Central London 昭道館合気道 (Shōdōkan Aikidō)

Welcome to Central London Shodokan’s new Blog!

        
Keep it clean and keep it real!

Sensei (Marlon)

Fun programme that teaches Focus to kids……..how to use the brain well.

Image Recognition, Communication, Stress Control, Confidence, Activity Under Pressure.

Adults can have fun also!

Link: Brain-jitsui

Sensei

Here are the details for the first Koyshiyama Cup in Geneva……..

Dates, times, events, location and accomodation.

Details

Registration (for details please contact your Club Sensei)

Some 2km south of the city centre, the suburb of Carouge is a quite different experience from Geneva proper. 

Something of a refuge from Geneva, its quiet, attractive streets packed with artists’ workshops, old-style cafés and some of the city’s best small-scale nightlife. Its tourist-office tag is the “Greenwich Village of Geneva”.

Trams #12 or #13 from the city centre can drop you at the Place du Marché in the heart of Carouge, still used as a marketplace and starting point for random exploration of the quarter.

Not too far from the Ramada Encore Hotel where we expect everyone will be staying!!

Here’s a really interesting interview with Jon Cameron JAA 5th Dan. Last years course instructor.

Podcast

Sensei

Links to the Aikido Journal articles Part 1 and 2.

Part 1

Part 2

a few excerpts from the above extensive article:

“The arts were divided into specific fields based on the type of technique. An old time practitioner of Ninjutsu, the Art of Stealth, thought only of the real life application. He would do anything he had to do in order to win. This was, of course, because they used technique for the purpose of war, and from that point of view you had to be able to cope with a long engagement distance or a short one, you could jump, do anything necessary. But if we move up to the present we don’t think about such realistic applications. Through our training we forge our spirits (kokoro) and bodies, and so doing we concern ourselves with being useful in more peaceful pursuits. This is the modern way of thinking, and it is so precisely because it is not warlike.”

“Here, again, I can point out this problem as an example. If I take a hand, I can twist it this way or I can reverse it this way. There are only these two possibilities, right? But in the classical arts one teacher would call the reverse movement the “Konoha gaeshi” (tree-leaf reverse) while some other teacher might say “kotegaeshi.” Even though the technical content is the same, the name is completely different. On top of it all, they would hide this fact and we end up being unable to understand any of it.”

“The idea that if he cuts me I’ll cut him is a very animal-like way of thinking, isn’t it? But the way of doing it that is the most human, and human with a good conscience, it is the way which controls violence but doesn’t cause injury. I personally think that the fact O-Sensei had opened to him such an enlightenment is a thing of great meaningfulness.”

 ”Therefore, in viewing our present peaceful society and looking forward to a peaceful future, I think that “sportification” (kyogika), the conversion to competitive sport, is the best way to spread the outstanding points and the benefits of budo to the world.”

Read the entire article via the above links.

excerpt from the JAA website. 

the idea ot Aikido

The aikido of this association aspires towards a state of ‘mushin-mugamae’ (literally no mind - no posture) and aims to keep our body healthy and improve our personality through training and study of both ‘kata’ (fixed form) and ‘randori’ (free form).

The royal road of Budo-training lies at the training and study of ‘kata’ left by our precursors and the practice oi randori’ as an alternative for real battle, both exercised without any bias.

With the ‘Aikirandoriho’-system invented by Professor Kenji Tomiki we take distance from the self-righteous ten­dency of only practicing kata. On the other hand, with the training of kata, we overcome the narrow-minded win-ning-is-everything mentality when only practicing randori. By adding a more theoretical aspect of learning we come closer to the ideal state.

By learning we mean not only the abundant concepts included in the study of the art of aikido, but also the founda­tions of personality, being the study of classical canon of east and west and the forming of a scientific mind. In this international society where many racial and religious disputes occur, we need good Japanese people who through Budo can contribute in realizing world peace. The aspirations of a healthy body, broad cultural knowledge and im­provement of personality by practitioners of aikido can be the foundations that contribute to world peace.

The supreme state of Japanese budo is characterized physically by ‘mugamae’ or no posture, and mentally by ‘mushin’ or no mind. ‘Mugamae’ is a posture without posturing, ‘mushin’ is a transcendental state of mind. Or should we say that the first is rather aimed for after training the idea of basic posture, and the latter rather a slight awareness of things we hold on to? In each case they are not easily achieved. But they serve a conceptual purpose.

The aim of this association is the upbringing of capable aikido loving people who prove useful in Japan and out­side, through the spread of the aforementioned aikido.

Hello All,

Follow this link to train your reaction timing (courtesy Sussex Sport Aikido Club).

Reaction time training.

 Sensei

You tube video of Randori no kata.

Please follow this link (RNK) to You Tube.

Sensei

 Here are the results of the questionnaires recently completed by 81% of November membership.

Survey Results (Numbers)

Suggestions Feedback

 Sensei

Ps. look out for upcoming changes in Operations……not our Aikido!!

 Sempai – Kohai group-work

A practice system used to transfer technical knowledge to learners of various levels.

Senior Students (Sempai) are assigned a new student/’s (Kohai) on a regular basis to guide through the following:

• What happens in the class: Etiquette, Why, How.

• Syllabus Practice: Knowledge transfer

• Training partner: Grading preparation

• Concerns and Questions: To be feed back to the main tutor

Practice Guide for Sempai (Whole-Part-Whole)

• Demo the whole of what you want to cover first or let your Kohai practice as far as possible

• Point out what is working well first, avoidance, posture etc.

• Pick one thing to correct, and then practice it.

• Practice the whole again!