REED13: Day two!

First session was a master class in basics, Sensei covered off the the warm ups and basic wazza lots of gems for everyone regarding center and it’s importance in centering and defining sides and how These feelings can be used to generate internal power. Timing was a big feature along with the tempo 80 beats per minute with metronomes ( which are now a suggested dojo staple )

A lot of focus and explanations on tanden ball and the limits points and lines generated in standing posture and how this translated into our wazza

Weight of a tenugui ! Well knock me over with a feather this was a big takeaway for the morning session, sensei demonstrated this amazing aspect of Aiki with ease and entertainment, by continuing to barley lay any weight on ukes and knock them over or bring them down with little to no effort and ukes experiencing no collisions ( there will have to be a lot of time spent in the dojo twirling on how to incorporate these into our technique ) , a tenugui is a light weight towl used a lot in kendo, but also other Japanese activities , serfice To say it dose not weigh much at all so the weight generated with its contact is minimal.

Second session Was moving into levels of aikido and although we returned to some very commonly trained in technique there were plenty of pointers to pick up on to improve our own technique, the levels were demonstrated and felt by all and Sensie spent a large amount of time going around and training with as many as he could ( with aprox 80 people on the mat this is a monumental task to say the least so a big thank you to sensei for his efforts)

It was a quite un-seasonally hot session come the afternoon but it bearly put a dent in the enthusiasm of every one there, fortunate we had a fresh breeze to reinvigorate us and hopefully freshen our perspective as well

All in all a great day with lots of takeaways for everyone , as evident with the final wrap up and feedback session . More aiki fun & reveals to come tomorrow.

Addendum and some take home points (by Dan James):

Sensei spent quite a bit of time on the Nentai level. Nentai is the bridge from the physical levels of Kontai, Juntai and Ryu tai (Ryutai being the start of Aikido) to the mind levels of Kutai and Kontai. Nentai focuses on tanden movement, interesting note to self tandan is not the hips is a ball in the abdominal cavity, ala exercises from Okajima and Maruyama Sensei….starting to really resonate with the internal strength. We heard here one of the nicesest explanations of Aikido i’ve ever heard. Aiki is when you move Uke’s tanden beyond their centre line, if it goes beyond the pelvic girdle they must then move (fall or step).

Sensei also explained the importance of ukemi, and that being good at ukemi is essential to understanding aikido.

We finished the day with a meal and further exploration of tanden through *cough* tanden bowls at the Mt. Gravatt Bowls club. Perhaps sensei has found a new hobby and additional reason to return to Australia