Third Annual Aikido-L Seminar
October 7-8 2000
Contributed by Richard Fox*

Ed. Note: This annual seminar is unique in that it is completely initiated and implemented by subscribers to an online email list, made available by Jun Akiyama, who also provides www.aikiweb.com to the martial arts community. The First Annual List U.S. Seminar was held at Texas Aikikai San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas; the Second was held at the Virginia Ki Society, in Merrifield, VA.

The 3rd annual Aikido-L seminar was held at Boulder Aikikai in Boulder, CO, on October 7 - 8, 2000. At a rough guess there were 50-70 participants, so the mat was approaching full but there was still plenty of room to take big ukemi if necessary. Aikido-L is an online email list service and web page (www.aikido-l.org). It exists because of the unique capacity of the World Wide Web to reach very disparate groups of people and bring them together. The web joins people not on the basis of geographical proximity but on the basis of people's interests, and Aikido-L is one of the expressions of people who have a deep interest in aikido. Thus the 700+ membership of Aikido-L is spread throughout the world and members practice many different styles of aikido. Aikido-L's seminars are designed to encourage sharing and cooperation between the various styles, forms, and branches of aikido that have arisen. I was looking forward to attending this seminar ever since the announcement, in particular to see the Ki Society and Yoshinkan styles, which I had never seen.

In the tradition of previous List seminars, the chief instructor of the host dojo opens the event. In this case, Hiroshi Ikeda sensei opened the weekend with the first class on Saturday morning. His opening remarks set the tone for the rest of the training, a spirit of openness to experimentation and harmony. He stressed the potential for growth in experiencing various things in life, including aikido styles, with an open mind. He referred with gratitude to his training at Honbu Dojo some thirty years ago with Koichi Tohei Sensei and with Tomiki style aikido students at university exchange classes. Ikeda Sensei said that in order to keep growing it is necessary to make aikido your own, that imitation alone is useful only up to a certain point. He proceeded to demonstrate his way of catching an opponent's center and making him weaker, breaking his balance from the moment of the initial contact, and we practiced in this manner.

There followed a jodo mini-class led by Peter Boylan, on Shinto Muso Ryu. This aggressive jo style was very choppy, with the hips kept square. It is a style closely related to a type of iaido where square hip alignment is required. One of its highlights, as demonstrated, was an overhead jo strike to knock the opponent's sword out of his hands. During practice the crash of many jo striking bokken, with as much force as possible, resounded on the mat, a pleasure in itself.

After lunch, Philip Akin sensei's Yoshinkan class went over well with everyone, though we were mostly all on a new learning curve with Yoshinkan style. Akin sensei taught with warmth, humor and precision, and there was talk on the mat afterward about the unique qualities of the movement and weight placement. Julian Frost sensei's class Saturday afternoon was a good old face-ground-into-mat workout, fast paced and energetic, with some of the lowlanders looking pretty tuckered by 5:30 p.m. I was reminded of my own oxygen-deprived start at Boulder Aikikai (one mile high) a few short months ago.

There was a dinner after class, and of course late night activities that went on into the wee hours of the morning, as you might imagine. For some, this seminar was the first time list members met face-to-face after years of "knowing" each other through the list. What a riot!

Alan Drysdale sensei taught Sunday morning, and gave us many tidbits on how his aikido works. His style was flowing, strong, and soft. Chuck Gordon sensei finished off the weekend with a class on cane techniques, and the use of the tessen, a metal Japanese fan (we students used short wooden sticks) to accentuate pins and torque on joints and increase leverage.

It was only forty dollars for the whole weekend! The format of the seminar provided open mat time and mini-classes, in which we leaned about jodo, newaza, Ki Society taigi, and a very welcome massage class. The energy at the seminar was very upbeat, a good time being had by all in a spirit of genuine respect. There was a nice balance of local students and out-of-towners, and I happily trained with many new people. The one damper on the event was that George Simcox sensei of the Virginia Ki Society at the last minute had to cancel his plans to attend. It would have been a real treat to receive his instruction. Our deep thanks to Jun Akiyama for facilitating this seminar.

*Richard Fox used to train at Aikido Shobukan Dojo in Washington, D.C. and moved to Boulder in May of this year. He works at home as a software developer, has a white German shepherd named Jasmin, and has been practicing aikido for five years.

Ed.-
To read more accounts of the seminar, please go to http://www.aikido-l.org/seminars/2000_us/