Gary
Author Comments aka Comic News
Seminar weekend
Ok, this comic probably doesn't make sense to like ninety percent of my audience, so I'm sorry about that, but hopefully it'll be hilarious to the other ten percent. Over the weekend I went to a seminar. I was actually kind of reluctant to go, because I was really exhausted from the previous week, and this started early, so it meant a weekend of exhaustion on top of the previous week and weekend of exhaustion, but it was completely worth it. I was only able to go Saturday and Sunday, but I got something from every teacher that taught (which I saw), and it was a lot of fun.
From Durham Sensei I got, allowing the person to fall, basically giving the attacker a little space to fill, instead of taking up the space and giving them nowhere to go. He also corrected my elbow, reminding me that my elbow was flaring, a bad habit I've been trying to break for a while now.
Tomoleoni Sensei showed us distance and positioning. Stopping an attack before it starts and striking the back of an opponent to get a position, instead of worrying about the front of them.
Browne Sensei showed us outer positioning which meshed really well with the outer cut work that Choate Sensei has been working with lately.
Then there was my teacher, Choate Sensei, whom I always learn a lot of new things from. He was showing the movement of the chain, and how to allow technique to happen. He also went over several exercises to help people out. Moving to a beat, crawling on one's stomach, using only internal muscles for movement, to build up one's "center", freedom of movement, and stepping well instead of falling forward.
Then I saw Ikeda Sensei, who brought us connection and moving one's connection, and breaking an opponent's balance through that movement. A lot of this used to not make much sense to me, or I thought it had to do with pushing and pressing, and joint angles and such, but this time I seemed to get it more. It's starting to make sense, and seems to work. It has nothing to do what I once thought it did. Then during the seminar, Ikeda Sensei was walking around showing people the breaking of a person, when his hand/forearm was resting on their chest. I was one of the many people that got to experience it, and it was a chaotic spiral towards the ground, much like the chain work that Choate Sensei has shown. That correlation, and feeling that, was very very cool. It connected some things for me, and it worked well when I tried it with my partner. Now, I just have to figure out how to work that into my strikes, and I'll be able to basically buckle a person when I strike them. It'll be interesting. Ask me about it in six months, or a year, and we'll see if I've gotten it yet, heh.
So yeah, If you're into Aikido or martial arts, I'd highly recommend checking out a Bridge seminar. They're about a bringing together of ideas in Aikido, so everybody can learn from everyone else and grow Aikido as a whole. It was a lot of fun. Also, anyone who's interested in the Denver area, there's a seminar that looks like it will be very interesting (from the list of teachers) this weekend, it's called the Aikido Summit, check it out.
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