Aikido Glossary Update

After ages, a quite needed update of one of my most clicked pages was done: Aikido Glossary has been reviewed and some corrections/references to very useful comments made.

It is a live page that I had not followed enough, as the rest of the blog, but I still hope is visitors contributions and corrections, and also hope someone else will find it useful and/or interesting.

2 sections have been added (after too long I must say):

Weapon Practice

External Credits

..and quite a bit reviewing and corrections thanks to the comment section have been also done.

I hope it serves and interests more people than just myself and if anyone is interested in using some of my work here, I’d love just a reference back 🙂

I got a remote hope/ambition to make an equally complete glossary for Iaido, another part of my life, unfortunately mostly past life. Let’s see how it will go!

2019 Aikido seminars

Getting old makes people lazy and since I have already stated more than once that i am in love with photography, I brag about my last year of Aikido seminars in an easy photo-mosaic.. and makes it easier the fact I am traveling not as much as earlier, but I have been again to interesting new places meeting quite a few of super ince new people!

PS The post has been actually published, with a little sadness, in april, when because of corona virus I have already lost count of cancelled seminars and trips.. life’s going on (hopefully) and there will be more practice, eventually (hopefully! 🙂 )..

2018 Aikido seminars

The past year has not been a very good one with respect to Aikido practice, traveling and my health. Bad luck or major call from above, or just the end result of a not so health oriented life, it does not really matter how you call it, but the end result led to a period off work for sickness (never happened before in my life!) and a quite major health discovery that has already required major changes in my lifestyle. Then when I thought things were starting getting better, a problem with my left knee reappeared, most probably because of bursitis, and then again I was obliged to skip practice (also because a demanding new job) for too long.

I am not yet sure how 2019 Aikido year will be: Friday I had to discard my plans to travel to Germany for first year chance to practice with Jorma Lyly sensei because exhausted by the previous 4 days in the road (2 in Germany followed by 2 in Italy with 2 nights of 3 hours sleep). Friday I slept about 15 hours, and the thought to get on a train to and from Germany was too much.. a pity..

But now a look at last year, that started very promising but then, it just wasn’t..

6 – 7 January: Trondheim, practice with friends at TAK (1)
13 – 14 January: Trondheim, practice with friends at TAK
19 – 21 January: Dusseldorf, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
26 – 28 January: Sofia, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
2 – 4 February: Tikkurila, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
9 – 11 February: Stockholm, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
16 – 18 February: Dublin, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
17 – 18 March: Ho Chi Minh City, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
6 – 8 April: Prague, weekend seminar with Nevelius sensei
13 – 15 April: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Noel sensei
11 – 13 May: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
24 – 27 May: Stavanger, 10 year anniversary of Jushinkand dojo, with Nevelius sensei and Martucci sensei
1 – 3 June: Sochi, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
8 – 10 June: Krasnoyarsk, weekend seminar with Irie sensei (2)
16 – 17 June: Amsterdam, weekend seminar with Tissier sensei
(3)
17 – 18 August: Duisburg, weekend bokken seminar with Lyly sensei (4)
7 – 9 September: Oslo, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
19 – 21 October: Prague, weekend seminar with Noel sensei (5)

2017 Aikido seminars

Wrap up of an year of travelling/training for Aikido, that it was certainly not bad. Unfortunately a change in my work, a change I wanted and I appreciate, has influenced my training schedule, reducing the amount of seminars I could attend, but even more the weekly practice sessions..

Still I definitively do not complain!

20 – 22 January: Dusseldorf, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
27 – 29 January: Brussels, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
3 – 5 February: Strømmen, weekend seminar with Bachraty sensei
10 – 12 February: Stockholm, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
17 – 19 February: Rome, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
4 – 5 March: Shanghai & Hangzhou, weekend seminar with Sasaki sensei
11 – 12 March: Ho Chi Minh, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
17 – 19 March: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Noel sensei
25 – 26 March: Wasquehal, weekend seminar with Yasuno sensei
8 – 9 April: Prague, weekend seminar with Nevelius sensei
21 – 23 April: Dublin, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
28 – 30 April: Oslo, weekend seminar with Okamoto sensei
5 – 7 May: Langenthal, weekend seminar with Irie sensei and several other teachers for the 40 years in Aikido of Heuscher sensei
12 – 14 May: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
6 – 9 July: Zilina, seminar with Endo sensei
24 – 27 August: Jakarta, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
15 – 17 September: Oslo, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
22 – 24 September: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Martucci sensei
13 – 15 October: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Ariga sensei
3 – 5 November: Brussels, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
24 – 26 November: Moscow, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
1 – 3 December: Vienna, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
8 – 10 December: Cologne, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei

and 2 shorter participations:

6 – 8 October: Prague, 2 sessions of the weekend seminar with Noel sensei
22 October: Amsterdam, 1 session of the weekend seminar with Dijkman sensei

And as usual, the start of my Aikido year in Trondheim:

14 – 15 January: Trondheim, weekend practicing with my local friends at Trondheim Aikido.

I practiced less days than in 2016, both because of traveling (next year I’ll carry along my keikogi more often) but also because of a knee problem during the summer (half June and full July basically no practice).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Endo sensei, Rome: asked me to grab him for ushiro ryotedori exercise and after that and a couple of movements he turns to me and says: “Oh you are not so stiff”.. 🙂 made my day!
• Nevelius sensei, Prague: asked me for uke then said to be stiff and after a second thought, he added “Oh, it should be easy you are naturally stiff”… 😦 made not my day!

Kein Risiko, kein Spass

Kein Risiko, kein Spass

The Seventh Day…

…he rested.. I mean, I rested, finally! Yesterday.. yeah!

During the weekend, feeling quite tired at practice in Belgium with Kuribayashi sensei, and going to bed relatively early Saturday night after the dinner event, I realized that I have been practicing quite a bit this month. Every day since last Tuesday (no practice on that day). At least, a bit for my own self, nothing compared with my aiki-bro Aikifreak. More or less like the Stavanger days, but there I was teaching most of the classes and it is quite a big difference, especially here in Amsterdam, between being instructor or not.

19 training days this month and my condition is far from optimal. The elbow inflammation and the probable knee bursitis are following me from last months in 2016 to now. But it was ages I did not practice that much in a month, and none of these days was a full teaching session.

A couple of weeks ago I had a bike incident, smashing on the frozen tarmac after misjudging the height of a step and try to “jump” with bicycle and all, I had landed on the same knee already in pain and for some strange Aikido reflex I had managed to not smashed the left arm on the ground when I bent the handlebar:

bike handlebar re-work

An accident due to 80% stupidity, 10% iced road and 10% bad luck..

Funny thing is that after the crash both knee and elbow seems to improve.. Fight fire with fire?

…but the not traditional healing method did not really stick, and nowadays I have started thinking to get back to some more traditional cures, that wouldn’t require to crash again my poor bike..

In the close future I see some more very active weeks coming and I am quite happy. I have planned to attend interesting seminars where I will meet amazing people on the mats and have more chance to test my body and mind. Last Aikido year had been fantastic. I have hopes and I trust this year will be equally great.. but I have to improve my own condition. Learn how to recover faster as well.

Tuesday’s are my days of rest but unfortunately it’s almost sure I work overtime every single one. But I also promised myself to stop on the way home at Bukowski bar, my oasis in Amsterdam. Often alone I sit in my spot, have an occasional chat with the people working there, check my Instagram or social places or write my blog… like yesterday night….

2016 Aikido seminars

Wrap up of an year of travelling/training for Aikido (a little late)

15 – 17 January: Strømmen, weekend seminar with Bachraty sensei
22 – 24 January: Dusseldorf, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
20 – 21 February: Jakarta, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
12 – 13 March: Ho Chi Minh, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
15 – 17 April: Dublin, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
22 – 24 April: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
14 May: Stockholm, “Female Touch” day seminar @ Vanadis
20 – 23 May: Stavanger, weekend seminar with Kingston sensei (Dayto Ryu Aikijutsu)
11 – 12 June: Prague, weekend seminar with Noel sensei
19 August: Duisburg, one session with Ruben sensei
20 – 21 August: Duisburg, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei (bokken seminar)
2 – 4 September: Oslo, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
18 September: Amsterdam, one session with Dijkman sensei (ukemi seminar)
21 September: Amsterdam, one session with Yamashima sensei
23 – 25 September: Hannover, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
14 – 16 October: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Ariga sensei
21 – 23 October: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
12 November: Trondheim, one session with Nevelius sensei
18 – 20 November: Heggedal, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
25 – 27 November: Vienna, weekend seminar with Endo sensei

…and to add to all this serious and top level seminars, I had a short one myself:

9 – 10 January: Trondheim, weekend seminar with aikidude 🙂

Less weekend seminars than in 2015, but more practice altogether with 2 great periods in Asia (Japan+Vietnam and Indonesia).

A great time on the road anyway…

…and 2017 has already started in full speed and great time..