Our first ‘SAVE the Day’ training programs in years are on: Sunday 23 July and Saturday 23 September. SAVE the Day is an evidence-based, experiential program that empowers you with the knowledge and skills you need to survive the most important five seconds of your life. In a single day we will teach you how to save your own life,… Read more →
Big shout-out to budo buddy Craig Boyd for the invitation and many thanks to Komei Juku Sydney for making us welcome at their recent seminar. We really appreciated the opportunity to observe training at the November 2017 Sydney seminar of Komei Juku Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu taught by Sekiguchi Komei Sensei. It was fascinating to watch the body positioning, footwork and handwork… Read more →
Thanks very much to everyone who stuck around after training yesterday to help wash mats! Photo shows Mel, Bob and Casper at the wash and rinse stations on the production line. Mats were scrubbed, rinsed, wiped, hung out, dried and put away inside three hours. Heartfelt thanks to Bob, Casper, Donk, Mel, Mike and Vic. Read more →
Visiting Japan brings with it the pleasure of seeing old and new friends again, some indulgence in my favourite hobby of aikido (a kind of energy minimisation problem in a martial context) and the very serious business of sports and sports engineering. Last month was my most recent trip which might be of mild intrest. See Business and Pleasure for more Read more →
Last week we looked at some core strength exercises as a major component of our warmups and integrated it into normal practice waza as well. Its something I’d like to pursue for the next little while and see how it goes. Ever since the winter camp I’ve been ruminating on an aspect of aikido called ‘internal strength’ which for some… Read more →
Some thoughts from last weeks practice… Aikido practice is based on paired practice of techniques, which are the Kata of the art. Uke and Nage have defined roles. This differs somewhat from our perception of Kata gathered from arts like Karate, Taekwondo etc where Kata is usually a series of movements done solo. Our Kata are instead a Koryu concept… Read more →
Last weekend a few of us attended a Daito-Ryu day seminar with Grant Periott sensei and seniors from Tweed Takumakai ( http://aikinsw.com/ ), hosted by Redlands Aikido Yuishinkai ( http://www.redlandsaikido.com/ ). It was the first of what is hoped to be an ongoing dialogue and certainly was helpful in gaining further insights into Daito-Ryu, the fore runner of aikido and… Read more →
Having spent the past few weeks using weapons to understand aikido technique and developing appropriate power in the art (see beat them with a stick), its time to put the weapons away for a while. While we keep the body alignment, positioning and something of the intensity of mind we start to see something of more conventional aikido practice reemerge,… Read more →