Iaido in Iwama

“I was uchideshi this year again for one month (tooooo short) and had the opportunity to learn Battojutsu directly from [Hitohiro Saito] Sensei. First, Sensei handed us the Iaito (the Tanrenkan has several) and told me, as the highest grade present, to practice suburi, and kumitachi. Since I did not know anything about it, I had to depend on Kasper (an excellent long time sotodeshi), and another day on Yasuhiro Saito, to teach me the Sekiguchi Ryu. About a week later, Sensei taught us directly with many details. It was a wonderful class. Sekiguchi Ryu is a ryu originally from Wakayama (O’Sensei’s country). It is a vigorous style with lots of kiai. We also practiced with live blades using some excellent swords that Sensei has.

One site where you can have a look at this Battojutsu style is bushinjuku.com.

It seems that Sensei has had a long connection with this style.”

Tristão da Cunha Sensei from Portugal.

Click here to view forum thread in Aikidojournal.

Aikido Principles

Just found this while surfing the web and thought it would be interesting to share.

Fudo Genri (Immovable principles)

Four points towards Body, Mind and Spirit unity...

• Concentrate on seika tanden or center.
  
• Mind, heart and body must relax.
  
• Feel the Ki in any movement and extend it
  
• Mushin (no mind, or stop thinking too much)

Kihon Genri (Basic Principles)

These are movement principles that follow the Aiki Law or Natural Universe Law.

• Chushin: Center line. Always move from your own center line. Connect to uke and bring him into your center line. Do not move his center line separate from yours.
  
• Shuchu: Focus power starting from the mind into the body.
  
• Kokyu: Breath power, connecting the energy of the body and the physical aspects.
  
• Enshin: Circular movement or more precisely, spiralling. You can spiral inwards or outwards.

Aiki Genri

Energy principles, essential in resolving conflict.

• Awase: Blending, to harmonise with incoming force not to avoid or fight it. Body leads the mind.
  
• Musubi: Connection, stage two of harmonising. Musubi can occur in many levels not just at the physical level. Mind leads the body.
  
• Nagare: Fluid movement, there is no stop in movement or conflict. Joining with partners energy and moving synergistic-ally.
  
• Takemusu Aiki: Unlimited manifestation of Aiki. This is a stage when you are living in harmony with the universe. Technique is not essential because your opponent cannot defeat you since he will be fighting himself.

Five Stages of Understanding Aiki

• Aiki no Kokoro: Understand and belief within your heart the principles of Aiki.
  
• Aiki no Genri: Know and understand the Aiki Principles.
  
• Aiki no Waza: Embody the techniques of Aiki in training and life.
  
• Aiki no Chikara: Resulting from training and embodiment of Aiki principles, achieve the power of Aiki.
  
• Aiki no Seishin: True Aiki. Its 'switched on' without your active participation.

[Source: Aikihut]

Sociedad General de Fabricantes de Mesas

Recién llegado a mi dirección de correo electrónico:

Yo creo la Sociedad General de Fabricantes de Mesas.

Yo fabrico una mesa a Victor Manuel, él va, me la paga y se la lleva a su casa. Un día invita a comer a los corruptos de sus amigos para hacerse una cena con jabugo, ostras, caviar de Beluga y otras delicatessen propias de un currante como él.

Pues bueno, ¿cómo es que sus amigos están comiendo en MI mesa, disfrutando de ella Y NO ME ESTÁN PAGANDO?.

¿Que ya la pagó en su momento Victor Manuel y él hace lo que quiera con la mesa?. ¡De eso nada!.

Yo se la vendí a ÉL y no al gordo de Echanove que se está poniendo ciego comiendo en mi mesa.

Así que cada vez que alguien coma en una mesa y no sea éste el que la compró me tiene que pagar.

Pero espera, no solo eso, sino que al que saque beneficio económico de mi trabajo (la puta mesa), lo voy a sangrar.

Osea, todos los restaurantes que me paguen 2mil€ al mes por usar mis mesas. ¿Pero por qué restaurantes solo?, TODO EL MUNDO USA MESAS: las oficinas necesitan mesas para trabajar Y GANAN DINERO POR ELLO, los voy a sangrar a todos.

¿Una boda?, que paguen por las mesas, ¿NO PAGAN POR LOS LANGOSTINOS? (Victor Manuel dixit).

Pero claro, hay un problema: yo antes hacía mesas, pero hace años que no hago ni una y nadie usa una mesa mia. Pues no pasa nada, yo cobro por TODAS las mesas. Es más, por todo lo que tenga 4 patas y una tabla encima. Por si acaso, vete a saber si alguna de ellas es mia o de mis amigos de la Asosiación.

Pero da igual si esas mesas son de Ikea, YO las cobro y luego digo que el dinero se lo lleva Ikea.

Grab my wrist; no, really!

One of the big problems people seem to have with Aikido is all the wrist grabbing. It seems silly and unnecessary if you come from a sport martial art school. If you’re into RBMA (reality based martial arts) then it seems only mildly useful, and only in self defense situations. Punching and kicking seem reasonable, headlocks, body to body clinching, these things are what martial arts should be about, right…

The biggest problem our martial art faces today, in terms of our ability to develop (as individuals and as a whole), is understanding what we are doing and why. There is so much confusion in our community as to what we are doing. Why do we practice such strange techniques? How does our system even work in a martial context?

Even if you are not interested in martial questions directly, this should be important to you. So you’ve never been in a fight, and don’t ever expect to be. You’re probably right, if you are a reasonable person, it’s unlikely that you will ever get into a fight. However even if you were never put in a position to “use” your martial arts training, this question is important to you. Not because of your ability to “use” Aikido outside of the dojo, but because of your ability to “use” Aikido inside of the dojo!

Para leer el artículo completo: aikidostudent.com

Guardería Magic Forest - Bilingüe en Utebo

Mi vieja y buena amiga Toscahua se embarca junto con su socia María en la aventura de abrir una guerdería bilingüe en Utebo. Se estrenan este sábado con una jornada de puertas abiertas a la que no podéis faltar todos los nuevos padres que deseen una educación bilingüe y de calidad para los peques.

Más información en la web de la guardería Magic Forest en: www.guarderiamagicforest.es.

Fallece Kuroiwa Sensei

Kuroiwa Yoshio Sensei falleció el pasado 19 de Enero a causa de un cancer de pulmón y enfisema. Con su fallecimiento perdemos a otro de los grandes.

Ellis Amdur publica una nota en su memoria en: In Memory of Kuroiwa Yoshio.

Descanse en paz, Kuroiwa Sensei.

Transmission, Inheritance, Emulation (XVII)

Tras dos meses de impaciente espera, ya tenemos el capítulo 17 de Transmission, Inheritance, Emulation del Profesor Goldsbury.

¡Ahora a leer y a disfrutar!

Chugairi

A judoka recovered an old ju-jutsu technique.

On May 16 in Poasco (Milan), during AISE ‘s grade exam, Giancarlo Manenti, 5th dan from Siena, showed during randori an old breakfalling ju-jutsu technique named “chugairi”.

At Bu-sen Milano we always practised it as space conquest exercise (see training film), with the recommendation to our judokas not to use it because it was a technique reserved to jiu-jutsu expert, that could cause accidents to less skilled judokas.

Giancarlo Manenti took the Shodan in Siena, studied 5 years at Bu-sen Milano. When he went back to his native town he put right chugairi in randori as counter-attack to o-soto-gari, and ending up with waki-gatame or kesa-gatame (see randori film).

Due to this brilliant achievement proved in randori, as person in charge for exams, I've taken the liberty to propose him for 6th dan, as the only judoka in AISE who has brought a study of (I believe) worldwide relevance on judo to a conclusion.

I add some details: “ukemi” means “break-fall” and comprises all techniques that allow uke to absorb a fall escaping tori's control. Saigo Shiro nicknamed “The Cat” was famous for this. Among these techniques: Chugairi, Dai-sharin and mae-ukemi.

With the spread of judo, these techniques were considered unsafe and abandoned, admitting in the Ukemi category only techniques which permit to absorb the ippon without damages to the body.

-- Cesare Barioli

[Fuente: How do armbar?]