Blog of an aikido beginner

Stage Yoshimitsu Yamada Zürich

2009-10-26T11:49:00.002+01:00

Hi there,

Last wednesday, october 21st 2009, I went with my teacher Daniel to Michi in Zürich for an overnight sleep before leaving towards italy to visit the international stage of Kimura Sensei (details will follow). By luck there was Yoshimitsu Yamada from Aikikai New York visiting Zürich at the same evening. So we directly headed to the dojo to visit this interesting training.

I was really thrilled to see Yamada Sensei in real for the first time as I've seen plenty of videos of him before (search youtube - you'll find a lot of him! For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI_V7yRaIJg) and liked what I've seen so far.

Training started with a very short warmup. It seems not to be usual to have extensive warmup all together - one has to be there early to warmup himself it seems.

The whole training consisted of Shomen-uchi attack on different techniques.
We started with irmi-nage. Yamada Sensei pointed out the importance of bringing uke out of balance and to have a proper stand and position (using irmi-tenkan).
We continued with ikkyo, nikkyo, Kote-gaeshi, Shiho-nage, kaiten-nage (in groups as space was limited) and finished as usual with kokyu-ho. Very interesting to see that the entrance for e.g. nikkyo is the same as for kaiten-nage.

From what I took out of this training, the essence in the style of yamada sensei is to have a very low position when performing the technique. Although he pointed out that one has to know what is best for him (yamada sensei is not a huge person, therefore his techniques are performed in a rather low position), I tried to bring down uke as low as possible as well (which didn't work well all the time of course :-).

The teaching stlye of Yamada Sensei is very nice. He likes to show and point out common mistakes before letting people try the technique. He's also a very funny person, making quite a lot of jokes during the training, resulting in lots of laughters during the training and a relaxed atmosphere - well, at least for an aikido training.

After the training I had the chance to have a quick chat with him outside the dojo. It turned out that he was travelling through europe, mostly all alone. He didn't bring his ukes as most of his students are locals and joining the trainings where he stays.

I found him to be a very nice and keen person and his aikido is really of high quality. Unfortunately, I somehow suddenly had pain in my back in the middle of the training so I had to pause for some minutes. I think this came from the fact that we didn't arrive early enough to warmup ourselfs extensively before the training. It just shows how important it is, to do a proper warmup at the beginning. Unfortunately, the pain didn't actually disappear the next few days. Not the best thing to have when travelling long distance with the car to join an international aikido stage in italy.

Yours,

Stefan

UAS Stage Magglingen

2009-04-11T17:56:00.002+02:00

Last weekend we had our yearly aikido stage of the aikido union switzerland in magglingen.

The stage started friday evening but unfortunately I could join at saturday afternoon only because I had school this week and there was an exam on saturday morning.

I attended two training sessions on saturday afternoon led by two different teachers from within the aikido union.

The first was very interesting. It was dedicated to hirokazu kobayashi (whom I never met as he died in 1998 - 6 year before my aikido trainings started). The teacher showed and let us train some of his personal interpretations of the techniques which made kobayashi so unique. You might get an idea of what I mean when you watch the following video on youtube (at around 1:10 you'll see the nikkyo):

We extensively trained the different styles (or should I call it possibilites) of nikkyo as shown by this great teacher. My wrists were pretty hurt after this session as you can imagine :-)

The second training on saturday was then mainly focused on short movements (instead of the big ones often seen in aikido). Quite interesting to do some direct entering irmi nage in a dynamic way.

Saturday morning training session was pretty hard for me. I was a bit hung-over due to an extensive beer tasting the evening before ;-) so I had to rest from time to time. :-)

The following last session was then led by my teacher and he focused mainly on techniques with a Jo.

All in all once again a very interesting stage as the trainings are led by different teachers all brining in their own personal understanding o techniques and aikido in general. A very good way for a beginner like me to get a feeling of what the essence aikido might be.

You can check out pictures from this stage on my flickr account under the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemy/sets/72157616299711785/

Yours,

Lemy

City Aikido San Francisco

2009-04-11T17:41:00.005+02:00

I still owe you an entry for my last visit of an aikido training in San Francisco.

It was one of our last days in San Francisco when I took the opportunity to join a training at City Aikido in San Francisco.

I was really hoping to see Robert Nadeau Sensei (even more since I missed Frank Doran Sensei at Aikido West in Redwood) but unfortunately again, it was a training not led by him, so he didn't show up. Also his wife didn't show up so I didn't had the opportunity to tell her the greeting from back in Berne Switzerland (as it happens she used to train in the same dojo as I do - although I've never met her as she moved to San Francisco before I started with my Aikido Trainings).

Here again, there were two training sessions. The first was for beginners followed by a more advanced training.

The beginners training was quite nice for me to repeat several basic things like backwards fall, tai-sabaki and hanmi (the standing position as called by aikidoists). I couldn't find relevant differences to what we learn back at my home dojo so it was quite good to do a warmup with basic things.

The advanced training was very interesting as well. More or less it just continued with what we had in the beginners training but going into more details. Upon a wish of one of their students we also looked at conter-techniques which was quite interesting (kokyunage contered with kokynage as an example). However, these are still things a bit too advanced for me, especiall if it comes to kokyu-nage, so I just tried to do my best and to get a good sweat at least :-)

After the training I was approached of one of their more advanced students (1st kyu), asking me what my favourite technique was and on which attack. He was keen enough to show me some details to work on with tsuki-kotegasehi. We mainly focused on extending the attckers force at the right moment and in more detail how to actually throw when applying kotegasehi. Very interesting but it led to an additional half hour of training where my sister had to wait for me :-)

She took some pictures of the training while I was participating. Check some of them below:

Aikido West - Redwood C.A.

2009-03-17T06:30:00.005+01:00

Hi

After an exhausting sightseeing throughout San Francisco, I went today to the Trainings at Aikido West in Redwood C.A.

Due to high traffic around S.F., I returned a little late and the basics training was already ongoing. They were doing some basic Jo movements. Meanawhile, I was warmly welcomed by Paul who let me fill out the needed information letters and showed me around the Dojo.

The dojo itself is within some kind of a hall but very nice built up (see some pictures below). A nice Kamiza, some mirrors and paintings.

Paul told me that it's not a problem to join the training at any time and so i did. Jane, who led the basics training welcomed me too and I could grab one of their Jo's and directly participate.
The basics training was very fundamental and it was very good for me to repeat all these movements (Shomen-Uchi, Block, Tsuki). After that, some of the more advanced students threw us with their Jo's and it was a good warmup rolling exercise for me. We finished this training with Kokyu-ho which I gladly could do with a 2nd kyu student and made me already some sweaty.

The following General Training was led by Paul. The warmup session was a long endurance of basic movements (mainly tenkan). After that, we did the basic pins of ikkyo, nikkyo and sankyo all on kata-tori. I struggled a little bit with the initial movements as we rarely perform these pins on this attack.

All in all, these trainings were very good and it was very interesting to see some slight differences in the technics-details to our trainings.

The people of Aikido West are very friendly and I had some good chats afterwards (they even invited me for a beer or two which I had to refuse due to my sister waiting back at the motel to get some dinner).

If I get back to California (which I definitively will at some point), I will definitively visit them again.

Following some pictures:

Yours,

Lemy

ACLA

2009-03-14T20:24:00.002+01:00

Hello,

I'm currently travelling through california and planned to train aikido in some dojos during that time.

My first stop was at Venice Beach, so I googled around upfront for a nearby dojo and found the Aikido Center LA as the nearest place to join a training session.

I arrived in L.A. on Saturday, March 7. On Sunday we visited the 6 Flags Fun park, so there was no time to join a training session. On monday then, I went for the fundamentals training there.

The trip to the dojo was longer than expected. I directly hit the rush hour traffic on the highways of L.A. during that time. Luckily I planned enough travel time so I arrived on time for the training. When I entered the dojo, I was quite amazed. It's a very nice and neat dojo they have there. It turned out they just moved in recently - so no showers for the time beeing. See the picture below indicating the dojo as it is today:

When I entered, there was a Black Belt in discussion with a white belt on the tatamis. Besides them, the dojo was empty. I introduced myself as a visitor from europe and that I would like to join a training. They warmly welcomed me and asked me to fill out a questionnaire (name, initials, aikido background, insurance details etc.) and to pay the mat fee of $20. Because of that, I was about 2 minutes late to start the training. There were only 3 other students on the mat and the training was unfortunately not led by their current main sensei (it turned out that he changed recently due to the passing of Kenshu Furuya, 6th Dan Hombu) but by one of their insturctors (unfortunately don't remember his name). During the training, another black belt joined us and introduced him as "Ken". After the training I had a quick chat with him and it turned out that he was actually the new sensei of this dojo - Ken Watanabe, 5th Dan Hombu).
I had the pleasure to train with him ikkyo on shomen-uchi and it felt just great (he was very relaxing and flexible as both, uke and nage).

Overall, the trainig was very exhaustive. We started with some sokumen-irimi stretching exercises, sokumen-irmi, irmi-nage, kote-gasehi and kokyu-ho at the end. One of their main students (white belt - always uke when showing the techniques) was very advanced and I had quite powerful sessions with him. Funny story, when performing kotegaeshi with him, he once threw me quite dynamically (had to do a high fall), the instructor asked him to be more friendly with the visitor (me) - but this was not a problem, as I did exactly the same with him afterwards, heh! Interesting: He was doing the high fall very very smoothly, something I'm still working on myself (kind of falling leave falling).

I initially planned to go to the training the day afterwards (tuesday) but due to an extensive trip to the universal studios, which took longer than expected, I had to skip this one.

Next, I plan to visit Frank Doran at Aikido West in Redwood CA. I'll post another one in case I can attend a training there.

Keep you updated!

Lemy

Pictures Stage Kimura Farra di Soligo

2008-11-05T20:29:00.005+01:00

As promised I've uploaded some pictures from the stage with Kimura Sensei in Farra di Soligo. You find them on my flickr account by following the link of the title or by clicking on the pic.

Hope you enjoy.

Lemy

Stage Kimura Shihan - Farra di Soligo (it)

2008-11-03T19:46:00.009+01:00

Hey there.

This will be a long post, so lie back an enjoy, i think I owe you ;-)

I'm back from the Aikido Stage with Kimura Sensei in Farra di Soligo (Italy). Here some impressions in written first. Pictures will follow as soon as I find time to organize the hundreds of pictures taken during the stage. Stay tuned (^^)

The outward trip:
We were 4 people from the german part of switzerland (Me, my personal Sempai Michi, Amanda and Dina), travelling together to this special stage in italy. We started our journey early friday morning (again a big thanks to my parents who have offered their car for this long trip - we would have had even longer without it!). Unfortunately, we had a huge traffic jam around milano, resulting in a trip time of 10 hours (instead of the proposed 6.5h by google map!). We arrived at around 7pm in our Hotel in Farra di Soligo (Ai Archi - very neat!) - tired like nothing else. First thing was receiving a message from one of the companions of kimura sensei telling us to call him upon our arrival. Of course we did so and were short after warmly welcomed by our friends from japan. It was so great to see them again after such a long time! They directly invited us to the (unplanned) training session on friday evening. I was not too excited due to the long trip and not having eaten something. But I was convinced by the other 3 to do it anyway. Quickly eating some antipasti to have at least something in the stomach we went up to our rooms to get dressed (Gi, hakama etc.) as we were told that there's not enough space to get dressed and that it's only a 5 minutes walk to the little dojo.

The first training:
It turned out that this was not an official trainig of the stage and that kimura sensei just gave a training to the local dojo and its aikidoka. It was a nice training and we had a good sweat in this little training hall. Kimura showed a lot of his well-known tai-sabaki movements and center work. I had the pleasure to receive a nice special nikkyo from sensei kimura - the one where you hold the whole forearm of uke in front of your abdomen with hands up - like in the following picture:

Tapping did not help and Kimura sensei showed me clearly that my personal pain barrier can easily be exceeded without beeing harmed - I never felt such a nikkyo-pain before... hehe. After the training, he handed over diplomas to some local aikido students who (as it seems) just passed their kyu exams (from 5th up to 1st kyu). Nice to get an official osaka buikukai diploma for each kyu you do (^^). After the "official part" finished, we handed over our presents to master kimura and his companions. Then back to the hotel, having a shower and detecting that our hotel acutally is the only restaurant in the whole town and already was closed. We headed for a pizzeria 3 km away and had a good original italian pizza and a few beers. After that there was nothing holding us back from our beds...

Saturday morning - the first official training:
We decided to continue to dress up directly at the hotel. Even though we had to take the car to the training hall (3km away). We were quite on time and it turned out that it was actually very good to have attended the training the evening before. The techniques trained were more or less the same (^^). Kimura Sensei started the stage with one of his nice demonstrations with Yamada (3rd dan), his uke. I was quite surprised how his aikido style adapted over the time I've seen this the last time (in berne - 1 year ago). He seemed to be less forceful but even though more effective - how can that be? I fear that I will never really know... There were quite a bunch of people on the tatami but happily there was lots of space (around 1.5 mats per person I would guess...). I trained with some italian white belts and with my other 3 companions. It was very nice. In the middle of the training, master kimura ordered for 3 ukes and let a couple of aikidokas he knew perform katatetori shiho-nage in randori style (it was counted up to 6 for each of them). I was quite excited and would have loved to do it as well. But a white belt should keep patience and so I just shut up and watched :-) In order for us to relax a bit, kimura let tomomi have a little demonstration. I was really impressed how much she improved since the last time! Exciting! After the training back to the hotel, shower and eating something in our hotel (together with our friends from belgium - a sensei and his wife - sorry already forgot the names again - I'm just too bad with names). Then a siesta to relax until the next training session (4pm - 6pm).

Saturday afternoon training - and the party after:
It turned out that the siesta was too deep and we forgot about the time (I know I know, this only counts for me and Michael, Amanda and Dina were ready on time). We had to stress up like hell in order to be on time. Michael was not even able to dress up his hakama before the whole starting ceremony started (Seiza, Bows, Shin-Kokyu etc.). However, training started and it was again very nice. I was able to train with an elder women from italy. Unfortnately my italian is not that good and she did not really speek another language (a bit a mix of french, english and italian was the way to communicate). I quickly talked a bit with her and it turned out that she also knew and trained under master kobayashi. She was full of excitement when I mentioned his name (^^). In the middle of the training, master kimura again asked for 3 ukes and this time let some people do sumi-otoshi in randori style (again counting up to six) but this time with high falls. Great to watch! After the training it was agreed to have dinner alltogether at our hotel. So we went back for a shower and short after the party began. I had the pleasure to sit between tomomi and yamada. Lots of very good local italian food and drinks (prosecco, red wine and so on). Quite impressive how loud and exciting this party became the longer it went. It was really fun! Master kimura made personal kaligraphies for some of the people and even I had the pleasure to receive one! A big "ki" sourrounded by "Aikido Buikukai", "Shihan Kimura" and "Train Aikido". Great! The party went on until around 1am and everybody was quite drunk and funny (^^).

Sunday morning training and the way back:
Kimura sensei started the training easily - he warned all of us to take it easy (even mentioning the good alcohol the evening before - with a big grin on his face). After half of the training, kimura sensei divided the aikidokas into two groups. The black belts were doing some sorts of kokyu-nages whereas we white belts did different things (suwari-waza ikkyo, some sorts of sankyo). The stage finished with kokyu-ho for everybody. After that long and warm good-byes and the promise to visit japan again soon. After that back to the hotel again, shower, packing and eat something together with our friends from belgium and geneva. At around 3pm we started our trip back home. There was again lots of traffic between venecia and milano and we came back home pretty late (for me it even turned 1am in the morning).

I still have the tireness in my bones and need to stop here. If I will still remind, I might post some more aikido-specific post regarding this great stage (what techniques performed and so on) but surely will post some nice pictures (I had the pleasure to use a DSLR cam for this trip - BIG thanks to remo for using it, we will see if the pictures turn out good enough ;-).

Following the link of the title, you'll find the page of the aikido club treviso. They have put a single page about this stage online, where I actually already found a picture of the stage. I cannot post it in here as it's just too big, but you can find it by followin this link. Here some explanation to it:
It shows the whole group at the beginning of the sunday morning training doing shinkokyu. The second person from the right side wearing a hakama is Kimura Shihan. The white belted guy in the background is actually me (^^). And the japanese lady in the front of the group (with the long black hair and hands backward) is Tomomi. Yamada cannot be seen as he was actually leading the shinkokyu in front of everybody.

The only negative thing about this trip (beside the bad traffic around milano) was that we did not really have time to sightsee the beautiful area around soligo with its famous prosecco wineries. A next time, we will surely plan some additional days in order to see more of the area and maybe even visit venecia for a day or so.
One of the best things is, that this was actually one of my first stages without any kind of injury (not even rubbed off my toes or knees). So I can keep on preparations for 3rd kyu test upcoming soon.

But maybe that's also a bit because I was taking pictures from time to time instead of participating in the training (which acutally led kimura sensei to call me "Photo-Uke" ^^).

Yours,

Lemy

Break is over

2008-10-29T12:49:00.004+01:00

Hey there

I know. Once more: Long long long time since the last post. I would like to say sorry to all my readers (the few I know at least). I just did not have the feeling to write anymore because I feared it would be annoying and repeating but from the few feedback I got, it seems that people are still interested in getting an insight of a beginners view on aikido.

Yes, you read correctly. I still feel as a beginner within aikido. Even when it's already 3 years ago since my first steps. I even think I will feel the same for a long long time, maybe even forever. This means, the title of this blog seems to be adequate enough to keep on posting for a long time :-)

A lot of things happened in the past. A few stages I've visited (the last one being at Kerenzerberg, Switzerland, lead by Roland Spitzbart, a 5th Dan following the aikido of Saito Sensei - there's a picture and a link to more pics at the bottom of this post).

Furthermore, there's the 3rd kyu exam upfront. I'm trying to train as hard as possible for it. Might be at the beginning of december this year. The exact date has not been defined yet however. I'll keep you updated on this...

This weekend, I'll go to my first stage outside switzerland. Kimura Sensei (see previous post about aikido in japan) is visiting Italy and I'll spend the next weekend with some friends in the area of venecia (good wine and grappa :-).

I'm currently looking to start with DSLR cams so you can be prepared for some good Aikido Pics to come here ;-)

Stay tuned!

Regards,

Stefan

---

Here two action shots (me @ Kerenzerberg):
Kokyu-nage (As Uke):

Kokyu-nage (as Tori):

More pictures from this stage can be found on the UAS page at:
http://www.uas.ch/album/Kerenzer-08-10/album.html

Training in Japan

2007-05-01T10:04:00.000+02:00

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!

2007-01-11T16:54:00.000+01:00

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

2006-11-11T17:55:00.000+01:00

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

2006-10-14T13:14:00.000+02:00

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...!

2006-10-07T15:30:00.000+02:00

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....

2006-10-05T16:58:00.000+02:00

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

2006-10-03T22:10:00.000+02:00

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

The summer break is over...

2006-08-16T16:19:00.000+02:00

Yay! After more than a month without aikido, I went really hot to go on the tatamis again. I missed it very much!

It was a bit disappointing, that there were only that few people in the training. But it was fun anyway :-)

Yesterday (Tuesday):
As Daniel Sensei still is curing from his hospital stay, Markus took the lead. Apart of him, there were only me, Julien and Martin in the training. Just 3 beginners (5th, 4th kyu and white belt). Upon juliens request, we focused in kote-gaeshi variants, beginning with katate-tori, going over to katate-ryote-tori and finally into tanto shomen-uchi (markus wanted to stress out the importance of distance). It was fun but I remarked, that I've lost quite a bit during my absence of the training :-(

Today (Wednesday):
Funny, I came and Martin just left ("there's nobody here, I go for lunch, bye..."), I resisted and asked at the coffee bar whether ruedi sensei is here or not. As it seems, he's on vacation for 2 weeks but should be back next week. I was a little bit disappointed as I was really looking forward to the training with ruedi. In the exact same time mago came in, and we 2 decided to have our very own training, just the 2 of us.
We begun with "normal" warmup, some ukemis and started right away with ikkyo, to get into aikido slowly. Ikkyo went quite well (at least from our point of view). So we went over to nikkyo, where both of us are still a little bit struggling with the ura form. It's actually not that easy to get the nikkyo pin correctly. We were trying and trying, sometimes it worked, but afterwards it didn't anymore. Quite exhausting.
On exactly this time, suddenly daniel sensei came in (walking on crutches) to have a look. He was very joyfully surprised to see us 2 beginners alone practicing on the tatamis. He asked us if we would like to have him on the side (where he could sit), watching us and giving us tipps. Of course both of us nodded and we went a little bit aside, so he could see us. I remarked in his face that it was of big pleasure for him, watching his students going on, even withouth his lead. More and more, he came in and nearly forgot about his injury. He gave us much input and tipps and we were able to make big steps forward for nikkyo in the ura form. For those of you not knowing anything about nikkyo, here's a picture illustrating the pin in the ura form:

As you can see and probably imagine, this can be quite harmful. Especially if you have to be the attacker and the sensei (who wasn't able to train for quite a long time) wants to demonstrate on you... ....my wrist hurts a bit now.

After maybe half an hour, daniel had to leave again and we continued a little bit to strengthen his inputs. At the end we did then some fast and dynamic katate-tori attacks whereas it was left open how to conter (which technique to use). Exhausting but much fun!

I'll try to visit the trainig more often and regularly now again and hope I'll find some more time to write here...

Yours,

Lemy

2006-07-13T10:07:00.000+02:00

Aikido against kicks

I just found this video on youtube. I was always wondering how defense against kicks would look like. It's good to see, that it's actually nothing new. You see irimi, kaiten etc. But what gets stressed out here: Timing and distance (ma-ai) is even more important against kicks. I can now see clearly why this is not trained on beginners (like me though).

Lemy

2006-06-06T14:47:00.000+02:00

ukemi video

I just found this nice video about ukemis. It's very impressive how smoothly he does the ukemis. Specially the ukemis to the sideway are quite impressive. We were training that some times. It's especially very good to do when training irimi nage whereas it's dangerous to fall on your shoulder if you don't master this ukemi technique. Seems there's a lot to learn even about ukemis for me.

Yours,

Lemy

BEA expo, Aikido Demonstration

2006-04-30T14:25:00.000+02:00

So, yesterday was the big day. We had our demonstration at the BEA Berne expo. Finally we were able to show aikido twice for 15mins. Daniel was quite satisfied with us. Still I had some minor mistakes in my techniques but I did it quite well, at least I'm happy with myself and I'm pretty sure, the visitors were not able to see any mistakes at all :-)

Have a look at my flickr aikido set, I've added some of the nicer pics to this set (the ones which are tagged with BEA and demo).

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday training - preparing for the demo

2006-04-19T13:30:00.000+02:00

It was, as always, a good training over lunch at wednesday. It's always good to leave the office to get some other thoughts and turn off (well, not really, but kind of) your brain. It's so relaxing!

We're still preparing for the demo. Now we got 15min to demonstrate aikido aside of judo, ju-jutsu, kickboxing and tae-bo. Daniel prepared a plan for what we're going to show. We will be 5 people demonstrating aikido, whereas I'm the bloodiest beginner of all of them. There's daniel (of course), markus (2nd dan), rosemarie (??. dan), martial (4th kyu) and me (still 5th kyu). Daniel will show together with markus some jo and bokken katas (I think that's going to be very interesting, as markus also teaches iaido). Rosemarie with makrus the whole kata forms (ikkyo, nikkyo, sankyo, yonkyo, gokyo). I will show some techniques together with martial, whereas I will perform the easier ones (katate-tori irimi nage, katate-tori shiho-nage, ushiro-ryote-tori kotegaeshi and ushiro-ryote-tori kokyu-nage) and martial the more complex ones (yokomen-uchi kote-gaeshi, yokomen-uchi tenbim-nage, tsuki kaiten-nage and tsuki tenchi-nage). I will be uke for martial and he will be mine.

I'm still struggling with uchiro-ryote-tori kokyu-nage. We perform this in a special manner (see picture) and still I got some troubles. But today I was able to make much progress in this. Both daniel and ruedi sensei took the time to train with me for this special technique.

I will go to the training at saturday and (hopefully) martial will be there too, so we can train those techniques one more time before the demonstration (April, 29th).

Yours Lemy

Saturdays Training - Basics

2006-04-01T12:53:00.000+02:00

There were only Nathalie, Romolo, Julien and me in the training today. Both Ruedi and Daniel Sensei were on vacation this week. Nathalie took the lead and we begun with Yokomen Uchi Irimi, followed by Ryote Katate Dori Irimi. We performed them both in the ura version which I totally don't like. I always got the feeling I'm behaving wrong when perfoming Irimi in the ura form. I've never had a positive feeling doing this technique so far.

After that Nathalie showed us some kokyu nages. For me as a beginner, kokyu is quite difficult. It really looks like a fake (whereas very fluently and nice, but not functional anyhow) and when I perform it, I always got the feeling this cannot work with an uncooperative partner.

Romolo had to leave after this and we went on to the kata. Julien (4th kyu) focussed mainly on sankyo as this will be his "new" kata to show on the next tests. On my part, I had to focus on shomen-uchi nikkyo omote. I still don't get it fluently. But I was able to make some progress today.

Very good feeling after the training and quite relaxed. It's always hard for me to go to the training at saturday morning but afterwards it's mostly worth it :-)

Yours,

Lemy

Tanto training

2006-03-23T22:29:00.000+01:00

Yay! Nice training session today. And yes, I succeeded and went the first time to the advanced training. It was very nice. We did a lot of tanto (=knife) techniques. It's quite fun but very difficult. Techniques seem to work without weapons but as soon as uke has a tanto in his hand, you recognize how sloppy you perform the techniques. I'm still a bloody beginner ;-)

Anyhow, quite relaxed and tired after the training. Need to get some sleep now :)

Took some pictures, check out my flickr aikido set (follow the link at the left). One example:

Yours,

Lemy

Aikido Demonstration @ BEA Expo

2006-03-22T21:47:00.000+01:00

I kind of intensivated the training now again a little bit. After having quite a while trained not that often (well, at least once a week, but not on a regularly basis)... ...for maybe about a month or so. I just had enough other stuff flying around my ears, there wasn't so much time for aikido. Moreover it was the time period of flu (no, no, not H5N1 ;) and illness. Anyway, I'm back on the tatami zone and willing to train a bit more now.

It's actually quite funny. Mago is back from his trip to india. He really had very much interesting to tell. Some weird stories about cows lying around, smog bells, beggars and much more. It's good to have him back in the training. It's always very much fun with him (wheras not fun in the meaning of not beeing concentrated, it's just a bit a more relaxed atmosphere in the training, I think you get the point).

Our dojo will be able to present itself on the bernese exhibition BEA for a timeframe of 2 hours. I fully understand that aikido has just a small window within these 2 hours as judo, kickboxing and jiu-jutsu are much more popular but only 10 minutes for an aikido demonstration is for me a bit too short. Well, we'll see. Anyway, daniel asked us who would have time and the mood for it and I nodded. Unless there are many more advanced students, I will participate most probably. It's on the 29th of April somewhat in the afternoon.

Therefore, daniel sensei was training a lot of different techniques in the last trainings to setup a program for this. It looks like we're going to show the katas (for me ikkyo and nikkyo) and then each one will do a grab and a throw in randori style. Then daniel planned to show some multiple attackes with some other black belts. After that, it's planned to show the bokken and jo katas too. At the end he's planning to show some special just him alone (he will be explaining in all other situations and let us students work heh!) either he lets himself grab from multiple attackers and throw them at the same time or he's going to show a randori against 4-5 ukes weaponized (jo and bokken), including some take-away techniques. Sounds quite interesting and it was just great that he showed it in the trainings, which we don't get in front of our eyes that often. Daniel meant that we'll leave the tanto techniques up to the jiu-people to show. Heh!

That was it so far. I'll organize someone going to take pictures of this demonstration so you can see myself in action once :-)

Yours,

Lemy

Aikido3d

2006-01-10T22:30:00.000+01:00

Heya there my dear readers :)

Long time no posting from me, I know.

I've been in the training a couple of times since my last post. Actually, i became a bit lazy the last week of 2005. I wasn't in the training for 1 1/2 weeks by then. But now I'm back an I'll try to go at least 2-3 times a week (as I can participate at thursday as well now, which I actually didn't yet manage so far :-) I think this will get a special post by then...)

Today was beginners training once more. Wow, the tatami was quite crowded today. There were romolo and markus helping daniel sensei in the lession. Michael, Jonas and me were there and that was it with man on the mats. The rest (at least 6 when I remember correctly) were all women/girls! I think that's very good as it gives a bit a better mood in the training, when there're not only men. I like that and it has definitively nothing sexual with it, believe me! It's just another feeling in the training, which I like actually.

We focused a lot on ukemis at the beginning and then almost the whole training on irimi nage. But only the ura form, as there were too many beginners there. You shouldn't knock down beginners with too much techniques and details ;-)

I found a very interesting link today, thanks to kris who left a comment on my last post. Thank you kris! Actually, his blog is interesting too, i've added it to my bookmarks as well: my life in budo. So back to what I wanted to tell about: Aikido 3D. It's a piece of software showing about 100 aikido techniques in a 3d rendered mode. What makes it very intersting, in my opinion is, that you can not only zoom in and out, or change the viewing angle, but also slow down the speed! I directly ordered a copy and am waiting for it very impatiently now. I guess I'll throw away all my aikido videos and books I've bought so far ;-) Noooo, of course not, but I think you know what I mean... ...well, if you didn't know about it so far, check out their homepage!

Ah, one bad news (well, in my point of view it's bad, otherwise of course not): Mago left for several months to visit india. Cool for him, but I miss him a lot in the training. He always gave such a good humour in the training that you really remark his absence. If you read this mago old man: Enjoy as much as you can! Because when you're back, I'll have learned so many new techniques and details, that I will beat your ass off on the tatami the next time ;-)

Yours,

Lemy

Passed 5. Kyu

2005-12-03T17:21:00.000+01:00

Yes, done! I passed the 5. kyu exam today. I already did the kata (ikkyo) at wednesday training and passed it. So the rest was on today and I managed to perform all techniques in quite a good manner. Of course, there are always things to do better or to advance, but all in all, it was correct and good.

It begun in the morning (12am ;-). There were only daniel, markus, hendrik (who left after 1 hour), mago and me. I was happy that mago showed up as I hoped to have him as uke.

I've been a bit nervous at the beginning and was a bit hasty at ikkyo and irimi, but after having showed and passed them, I already had a good feeling as i like both, kotegaeshi and shihonage, much more.

So, I got now my yellow belt and I'm no longer just a "beginner" (of course I'll always be a beginner in this fighting art but I think you know what I mean). Therefore, there's no need anymore for this blog. I mean even the url is wrong now... ;-)

I will not stop posting new entries, but it will not be that often and on a regular basis anymore. Just when something happened or was showed in the training worth telling about it. I think the best for you, my dear reader, would be, to have my blog as an rss feed in your bookmarks, then you'll see when I got something new to tell you :)

I hope you enjoyed following a freshman in aikido from his beginnings to his first test, not beeing a beginner anymore.

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesdays training - 5. kyu

2005-11-29T22:55:00.000+01:00

There were not many people in the training today for a tuesday. Normally, the tatamis are crowded like hell on tuesdays training. But today we were only 5 students and 3 dans (romolo, daniel and markus).

Daniel came back from a training visit in another dojo and brought some ideas which we used at the beginning. As an example, he explained that o-sensei always talked about smoke getting up before cutting. E.g. with the bokken, he made a movement when hauling off which resembles to smoke of a fire. We used this for irmi technique. This was quite advanced for me. We students were not really able to perform it like this.

Main focus was on the 5. kyu test program today. The group was splitted into 3 groups. Each dan took care of one group for one specific technique and after an amount of time, the groups changed. Daniel wanted to see the katate riote tori ikkyo, romolo wanted to see katate tori irmi and markus took care about katate tori kotegaeshi. I performed all techniques with mago as he'll be my uke at my tests. This was quite a good training for it.

Daniel decided to take at least a part of my 5. kyu test this saturday! The training will start at 12am and I have to be prepared for it.

I'm thinking about stopping blogging about my training experiences as soon as i'm 5. kyu. I think at least i'll quit blogging about each training session. I don't use it anymore that often to remember things as i did at the beginning (whereas it was a big help) and I don't think this blog gets read by many people, it makes no sense to me. I think I will only post when there was something special in the training or just if i'm in the mood of posting/writing. We'll see... ....what do you, loyal readers of my blog, think about it? Should I really stop posting? Well, thanks for the comments :-)

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training - Uchiro

2005-11-16T14:57:00.000+01:00

Wow, quite an exhausting training session today. We were only 4 ppl on the tatami today. Daniel, Monika, Mago and me.
While dressing up, I had a small chat with daniel. I asked him about the dynamics in aikido and what the difference is between some styles. This comes, because I've seen Christian Tissier on television. He's performing a very dynamic and effective aikido.
He tried to explain me some datails, but stopped suddenly an just meant: "Ok, I'll show you in the training..." ...So, it was me giving him the impulse to have a training session quite dynamically. Now I know how exhausting aikido can be. ;-)

He showed the effectiveness on the uchiro kokyunage technique. First, we performed it like we do it in our "usual" trainings. Big long movements, slowly performed with focus on ma-ai and correct posture. Then it begun... ...sentences like "on the street, you have no time for this, therefore..." or "...if I have some young advanced students, like tissier has, I would do it like this.. ...ah, lemy is here, let's show it.." ohmygod! hehe ;-)

I was deeply impressed afterwards and told him to do such trainings more often for people interested in self defence. He mentioned that he's beginning in training of some pressure point techniques with a friend and will start in about one year to include it in the training. I just can't wait until then! ;-) This will be very interesting!

After this dynamic lessions for us beginners ;-) we performed all our techniques we'll have to show on the test:
- katate tori shihonage
- katate tori irimi
- katate tori ikkyo
- katate riote tori ikkyo
- katate tori kotegaeshi

It was very cool, as I was able to perform each technique with daniel. He didn't have much to mention which seems to be a good sign. I looks like I'm ready for the tests.

Unfortunately, they've planned to do the tests on 10th of december. Guess what. On exactly that date, I'll not be here (vacations in colmar france with girlfirend) :( Daniel will check for another date for me and we'll discuss this in the next training. Thanks! :)

As I said, exhausting training, extreeeemly tired, but quite relaxed. It was good to go!

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesdays training

2005-11-15T22:37:00.000+01:00

I went to training last wednesday, but unfortunately daniel sensei was ill and I went there for nothing. So, over 2 weeks no aikido now. I was quit hot to go again :)

The tatami zone was again very crowded today. We got a new girl again. Now we were around half/half man/women. For me, that's quite a good thing as this brings a bit of a change into the trainig. It's always different to train with women and man, tall or small and so on. Therefore for me it's a good thing to have as many different partners as possible. This way, I can much better work on my techniques as it would be possible with just a couple of partners.

We begun with the uchiro riote tori beginning to shihonage as a stretching exercise.

Then daniel divided the 4 dans (romolo, nathalie and markus) and made 4 groups of us students (3-3-3-2). Each group was with one dan, performing one technique and after a couple of time, we changed.

romolo: shomenuchi ikkyo
nathalie: katatetori shihonage
daniel: uchiro riote tori kokyunage
markus: uchiro riote tori kotegaeshi

I was a bit in a struggle with the uchiro techniques. But no matter, it's an advanced technique and I'm still a beginner ;-)

It was good to go to the training. I was quite weary afterwards.

Yours,

Lemy

aikido.lemy.ch - saturdays training

2005-10-29T13:14:00.000+02:00

I was not in the training for 2 weeks. The first week holiday and last week too busy. So, I was quite hot for the training this morning :-)

Daniel took the lead today. There were (me included) 3 students plus romolo and markus on the tatami zone today. Enough space for fun ;-)

The first half of the training, we trained Tenchi nage (Heaven and Earth throw). We focused at the timing and movements, ignoring the technique. For this, we combined it with other techniques like irimi nage. Then two of the students and romolo left. There were only 4 of us remaining in the training: daniel, markus, julien and me.

Second half was jo time :) At the beginning mechanically repeating attacks and defenses. Felt a bit like a typical karate training as it is shown in all those martial art movies. I only knew about half of the movements so far. Therefore i was in big trouble sometimes. Daniel was counting the repeats and the rest was training while i was quite stuck in the movements itself. But no matter, I'm quite sure, when time comes, even I will know all those movements :-D

Then we moved to some basic attacks and defenses. Unfortunately time was passing very fast today and we had to stop the training to finish the official part of it (shokuso!). Nevertheless all of us 4 stayed for the after class lession.

We stood in a quarter, each one facing his counterpart. And one after another we choosed a technique and performed it 4 times per person (positive and negative, left and right). In half an hour, each one picked 2 techniques. Since markus and daniel picked too, I was (again) faced with some fancy techniques which were a bit too advanced for me. For example, I was quite struggling with Katate-tori nikkyo, which is a technique for 4. kyu. But anyway it was a very nice and interesting training full of content for me. Before I left, daniel showed us a technique against 3 attackers. Two attackers with katate-tori and one graps the neck (don't know the name for it). Each one of us performed it once. It was the first time for me dealing with 3 attackers (daniel told me with a smile :).

At the beginning I gave daniel the cd with the movies and pictures I took from the training of 15. October, which were the tests for the dan novices (e.g. reinhard) and markus for his second dan. He was quite pleased and asked me, what I want for it. To my answer (nothing) he meant he'll pay me a beer. Looking forward to it ;-)

I've put the pictures on my webpage. You can see it under: http://aikido.lemy.ch check it out! This link will be the place, where I'll put all my ressources about aikido in the future.
Unfortuantely, I had to remove the movies as they produced too much bandwith usage for my account :( If you want to see the movies too, send me an email and we'll see what I can do for you ;-)

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training - My first Yonkyo steps..

2005-10-12T13:44:00.000+02:00

Only 5 Aikidokas on the tatami today. Ruedi Sensei was back and Daniel took the lead. Reinhard (still training hard for his 1st dan test next saturday) was the only non-white-belted student in class today :)
Etienne showed up later on and mago and me were also participating.

At the beginning mago and me trained the ikkyo kata while daniel sensei watched us. Both of us got problem at the entering move for the ura form of this technique. We're moving to far which results in a not so clean turn of the hips. Uke falls over our knees which is not good enough. But besides of this small fault, daniel meant we both would have passed the test when doing the kata like this. Yay! :-)

Then we proceeded a bit to more advanced training in order to give reinhard the chance to train for his dan test. That's why we made our first steps in yonkyo. I did not manage to get the pin correctly but no matter, it's an advanced technique anyway :-)

At the end we trained the Jo kata from Walther Oelschlaeger again. It was good since it has been long time ago we trained it last time.

Quite a good training but still, my right shoulder hurts :( I really hope it gets better next week, as I'm not able to go to the training at tuesday and wednesday (I'm in Amsterdam! Yay! Watching championsleague match between ajax amsterdam and fc thun). Should be a long enough rest period (hopefully). Because of the same reason (adam) I'll not train at saturday as I have to leave at home around 1pm and the training dures until half past 12. But I really want to see the dan tests and therefore I'll just visit the training as a visitor and will make some pics and videos. Keep on reading, I'll post some of them in here!

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesdays training - Iriminage

2005-10-11T22:50:00.000+02:00

Beginners training today. Daniel together with Nathalie and Romolo took care about us students today. Markus was training with Reinhard for their dan tests next saturday themselfs.

Again quite crowded tatami zone again today: 10 Students! And that on the small tatami zone (there are two in our dojo). I think the time comes us aikidokas get the big tatami zone back from the kickboxers :)

Todays theme was iriminage. The beginners had to learn the first steps whereas we (a bit more advanced students) had to perform all different iriminages: ai hanmi katate tori, gyaku hanmi katate tori, gyaku hanmi katate riote tori etc. As I remember, it was the first time for me performing iriminage on gyaku hanmi at all! Quite good that i could train the first parts with romolo. He's really very patient and takes care of showing it slowly to us students. Unfortunately I could not throw him at all as he still has problems with his knees (he's over 60 years old and had 4 operations on his legs but is still training aikido twice a week, respect!). Therefore sensei daniel came 2-3 times to be my uke and i could throw him quite good.

Got quite a better feeling on iriminage now. I think it's getting better and better for the tests. BTW: Daniel mentioned to make the tests in december and we should think about when we have time for it... ...I'll keep you updated ;-)

Yours,

Lemy

Sunday Training - Special Training for Tests

2005-10-09T13:16:00.000+02:00

Yes! I succeeded, I went to the special training for those making the tests. I did not sleep to long and was there on time. Quite funny... ..don't know for how long I was not up in the morning at a sunday... ...the sound of the churches bells was something I didn't hear for a long time on a sunday morning. Had quite a good feeling.

It was a tough training session today. Daniel (of course) took the lead. There were also markus (preparing for his 2nd dan next saturday), 4 1st kyus (preparing for the 1st dan next saturday), 2 5th kyus (preparing for the 4th kyu in november) and mago and me, preparing for the 5th kyu (november as well).

At the beginning, we trained the katas again. For us whities simple shomenuchi ikkyo. I think I got it quite good now. Shouldn't be a problem I think. The others trained quite more katas meanwhile as they have to show quite a bunch of katas.

After that, mago and me trained all the katatetori techniques for us alone (ikkyo, kotageshi, shihonage and irimi) while the others did their techniques (boah, the dan aspirants have to make many techniques in subury waza (on the knees)).

Then, quite cool, everybody had to perform a randori. All the dan aspirants had to defend 2 opponents. Daniel really pushed us to attack as fast as possible. Everybody was out of breath afterwards. This is sooo tough, I wasn't aware of that. The two 5. kyus had to do the randadori with only one opponent, whereas i was uke for julien. It's really exhausting! Mago and me had just to show all the katatetori techniques and we did it at the end and both at the same time.

Quick summary:
- kata ikkyo, no problem i think
- katate riote tori ikkyo and katate tori ikkyo as well
- katate tori kotageshi, no problem
- katate tori shihonage, some minor problems to remember how to begin for negative. Positive no problem
- katate tori irimi, I'm not yet confident with this technique. I think i'll have to focus on that one in the next trainings.

The training dured 2 hours, which is not usual as all trainings don't exceed 1,5 hours (normally). Then it was quite exhausting. I think that's why I feel a bit tired now. But anyway a good feeling, nevertheless I had to stand up that early today.

Yours,

Lemy

Saturdays Training - Shomen Uchi Ikkyo

2005-10-08T13:03:00.000+02:00

Neither daniel nor ruedi were in the training today. Markus took the lead, supported by nathalie (yeah! that's the name of the women i forgot last time... ...hey I'm making progress too! ;-) and romolo. 6 students (me included) were on the tatami zone today.

No shinkokyu at the beginning but some stretching exercises. Followed by a couple of basic techniques step-by-step which I don't remember all of them.

Then we spent a long time training the adequate katas (ikkyo for the 5. kyu, ikkyo-nikkyo for the 4. kyu and ikkyo-nikkyo-sankyo for the 3. kyu). It was good since I've performed it with mago who (most probably) will be my uke at the tests.

I got a tough time today as my right shoulder hurts like hell in one specific position (when I arise my right arm, the pain flashes in). It begun already yesterday. No idea from what this comes.... ...I'll use some salve today and hope it gets better for tomorrows special training.

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training - Ushiro riote tori

2005-10-05T08:41:00.000+02:00

Daniel sensei took the lead today. Monika, me, mago, reinhard and etienne were participating.

They moved the picture of o-sensei to another wall in the dojo. We were still all a bit confused to sit on another direction... ...but i think we'll get used to it. Daniel explained that this should be the normal case in dojos, that the picutre of o-sensei is in front of the entry. So it seems we got a correct dojo now :)

Today we performed different techniques going out from Ushiro riote tori (attacker grabs both wrists from behind): Ikkyo (mainly for us beginners), nikkyo, sankyo and kotegaeshi.

I asked today danile for a list of the techniques to perform at the test. Answer was: "You can buy it for 18 bugs at the office of the dojo... (short break) ....but I think I'll just copy it for you for the first test, you can buy it afterwards.." Heh, seems I was not the only one with a strange look in the face when hearing that. I asked why they don't put it on the dojo's webpage, he meant that it was quite common in the past but (like here) that most dojos removed that. He didn't know why exactly...

For me to keep in mind, as I remember, it was (for my first test, 5th kyu):

kata:
- shomen uchi ikkyo

techniques:
- katate tori ikkyo
- katate riote tori ikkyo
- katate tori kotegaeshi
- katate tori shihonage
- katate tori iriminage

Of course all in omote (positive) and ura (negative) execution.

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesday Training Session - Shihonage

2005-10-04T21:49:00.000+02:00

Long time no training. I was not in the training for about 2 weeks now. The first week i had problems with my back. One morning while standing up, there was a pain flashing in, which did not release the whole day. After speaking with my doctor, he asked me if I begun a new sports... ...hell yeah! I'm training aikido now! He meant that i begun using muscles in my back whereas it seems I never really used them before and that the pain comes from that. Good one! No one in the training knew of other people having such troubles with aikido. Seems I'm not sitting correctly at work as well. Need to focus on that now and do some extra exercises for my back in my spare time... ....I have to keep in mind that aikido is not only about the training sessions but can be used in daily life as well... ....but stop! hey, i'm still a beginner.. ..no need to hurry, right?

In the 2nd week I was not able to go to training because of some private and business issues. One day I had a lot of work to finish and the other I had other private intersting appointments... ...I think you get it! ;-)

So, I was quite excited to go back for training today.
Tuesday means beginners training. I was surprised: The girls I mentioned a post (or two?) before, are still participating. There were more women than men in the training today! Such a situation can confuse a bit if you're not used to it... :-D

Daniel took the lead today, supported by markus (still training for his 2nd dan), romolo and another dan women whoes name I already forgot again (damn!).

Quite cool, they came back from a stage with jiro kimura sensei from japan, who visited switzerland. In the first hand, I planned to visit this stage too but left this idea behind. I'm still not _that_ trained for such exercises in my opinion. I think there will be many other stages comming in the future which will make more sense for me :-) So, as I mentioned, they came back from this stage with many new ideas.

At the beginning around 15mins kotageshi. Daniel checked us white-belties if we stand correctly and if we focus on our centers (markus took the lead for this exercise and daniel was all the time in the rear). I had a bit the feeling, this was already a check for the test comming up (daniel once mentioned, that kotageshi _is_ part of the test but that we don't need to show this extra since he's checking this while normal trainings...). It was the first time (at least for me), that we did that _before_ shinkokyu.

The rest of the lession, we performed many differend shihonages. Both positive and negative, with only one hand, both hands. I'm still not able to remember all that bloody names... ...what's the name again for holding only one hand in ai-hanmi? (Maybe some of the readers can help me out ;-)

Daniel will not participate in the saturdays training session as he's in a seminar. Markus and Romolo will lead this training. But daniel will make a special training at sunday morning for all those making the test in november. I have to go... ...wheter i've slept enough or not... ...pray for me ;-)

At the end of the training, I was quite relaxed and very focused. The aikido training is beginning to be profitable for me it seems... :)

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training - Shihonage again...

2005-09-15T08:32:00.000+02:00

It seems this is a "shihonage-week", as we trained this technique again today.

Daniel sensei took the lead (unusual for wednesday, where normally ruedi sensei takes the lead). Ruedi, Monika, and us 3 white-belties jonas, mago and me were participating the training today.

Again some specific shihonage techniques, step-by-step, one after another. Many repeats with yesterdays training. Performed without much talking though.

Then daniel brought in the big extra soft tatami to train ukemis. Quite cool. Still: My legs won't fall as they should... ...this will take me a long time I assume...

Quite relaxed after the training.

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesdays training - Shihonage

2005-09-14T08:33:00.000+02:00

I was not in the training for a week. Missed it a lot.

The tatami zone was extremly crowded again. The beginner girls were participating again. There were 5 of them!

Daniel sensei took the lead, supported by Romolo and Markus. Pascale (dan as well) was there too, but took no lead in the training.

Main focus on Shihonage today. Daniel cam back from a stage again and had many interesting points to show on this specific technique.

For the first time, he showed us why exactly this technique is called the 4-way-throw. Quite impressive. At the end, i've performed it with pascale. He's really a cool guy. And he has a lot of additional tipps, since he learned aikido in another school. I'm always learning a lot while training with him.

At the end, we trained the big ukemis. It was the first time for me and it was hard, even when we used the big and soft extra tatami. I still got problems in placing my legs in the correct order when falling down. I think this will take me a couple more trainings until I get that.

Not that relaxed afterwards today since performing shihonage the whole training hurts a bit in the back and it was really a though training session today.

Yours,

Lemy

replete tatami - tuesday training

2005-08-31T08:42:00.000+02:00

Woah, 15 people on the tatami zone today! It was really crowded like hell.

Daniel sensei took lead toady, supported by markus (training for 3rd dan) and romolo (4th dan).

Beneath all us well known students, there were 3 newcomer girls.

Today shihonage was the theme. Trained a lot on this.
Daniel showed us shihonage with a Jo for us getting a better feeling of taking the power and to concentrate a bit more on the center.

It was good since daniel focused and showed us for each level what kind of shihonage has to be performed. I tried to perfom the techniques mostly with mago, because we're on the same level and both us are preparing for the test in november.

It was quite good that daniel explained everything in detail for the 3 newcomers. This way I was able to repeat the basics which is always a good thing.

Quite relaxed after the training. God a good feeling.

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training

2005-08-24T15:25:00.000+02:00

Only the two senseis (daniel and ruedi), me, monika and reinhard were participating.

Because i was the only beginner, ruedi decided to have a bit a more advanced training today. That's why I cannot remember all the names of the techniques we did and what they mean. Most of the time, he took me asaide and explained me the technique step-by-step.

It was quite difficult to follow the steps. Ok, maybe it's also because i'm a bit tired today :)

Yours,

Lemy

Aikido comming from Bokken - Wednesday Training

2005-08-18T08:21:00.000+02:00

Long time no training. I was on holiday for one week and after that I was ill for another week. So, this was my first training after 2 weeks. I was quite excited to go again. Missed the training a lot :(

Daniel Senesi took the lead. Ruedi, Reinhard (he's actually preparing for the 1st dan), monika, mago and the other stefan were participating as well.

Today, Daniel focused in showing us that most aikido techniques can be done with bokken as well. Most of the movements are very similar when using bokken and it gives a better idea on how the technique should be performed correctly. Becaus with the bokken you have to focus much more on how to behave on an attack when keeping in mind that the bokken is a replacement for the katana (sword) and could cut you if you misbehave.

We focused on irimi today and it was good since i've still got trouble with this technique depending on the partner. With some of them, i got it quite good but with others (especially with other beginners like me) it is very hard to perform it correctly.

Funny, at the beginning of the training (i was the first one there), daniel asked me again when i started with aikido. I told him it was at the beginning of may. And he meant, ok, then you are going to be tested for yellow belt in november together with mago (who started in may too). He meant i should come more often on saturday together with mago so we can prepare ourselfs for this test in the after class lessions. Yay!

Yours,

Lemy

same thing - wednesday training

2005-07-27T21:27:00.000+02:00

As the title says, today quite the same techniques as yesterday.
Got not much to tell you here. Daniel sensei took the lead. Ruedi sensei participated as well. (Together with monika, reinhard and two aikidokas i've not trained before and therefore, you know me, already forgot the names)

Ikkyo done very fast today. We did it only once.
Much more nikkyo therefore. Quite interesting all those different styles for 1 single technique. I'm still not able to manage a good leverage but that's easy: I'm still a beginner, you know ;-) and that is going to be relevant for the orange belt -> I'll have to do the yellow belt tests beforehand...

Aaah, one thing i learned today the hard way: You really have to knock if you feel pain. Shouting does not necessary be recognized by the uke :-) This is really one damn important thing when performing nikkyo techniques... ...nope, i don't want to know (yet) that there are even more painful techniques ;-)

What else? Training was good, i'm relaxed afterwards. Just my right wrist hurts a bit (right is the problematic nikkyo side for me, left works better). I'm going to rub it with voltaren tonight. Hope that helps.

Perhaps as a side note for those interested in watching pictures. These are my senseis: Daniel (4th dan, begun with aikido in 1976) and Ruedi (4th dan, begun with aikido in 1970)

Yours,

Lemy

ikkyo/nikkyo - tuesday training

2005-07-27T08:33:00.000+02:00

I was again half an hour earlier than the training begun. Had a little chat with daniel sensei beforehand and did some ukemis for myself before class.

Daniel took the lead today.
David, Reinhard, Markus, Anita and *forgotthenameagain* were present today as well. I was again the only white belt. As usual, when i'm the only white belt, it became quite an advanced training today.

Daniel's theme this week is ikkyo and nikkyo. This is what we trained today the whole training.

Ikkyo positive - worked quite good. Got it right. Still got some problems to perform it in the correct angle for a kata (e.g. you'll have to look at the jury when putting down uke).

Ikkyo negative - Since we worked hard on positive, there was not enought time for me to perform it more than twice. Still got some problem in walking in while turning around. Found out that it is really still dependant with whom i perform the technique.

Nikkyo - Since i'm an absolute begginer, I only focused on the first parts of nikkyo. Taking the hand correctly, walking in correctly, finding the pushing point.

It was quite good to repeat those techniques again. I got it right but still make a lot of small faults.

Quite relaxed after training even when it was an advanced training.

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training

2005-07-21T10:41:00.000+02:00

Do you remember my last post? Didn't I hope to have an easy training today? Well it seems my whishe were not heard :(

Ruedi Sensei took the lead today. Daniel Sensei was just participating. Furthermore, Monika and Mago were there as well.

Shin-kokyu and stretching at the beginning.

Then we did some handgrabbing techniques from different sorts: ikkio and nikkyo.
Interesting thing was, that we build it up step by step and ruedi really explained it good. So that it was easy for us two beginners (mago and me) to follow. Since we were not that many people in class today, we changed partners a lot and I did nearly every technique with everyone. This keeps you really busy while training ;)

Hard thing today was when ruedi explained we should train it now without looking to much on the technique itself but more on the flow and dynamic of it. That means when uke is fallen, he has to stand up fast and directly attack again as soon as possible.
Daniel just said: "I will do this with stefan.." (me) He really took me hard. It was good but very exhausting. After a couple of minutes, we had to change partners and guess who wanted to do it with me: Ruedi Sensei of course. Even harder with him! He's soooo fast in standing up again and attacking straight away even before he stands up! Damn, both senseis took me hard at that time. Heh!

At the end we trained again the bokken kata they learned at the stage with walther oelschlaeger. Since i've done it for the second time, i'm getting a bit more familiar with it. It's really a kind of "real" kata, since you don't fight much with the attackers. 1 cut for each attacker is enough to eliminate him. It kind of let me think of an iaido kata but with real partners. I liked that much.

At the end monika gave both senseis a present (just a small sweet) and twinkled to us beginners in saying "look, that's what our senseis get if they teached well".. ..i think she meant we'll have to do so as well. Ok, i think i will but let's wait a bit until i can differ between bad and good teaching :)

Got a good feeling afterwards but extreeemly tired after those 2 hard training sessions. Felt to bed like a stone again :)

Yours,

Lemy

Irimi- Tuesdays Training

2005-07-20T08:44:00.000+02:00

Our dojo has holidays for three weeks. It closes earlier. Nevertheless, our sensei got his own key and therfore we're able to train half an hour earlier than usual.
I got that wrong last week, thought it's an hour earlier. Therefore, I was half an hour too early in the dojo. No matter, daniel sensei was already there (surprised seeing me ha!). After having a bit of a chat (he still has muscle ache from the stage 2 weeks ago :) i went to the tatami zone and did some movements and rollings for myself until class started.

At the beginning, we were only 4 students there (david, monika, reinhard and me). Later on, 4 more students joined (markus, pascale, etienne and mago).

Beginning with stretching. No shin-kokyu today.

Daniel wanted to train on irimi today. We did it from the beginning on. Step by step.

I'm still having problems with positive irimi. I'm always getting confused how to walk over in front of uke as soon as we're side-by-side...
...wheras I was able to make big steps forward with the negative one. I was able to improve that remarkably. This always gives a really good feeling. See (again) this animated picture for the negative shomenuchi irminage.

Today it was the first time I tried falling correctly. I did not manage to fall without any hurt. My back had to suffer today :)

After 2,5 hours, daniel remarked that he forgot the time. :)

This was the hardest and advanced training for me so far.
Came home, eat and drink something and felt to bed like a stone. ;)

Hope it's getting a bit easier today over lunch.. ...we'll see :)

Yours,

Lemy

On the knees - Wednesday Training

2005-07-13T13:29:00.000+02:00

Ruedi and Daniel Sensei were back from the stage with walther oelschlaeger.
Therefore, daniel took the lead today.

Beneath those two, monika, me and reinhard were in class today.

Ruedi and Daniel came back with many new ideas from the stage. So we practiced many techniques they just learned while the stage.

At the beginning shinkokyu and stretching, done very fast today.

After warmup, some very slooooow ukemis on the knees. Whereas not rolling over but slapping down.

Quite good: We did some techniques where uke (standing) pushes nage (on knees) on one hand. Nage turns around ukes power and throws him in front of him. The good thing here was to get the feeling of turning around power (which seems to be very essential in aikido).

Then we did a special kotegaeshi (felt better for my knees :). I had to repeat this several times until i remarked the speciality of this technique: Instead of pushing the hand of uke, you pull it away from his arm. Since this is really an advanced technique, i don't (yet) bother about it. We did this several times.

At the end we did 2 different Jo Techniques in randadori style (all 5 together: 1 nage, 4 ukes). Whereas all ukes come in with shomen at the same time! Imagine that! Quite funny to do that. I begin to adore training Jo techniques. It's always much fun.

Quite an advanced training today (I was the only white belted aikidoka), no wonder I had several troubles meanawhile. But I don't bother about it. At the end, it was a good training for me because of repeating the process of learning complete new (to me) techniques.

Relaxed and a good feeling. Sad, but this was the only training this week :(

Yours,

Lemy

Kotageshi / Shihonage - Tuesdays Training

2005-07-05T22:38:00.000+02:00

Most of the advanced aikidokas from our dojo are on a stage with walther oelschleger (see previous post) this week. So, we were not many on the tatami today.

Reinhard (brown belt) took the lead. We had again 1 visiting girl for whom it was the first aikido training.

We begun with a lot of stretching. While performing our ukemis, reinhard showed the beginning girl how to roll correctly whereas we (the rest) performed again the whole bunch of rollings all over the length of the tatami zone. I still have some problems with breathing while doing the rollings since I had again a short moment of blackness :) But i'm working hard at that on each training...

Kotageshi. Both positive and negative. Did it first with Stefan, for whom it was about the 3rd training session. He really hardly hold my hand, was good to perform this technique with a beginner. It's always hard if you do it with someone who knows what comes but doesn't want to fall ;-) I have to keep in mind when doing this negative, to not pull with my arm but using my hips for it. We changed partner several times.

Shihonage. Quite funny to do it with mago (begun around the same time as I did but had to pause because of some injury) since we always tried to turn around as uke while the other one was trying to go over under the arm. At the end we nearly managed to perform it without losing control of uke.

At the end, julien (yellow belt) explained us again what we'll have to perform for the yellow belt: ikkio (kata), kotageshi, shihonage and some alternative ikkio (all techniques). It's good, i've done all of them at least once. Now i can work on them.

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training Session

2005-06-29T18:25:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-29T18:07:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-27T10:41:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-22T13:39:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-22T09:43:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-15T13:42:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-15T08:42:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-11T15:49:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-08T13:53:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-07T11:17:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-07T09:22:00.000+02:00

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