August 2013

1. Happy Birthday Leisinger Sensei!!
Still such a great inspiration to many young Aikido practitioners, Karl Friedrich Leisinger sensei, 6th dan Aikikai became the respectable age of 84 on the 13th of August. Leisinger sensei was one of the first people on the mat when K. Asai sensei arrived in Germany in the 1960s and, since that time, Leisinger sensei undertook the Aikido practices of in Aikikai Deutschland and went on to become chairman of the organisation as well as being chairman of the European Aikido Federation for a number of years. For the past almost 20 years, Leisinger sensei has been visiting the Netherlands, teaching Aikido and the Bokken and Jo practice of Asai sensei. We wish Leisinger sensei many more happy years of Aikido!

2. Yamashima Sensei in The Netherlands in September 2013
It has been confirmed that groups in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands shall receive Yamashima sensei this September for courses. This will take place between the 13th and 23rd of September. More information about these events will be coming soon.

3. Awaken Your Inner Peace Warrior! Samurai Game(tm) in The Hague This October 12th and 13th.

When's the last time you stopped to ask yourself what is going on in your and others' inner and outer lives?!! Is your inner Peace Warrior still sleeping?
After a successful Samurai Game (tm) workshop took place in The Hague in March this year, it is time to repeat the rewarding experience with a new group of people. Maybe some from the last game will join. For those who think to join again, the structure will be familiar but the experience that you will have will most probably be fundamentally different. Those who are curious to try the Samurai Game (tm) for the first time, you will most probably gain new insights in your life.
The workshop runs over two days.
On Saturday, we will warm up our bodies and minds and connections to others. Later in the day, we will play the Samurai Game (tm). On Sunday we will reconnect to our inner selves with energy exercises and you'll have the opportunity to share any inner awakenings gained.
Exact times, location and prices coming soon.
The Samurai Game (tm) is a fun and educational tool, invented by the late modern thinker and Aikido teacher George Leonard, based on Aikido principles to bring awareness to our life patterns and possibly to allow long sought life changes to take place.
Let's awaken to the challenge!
(Early Bird Registration before end of August gets a discount).

Registration details coming soon.

See the facebook event for more details: https://www.facebook.com/events/149406231924919/

July 2013

Summertime Teacher Profiles: Takeshi Yamashima Sensei and Karl-Friedrich Leisinger Sensei

1. Takeshi Yamashima Sensei, 7th dan Aikido
"Aikido is a whole body practice"...

The Dutch Aikido community had the great opportunity and privilege to again receive Yamashima sensei to The Netherlands during the past week. The happy sensei was teaching in Rijswijk, Leiden and near and around Amsterdam. 

Yamashima Sensei's practice is based the principles that O-Sensei laid out about using the center and aligning the center to the training partner's center in order to achieve kuzushi (balance breaking). This practice ties in with the use of the Japanese ken (sword) and, like the sword, if the movement is only a hand or arm movement, you will not achieve a stable connection. To really make a stable connection, one has to practice the movement with the "whole body". Yamashima sensei explains it in his classes in simple terms.
1. Draw your belly in, which causes the back of the hips to lift slightly upwards.
2. Edge your body weight to the front foot whilst keeping your hand and arm extended in front of the center line of your body.   
3. Turn the hip which is opposite to the leading hand forwards towards your partner.

Yamashima Sensei advocates that if you practice these three points in that order, your connection feeling will be more stable and you will start to sense the direction of your partner's energy/power much more. You'll then be able to absorb your partner's attack and direct it in a smoother sense of control than you had done before.
This practice applies to every technique in Aikido and Yamashima Sensei believes if you practice these points on a regular basis your whole Aikido practice gets better. So, that's why we spent a lot of time grabbing the wrist in gyaku hanmi (opposite hand grab) and slowly studying the balance taking movement. From there, you can build up the practice, sometimes changing to morote dori (two hands grab one hand), Shomen uchi (direct head strike) and sometimes Yokomen uchi (side of head strike) or Ushiro Ryoto dori (grabbing two hands behind). Eventually the speed of the practice can also be increased but, in the beginning, it is important to practice slowly and gently in order to build awareness.
A lot of what Yamashima Sensei teaches is on an energetic level (feeling and sensitivity) but he always spends a major part of the practice time putting the study into practice with basic kihon waza.

Yamashima Sensei travels all over the world to practice Aikido with different groups. What makes his trainings unique and special is that he does not visit as a hombu dojo representative although he trains regularly at the hombu dojo. Instead, he visits as an independent Aikidoka only to practice Aikido. Therefore, no examinations take place under Yamashima Sensei's name and the sensei remains outside of the political game, in order to only focus on training his body with each group he visits.

Everybody enjoyed the training with Yamashima Sensei and it seemed that Yamashima Sensei also enjoyed training with them. There will be two further opportunities to practice with Yamashima Sensei in The Netherlands this year. Firstly, from the 17th to the 22nd of September and then, later from the 19th to the 22nd of December.

More details coming soon about the training locations.

Meanwhile enjoy this nice demonstration of Tenshi Nage that Yamashima sensei recently made at the EPO in Rijswijk...

  
2. Karl-Friedrich Leisinger Sensei, 6th dan Aikikai
The second teacher to come to Holland from abroad last week, Leisinger Sensei, came by car from his home town in Meppen, Germany. Next month, Leisinger sensei will be 84 years old. Hard to believe this age when you see him in action!
Leisinger Sensei gave a fantastic workshop in Castricum, covering the 25 move jo kata of Asai sensei, featuring the jo movement combined with bokken attack. Furthermore, participants got the opportunity to practice a number of different kumi tachi katas. We gained a lot of information in the four days that we practiced with Leisinger Sensei. It was also great to see that such a large number of younger people came to the practice also to be inspired by one of the oldest Aikido teachers living (with at least 45 years of Aikido practice behind him).

The Bokken & Jo Group with Leisinger Sensei, 6th dan Aikikai, in Castricum Last Week.

June 2013

From Japan to Israel to San Francisco to Seattle, this month has seen a busy travel agenda for me and given me the opportunity to train with some great teachers, such as Yamashima sensei, 7th dan Aikikai in Nerima, Tokyo, Japan at the special seminar at the beginning of the month, Shimamoto Shihan, 8th dan Aikikai of Osaka, Japan who gave a great seminar in Masatake dojo, Israel, Miles Kessler sensei, 5th dan Aikikai at the Integral dojo in Tel Aviv, Ze'ev Erlich sensei, 5th dan Aikikai at the Masatake dojo in Rehovot, Israel, and Bob Nadeau sensei, 7th dan Aikikai in City Aikido, San Francisco. This month has been for me, therefore, a blend of supreme Aikido influences which I am most grateful to have had the opportunity to see.

My trip to Israel took me again to Ramallah for Aikido Without Borders, headed by Miles Kessler sensei, and, this time I got Anna Sanner of Hannover, Germany to tag along with me. You can read about our one day adventure here on my blog which keeps track of my Aikido Without Borders activities: http://aikidokawithoutborders.blogspot.com/

In between all the trips I managed to squeeze in a demonstration with my local club, the EPO Aikikai Aikido Club, where we got together with 7 martial arts to display our practices. This was a succeful event for all the martial arts which help our community.

Photo from the Aikido Demonstration at the EPO, Rijswijk, The Netherlands on the 5th of June.

This month's guest post is by our friend, Ze'ev Erlich sensei, 5th dan Aikikai of Masatake Dojo, Rehovot, Israel. 

大隠は市に隠る

The monk who lives among us

By Ze'ev Erlich

Here is a nice Japanese proverb I found recently. It reminded me of something nice I read in recent interview with an Aikido master called Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei who is 8th dan, and was a direct desciple of the founder of Aikido.The proverb is:
大隠は市に隠る tai-in wa ichi ni kakru
"A great sage lives in a town"
Though a hermit may lead a pious life in a cave, in a forest or a lonely mountain, a trully great person, lives in crowded streets and is not affected by his surroundings. He can have a disciplined life in spite of his surroundings. From the book: Japanese Proverbs and Sayings.

Yamada Sensei lives and teaches aikido in the very heart of Manhattan (NYC).
Here are Yamada Sensei's words concerning the very same idea:

"I am not a very spiritual man. I should have followed the lectures of Nakamura sensei, I would probably be deeper. I am not a mysterious person, I try to practice and transmit something that is good for the body and the mind, but something rooted in everyday, real life. Zen meditation is good. It can be performed in the depths of the mountains, where nothing disturbs us, but the best place to meditate is in a busy street, this is where you need it. One day, I was in a temple and during a discussion, I told them that it was easy to meditate when one was alone in the world, but that it was a different story when at the heart of a busy street in New York. People got angry but it is in this type of place that relaxation and detachment are needed most (laughs). Always anchor things in reality so that it positively affects daily lives."

The full interview can be found at:

http://usafaikidonews.com/yamada-yoshimitsu-the-free-man/