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

The Seminar Was a Blast
by Susan Lazar
Summer 1998

Trying to learn the "human origami" (ude garami) technique was spotlighted for me during Great Lakes Aikikai's 10th Anniversary Seminar. Shibata Sensei stood opposite me offering an enormous limb that apparently was his arm. I was grateful that Maureen Sensei had taught this movement a week prior to the seminar. I had learned how to fall without the use of my arms then. But now I couldn't do the technique and neither could my practice partner. Shibata Sensei had noticed and had come over to demonstrate.

With a flash of "Who me?" terror, I reached out and grabbed an arm that felt stronger than a tree trunk. As he moved, I felt the power, grace and restraint of an aikido master's movements. I wanted him to keep throwing me just so that I could keep feeling that level of perfection. Forget the seminar, I'm practicing with a shihan!

The crowded mat was a challenge. Eighty people on a mat makes one appreciate the growing popularity of aikido. "Be careful on a crowded mat with so many people," Chiba Sensei admonished us. I spent the rest of that hour working on broadening my awareness all around me. I found a blind spot in an angle behind me, slowed my rolls down, and paid strict attention to my new area of awareness.

Over the seminar's two days, everyone had the opportunity to practice with aikidoka from many dojos. When practicing with so many different people, one's aikido skills are rapidly expanded. By Sunday, I felt more centered and connected to each practice partner than I ever had before. Eight hours of aikido in two days pushed the rest of the world away and focused my thoughts and energies on the movements of aikido.

One of the prettiest sights was ukemi practice at the beginning of each day. Looking across the dojo, the many rolling gis looked like parts of one large white flower opening and fluttering in the wind.

The cooperation and care toward one another by all participants was, as always, another great part of aikido practice. People from all over the country practicing the same movements, all different levels, all together, all dedicated towards learning those magical movements. In our dojo there is a photograph with the caption, "A way to reunite the world." How true.

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