take a look at this animated picture.

I still felt my wrist today in the training. But fortunately we did no shihonage today :) the wrist is not much used in iriminage...

Yours,

Lemy

Shihonage - Tuesdays training

Yesterdays training was led by markus again.

Warmup with rollings and stretchings.
I still got problems with backward rolling just as is. This means if I have to roll backward in practicing a technique, i do it correctly without thinking. But when we're doing this at the beginning over the whole tatami length, I mess things up most of the time. I'll have to work on that.

The whole evening we've practiced shihonage techniques:

First gyaku hanmi katatedori shihonage. Both positive and negative.

Then ai hanmi katatedori shihonage. Only positive here since this is a bit more tricky. Quite funny: When romolo (4th dan, around 70yrs old) explained on me (as uke) how this technique would be if performed fast, he almost broke my wrist. Impressive how much power you get without using much force. It hurts even today but I think this has to be part of the learning process, no? :-)

Then yokomen shihonage, both positive and negative.

At the end again yokomen shihonage but this time with a tanto tori (wooden knife). With this, I got the technique much better since it made much more sense to get out of the line when the attacker comes in with a knife. Quite impressive with shihonage you can get uke into a position where he has the blade on his neck or easily remove the knife out of his hand. That was much fun!

If you wonder how shihonage move looks, take a look at this animated gif. This picture shows a bit more detailed how the wrist get pushed.

Except my wrist, very good training session and I was really relaxed again after it.
Let's see if it still hurts when i go to training today at lunch :)

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training Session

Today, as usual, Ruedi took the lead. Beneath me and Ruedi, there were also Monika (blue belt) and Martin (brown belt) there.

Stretching and Kokyu at the beinning as warmup. Quit fun to do some ikkio as a stretching exercise. Both parties do an ikkio on the same position, which stretches your back and side.

Then we used Gym Balls to enhance our rolling techniques. This was quite good for me to repeat that again. I'm already getting familiar with the beginning of ukemi (you do this with rollings whereas you don't roll over but stay in a correct lying position). I got still some problems in having the correct leg in an angle but not so often as earlier. Some progress here :)

Then again some randadori with backward yokomen (nage / i forgot the bloody name for backward again!) catched with irimi nage (uke).

At the end my first bokken training. Quite fun with that weapon. Begun with a kata training (tsuki & shomen).

It's still fun to go to the aikido training and i'm already feeling a bit more comfortable in repeating techniques.

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesdays Training

Today, Markus took the lead again. Since tuesdays training is the beginners training day, we were only 3 dans, 4 yellow belts and me as the only white belt.

At the beginning again rollings and ukemis as a warmup.

Training was very good. I focused on irimi ikkio (irmi is entering into the punsh (shomen here), which is very essential in aikido and ikkio is a holding technique) today which i will have to show on the kata for the yellow belt. Pascal, the visiting dan aikidoka, normally training in luzern, gave me many instructions and tips on how to improve this technique while the others were training irimi nikkio (which will be relevant later for me: for the orange belt). The tipps were not relevant for the kata (there it has to be performed in a certain way) but for real application of this technique. He helped me a lot and i've learned so much, i understand the technique much better now.

Then we learned a technique (damn, i've forgot the name again!) where you surpass a tsuki punsh and go behind your enemy where you pull him backwards where he loses his balance. Quite impressive and looks really easy. But timing is everything here. If you're too late, you cannot apply this technique. I had to do that very slow in order to make it correct. Again, pascal was a big help here.

At the end again some randadori (3 vs. 1) without using techniques, just quibbling around. I did that with 2 women and had to back off a bit :)

Ah, i was in tuesdays training today because i think i will not be able to go to training at saturday because i'm going out at friday (will be late). And since i intend to train at least twice a week, i decided to not go to unihockey (floorball) training but to the aikido.

Much fun, much relaxing. Feel good! :-)

Yours,

Lemy

Saturdays Training

Much more students in class today. Markus, 2nd dan, took the lead today.
There were 3 dans (one of them a former student of the dojo on a visit), 1 orange, 2 yellow and 3 white belts (including me).

As a warmup, some rollings and ukemis. No kokyu at all today.

The whole session we trained on our Jo kata we're training for a couple of weeks now. Daniel gave order to train it further while his absence. It was good to repeat everything from the beginning again since i've forgotten many details since the last time. We focused on the feet movements toady since this is special for this kata/style. Markus explained from whom this kata is but i forgot it again (maybe i should learn japanese as well as a help?). Anyway it was good and i learned a lot today which i can use with my new own Jo at home for myself.

After class (4 of us remained), markus brought his sword and showed us some iaido katas. It seems markus is training a lot of those budo sports. These were really impressive and it gave me a taste for it that i'm going to watch kill bill 1 & 2 stright away right now :)

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training Session

Today we were only 3. Ruedi (4th dan), me (u know, beginners white belt :) and martin (i think its called 4th kyu? the brown belt?). Since our sensei daniel is on vacation, sensei ruedi took the lead.

At the beginning some more stretching exercises. Ruedi really takes most care about the head party. Got a good feeling anyhow. Afterwards he explained a bit more of the kokyu (breathing techniques) we're doing at the beginning of each training session.

Then we did some 180° turns and used them for some hand-grabbing techniques (since i'm not yet familiar to the naming, sorry for that, I think it's called dori?) from the front with both hands, then with one hand and finally from behind. Since martin is not the youngest :) and he has some problems with his knees, it was not always that easy for him.

I remarked a big problem of mine: Got troubles in forward rolling. I really have to keep in mind to keep the leg nearer to the uke (attacker) behind the other one. Had some dangerous rollings today just because of that. Unfortunately nothing happened :) Ruedi helped me a lot in this today. I have to remember that for the next times until its automated...

At the end we did then some randadori (defending many attackers) together whereas not using any techniques, just to quibble around (irimi, tai sabaki). Whereas the two ukes used different attacking techinques: shomen, yokomen, tsuki a.s.o. This was really fun and i got a bit more the feeling of real life than just repeating some techniques slowly.

As usual: Really relaxed after the training. Aikido still is what i was looking for.

Yours,

Lemy

Why Aikido

Why the hell aikido and not anything else?

Well, i was impressed from different fighting sports since a long time.
Whereas i did not want to learn attacking at all. For me it was more to train my concentration, breathing and the possiblity to defense yourself.
Judo and Jiu-Jitsu came into my mind but after 1-2 trainings i felt a bit too challenged. For me it has to do nothing with challenges.

Then i read an article about aikido. The sentence "using aikido you just want to show the senseless of the attackers attack" impressed me and so i decided to try it out.

I looked around berne which dojo would match most for me (specially the location was the most important thing). I found the "Nippon Bern" and its location was the best for me (very near the train- and busstations, nearly the middle of my workingplace and home). www.nipponbern.ch

After two training sessions, i felt really comfortable there and the people were very friendly.

This is a picture of the tatami zone in my dojo. On the right hand, it's my sensei daniel:


This weekend, i've bought a book about aikido: Total Aikido by Gozo Shioda and his son Yasuhisa Shioda. It's very good since it has many pictures in it and is adressed for both beginners and advanced users: total aikido at amazoon.com
If you'd like to support me, you can buy me the previous book of them: Dynamic Aikido. ;-) Check my whishlist for that.

But that's not all... ...after having my first Jo lessions this weekend, i had to buy my own Jo. It's from chineese wood (cheaper than the ones comming from japan) and it's fun to train at home :) Hope i'll improve it a lot using it at home. The green around our house already looks a bit used...

Yours,

Lemy

Introduction

Hello People outha there.

My Name is Stefan Lengacher and i'm living in Switzerland.

1 Month ago, i just started with aikido training and i'm quite happy with it.

Surfing the Internet, i found Bryans Aikido Blog (http://ibaraki-bryan.blogspot.com/) and found it would be perhaps interesting for some people to share some aikido training moments from a beginner point of view. So here's the purpose of this blog :)

I will try to write about each training lesson i had, the problems arised and the impression it gave to me.

Hopefully you will be able to see some improvements here ;-)

Sincerely yours,

Lemy