Aikido      Judo      Jujitsu     

Home

Class Schedule

Events

Instructors

Photos

Newsletter

Martial Arts Links

Map to Dojo

Contact Us

Voice of the Fox
The Newsletter of the Martial Arts Training Service

Weapons Seminar
by Chris Treadwell
Spring 1996

On Friday, February 23rd, four intrepid members of the Fox Valley Aikikai made the long journey to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to visit the Great Lakes Aikikai. These individuals were Jim Glade, Aaron Starr, Joe Baldino, and myself. The journey started at noon when we piled into the car and headed off, full of high hopes and spirits. Both Joe and Jim were quite anxious to be underway, as both would be testing that evening.

Even before we arrived, we learned a great many things, such as Joe's unique method of choosing which radio stations he would listen to, which consisted of him changing the channel about every 30 seconds, or when he couldn't hear any more lyrics. This method caused Jim and Aaron to mutter darkly in the back seat about pitching Joe off by the side of the road. However, we did eventually arrive safely (and all in one vehicle) at the dojo.

At 6:00 p.m. on Friday night we attended a short class followed by the tests. There were quite a few people testing that evening, in addition to Joe and Jim, and the tests were fairly impressive. Joe and Jim did quite well, and it was obvious from watching Okuyama Sensei's students that they had been hard at work as well (especially at the speed in which they run up to the testing students as uke -- we should practice that at our dojo; we could call it the three meter uke dash, or something). Afterward, as we went back to our hotel after dinner, we were reminded by Browne Sensei that there was a 9:00 a.m. class the next morning. We smiled, told her we wold be there, and groaned when she was out of earshot. (So much for sleeping in.)

The next day was enlightening as well. After an invigorating morning class, and a few hours in which to search for a laundromat, we finally made it to the seminar. As usual, Okuyama Sensei's seminar was interesting and informative, focusing on the relation between body arts and weapons. As always, we were quite impressed with Sensei's skill with both bokken and jo, and the fluid grace with which he wielded them, as well as with his insights into how the body arts evolved from the older weapon techniques. The three hours passed all too soon, and after the dojo party that evening we returned to the hotel, continually asking each other, "How did that technique go again?" I'm still not sure if we recalled them all correctly, but at least we'll never look at aikido techniques the same way again.

Sunday morning we found ourselves at the dojo again. Unfortunately, Maureen and John Sensei had to leave early, leaving us the sole representatives (along with John and Take) of the Fox Valley Aikikai. (I hope we didn't make that bad of an impression.)

Even so, the day went well. In the weapons class, we worked on a single weapon kata, bokken vs. jo. Though interesting, I made a few mistakes, and I would like to take this opportunity to again apologize to the woman I hit in the temple with my jo. (Aaron also complained that I hit him, but I'm not apologizing for that. He broke my toe by stepping on it before we took our gokyu test.) All in all, it was a great class, and we were sorry to have to leave that afternoon, and once again hit the road home.

On the trip home, we sat reflecting upon the things we had learned that weekend. Joe changed the radio station about 36,000 times, Aaron complained about his sore knee, Jim said all sorts of deep and metaphysical things, and I merely wondered if I would ever have the skill level in aikido that Okuyama Sensei has, and kept Aaron and Jim from fomenting revolt in the back seat. And, once again, we all made it back to Illinois in the same vehicle.

Home | Schedule | Events | Instructors | Photos | Newsletter | Links | Map