Sunday, December 25, 2011

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT!

Seeing as the year is coming to a close, i would like to extend my gratitude to our senseis for all they have taught us so far. (Special thanks to Piotr Sensei for flying all the way here to practise with us). In the same vein, i say thank you to all aikidokas. It has been great hanging out and practising together. Even as i look forward to even greater experiences next year, i wish you all good health and happy holidays.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Family picture

From Nairobi Aikikai

Postprocessing my pmasz

Aikido Seminar December 16-18, 2011

I must begin by thanking Piotr Masztalerz Sensei and Mateusz Waga Sensei for the seminar that took place last weekend which for me personally was great as I learnt a lot of things that I did not know.Domo arigato gozaimashita Piotr Sensei and Mateusz Sensei.
And before I forget,congratulations are in order for our dear Sensei Mateusz Waga for being promoted to Shodan which is a well deserved promotion....Congratulations once again Sensei!

Secondly,I would like to thank Piotr Sensei and Mateusz Sensei for grading me and awarding me Yonkyu and most important of all for pointing out my weaknesses which I shall strive to correct before the next seminar.

Congratulations to the following for passing the grading exam yesterday:
-Daniel(Nikyu)
-Ben(Nikyu)
-Jason(Sankyu)
-Tony(Sankyu)
It was a great seminar and I can't wait until the next seminar which I hope will be soon as this is one golden opportunity of learning Aikido from one of the top Aikidoka in Europe.

I take this opportunity to wish you all happy holidays and an Aikido full 2012.....Cheers!!!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

@Goan Ghymkhana Wed 14 Dec 2011

First I must say a big karibu to Piotr Masztalerz sensei, godan, shidoin who will be taking us through the scheduled seminar and today took us through the first class.
After the normal calisthenics, the class was underway with new kind of opening to most of us in ai hanmi. The techniques covered include:-
  • Shiho nage
  • Kote gaeshi
  • Juji nage/ude garami  
Another unnamed technique  was perfomed, concentrating on the wrist proved to be a tough one for both uke and tori especially after performing kote gaeshi.
The first two hours were dedicated to Aikido techniques punctuated by exercises meant for relaxation, or not.

The weapons hour was dedicated to the practice of Jo, the exercise being Sancho part 1. Small mistakes were corrected, some obvious while some not so obvious.
Class ended an hour later with no injuries.... sorry.... MAJOR injuries to report of. Once again Karibu Mwalimu!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Seminar Class Schedule

Please find below seminar class schedule:

Friday - Aikido class from 17:00 till 19:00 at Japanese Embassy

Saturday - Aikido class from 09:00 till 12:00 at Aga Khan Sports Club

Saturday - Weapons class from 16:00 till 18:00 at Nick Hughes'es garden

Sunday - Aikido class from 09:00 till 12:00 at Aga Khan Sports Club

Sunday - Weapons class from 16:00 till 18:00 at Nick Hughes'es garden (to be confirmed during the course of the seminar)

Please bear in mind that after last class on Sunday there will be barbecue grill party which is no less important than the seminar itself. OK, perhaps a bit less important. Or... perhaps not ;-)

Friday, December 9, 2011

Extract from Daniel Brunner Sensei's book

The full list of techniques from the Shindo Munen Ryu school is as follows,

1. iwanami
2. ukifune gaeshi
3. noarashi gaeshi
4. utsu semi
5. matsukaze
6. zangetsu hidari
7. zangetsu migi
8. doto gaeshi
9. raito gaeshi
10. yoto
11. into
12. inazuma gaeshi

In the Muso Shinden Ryu school, there are 3 levels of techniques: shoden, chuden and okuden. The list of techniques in the first level (shoden) is as follows;

1. shohatto
2. sato
3. uto
4. atarito
5. inyo shintai
6. ryuto
7. junto
8. seichuto
9. gyakuto
10. koranto
11. gyakute inyo shintai
12. batto

@ Goan Ghymkhana Wed 7 Dec 2011

The first hour saw the practise of techniques.
Attack---> Shomen Uchi Position -----> Tachi waza  
Techniques included 
  • Ikkyo ura and Omote
  • Yonkyo ura and omote
  • Shiho nage
  • Kote gaeshi
  • Irimi nage
  • Soto and Uchi kaiten nage
Second hour, we tried to polish -The verb not the adjective :)  -on our bokken skills. After a few minutes of warm-ups we embarked on practicing Ichi no tachi, which many of us had no problem with, and finally Ni no tachi.
On the final hour, Iaido was practiced. Some difficulty were witnessed in nikitsuke and returning the iaido back to the saya. The first five katas were practised, some easier to grasp than others, well that's life.
Next class Fri 9 Dec 2011 @ Embassy. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Monday, December 5, 2011 session at the Goan Gymkhana

It has been quite a while since I last posted something here but here I am once again....and before I forget,welcome back Ben!

Ben Sempai took over the first hour and took us through the all familiar warm up exercises before pacing us through Mae and Ushiro Ukemi in both Suwari waza and Tachi waza.

The following were the techniques of the day(in no particular order):

-Ikkyo Omote from both Suwari waza and Tachi waza.
-Morote dori:Ikkyo and Nikyo(both in Omote),Sankyo(Omote & Ura),Yonkyo,Irimi nage.
-Kata dori:Ikkyo,Nikyo,Sankyo,Shiho nage,Rokyo.

It all ended with the good old back stretch-Haishin undo.

I must admit it was one of those days that I just find myself not clicking with any technique but all in all it was a great class......