Buki seminar and demonstration

From July of 2020 we have been holding 3 month long special buki waza courses at both the Fukiage club and at the Noda club. On average about 10 people / course have been attending.

The first 3 months were about ken, one month off, then the 2nd course was with jo, 1 more month between, then into the last of the 3 courses which was tanto.

For about half of the participants it was their first time with buki so we started right from the basics. Way to hold, bow, cut, block, parry etc.

With only 3 months to work with, we didn`t get into anything too fancy. Just tried to find the relationship with weapon and open hand aikido.

In the 1st course with the bokken, the focus was timing and controlling distance and centerline.

The 2nd course with the jo,  was more into rhythm, blending and inviting.

The tanto course focused on concentration and accuracy.

With the first course being over a year ago, most the people were already starting to forget some of the things they learnt and were in need of a review.

Following the previously posted July 31st morning kids seminar we decided to hold a special buki seminar to review all 3 weapon courses.

The first hour and a half was review.

happogiri, kumitachi, 31 no jo, 31no awase, tanto tandoku dosa, tanto soho...

With only a short time to review the total of 9 months of material, most people had their hands full just remembering the kata, and unfortunately not the principles which make them useful to our aikido.

Nevertheless, we were all together for the first time in a long time so decided to do an impromptu demonstration.

30 minutes of enbu training, then show time from 4pm!

Fukiage`s Saito sensei opened things up with a simple iiai demo. Followed by 8 direction cuts with the bokken lead by Kato-san.

Next was a spirited example of tanto tandoku dosa ichi, led bu Sakado`s Morohashi-san.

Into the jo, first 8 members did 31 no jo, then 6 performed awase.

Saito sensei and wife Mikiko sense did all 10 of the hard on the knees, tanto soho.

Following Takiguchi-sans` tanto tandoko dosa ni, Tanaka sensei and Noda sensei did a well focused kumitachi.

We finished the enbu with jiyu waza.

Kumagaya`s Mikiko sensei did ken dori.

Saito sensei did jo tori (Awesome job by white belt uke, Souma)

Murakami sensei wrapped things up with tanto dori jiyu waza.

Again, like the morning kids seminar, only 18 people were allowed to attend, and a total of 3 hours, but it was still nice to get some people together from different Meiryukan clubs. 

Hopefully sometime in the near future we can finish the day off with a few well deserved drinks!