4-Day Seminar on Ukemi and Connection
with
Kaizen Taki from Systema and George Ledyard from Aikido The goal of this training is to offer up a new paradigm regarding ukemi for the Aikido practitioner. Ukemi is central to all aspects of Aikido. An understanding of proper ukemi is essential for development of higher level skills in Aikido, it is crucial to martial functionality, important for safe and healthy training, and can reveal important lessons on the spiritual side of he art. This training is designed to show the practitioner how he or she can reprogram the mind / body to remove tension, recognize and transform fear, de-associate strong intention from tension mentally and physically, how to locate and move tension to create clear perception and provide complete freedom of movement. No art seems to have as much focus on this issue as Systema, the Russian martial art, and Kaizen Taki will preside over training that will use various breathing and movement exercises to imprint various principles. George Ledyard, Aikido 6th Dan and direct student of Mitsugi Saotome Sensei, will then take these various principles and show how we can put them into a form that is recognizably Aikido. The end result should be increased ability to take ukemi that does not stress the body, to maintain composure throughout the interaction with the partner, to unify the role of uke and nage so that there is no difference between what the practitioner does in one role or the other, to understand that the Aikido interaction is about "connection" not aggression or collusion. The result should be a re-conceptualization of the role of uke as having responsibility for the learning and progress of the nage in the training interaction. We think this is truly cutting edge Aikido training. It represents an attempt to bring elements from an art in which there are a number of very unique mind / body methodologies into our own art, Aikido, which would benefit greatly from a new perspective in these areas. Limit of 30 attendees, open to Yudansha level Aikido students (or with special permission) Daily Schedule:
Friday through Monday
9:00 am - Noon
2:00pm to 5:00 pm
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