January 31 2015

Dan Harden Seminar 1/23 thru 1/25/2015

Harden 1 25 15Dan Harden came down to Aikido of Palm Beach County for a seminar last weekend. It was awesome as usual.

I was only able to attend Saturday and Sunday afternoon because of family obligations. Family first.

Apparently Dan showed alot of above top secret stuff that I missed. Bummer.

Dan did seem to be in a real serious mood this time. He wasn’t his regular jovial self. I expect that is because he was teaching the more intense stuff.

Dan did say at the end of the seminar that he was showing our group more stuff because its the same regulars continually showing up. And that most of them are showing marked improvement.

I don’t think I made the cut this time however. I wasn’t doing much right this seminar.

I did take one important thing from Dan this time that I have not heard before. He said the point of practicing sword cuts is to get your dantian moving, its not to build your shoulders. Which means that your real strength and power comes from your insides, your center. Not from just your muscle.

THere was also another exercise Dan did that had to do with raising your arm/hand to meet your attackers oncoming grip. But the purpose of it was to learn how to connect to a different set of muscles instead of just using your shoulders. The idea is to get your shoulders rotating in their sockets and to have the muscle over your shoulder and down your back moving your opponent.

Nice to know after doing years and thousands of sword cuts. Needless to say, I will be changing my sword cuts to make sure this happens. I am also changing my solo practice to connect deeper with the internals.

Category: Internal Energy | 2 Comments on Dan Harden Seminar 1/23 thru 1/25/2015
January 31 2015

Florida Women’s Instructors Aikido Seminar 1/17/2015

20150117_122436I attended the Florida Women’s Instructors Seminar on 1/17/2015 and I think this picture says it all. Look at the beaming smiles!

It was a great seminar. And the most amazing thing to me was the level of “martial” that was present in the teachings.

Dare I say it, but I thought there was a higher level of martial spirit in this seminar than in any seminar I have attended in a long time. Three words; women warriors rock!

Sensei Penny did a real nice approach using groups of three in order to increase awareness and keep the intensity up. She did a lot of utemi work along with going into the opponent’s center for effective unbalancing. Stealing the center.

Sensei Weewow taught an informative class. I was quietly amazed at how she was teaching Dan Harden concepts. I didn’t think she followed Dan. The strength is that the concepts she was teaching are universal.2015-01-17 Florida Women Instructors Seminar

Sensei Seabolt was extremely martial. I loved it. She did a lot of take down moves such as the opponent coming at you with a tsuki. Her response was to move off center, going down to a knee and helping the aggressor to follow the force of his punch, ultimately winding up in a heap on the mat. She did it with great fervor.

Sensei Boccolucci taught her first seminar. If she had never mentioned that, no one ever would have known this was her first. She was flawless and in keeping with showing that women are brutal. She did a great class that focused on basics. After she was done showing her technique, she would say, “get back to work!” Which I think summed up the seminar.

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January 25 2015

Tom Floyd Systema Stick Training Seminar 1/10/2015

Tom FloydTom Floyd of Floyd Systema & Karate Institute taught a Stick Training Seminar at Randal Smith’s dojo.  Here’s Tom’s YouTube channel: Floyd Systema Kyusho

The focus was not so much using a stick (jo) as a weapon but to use the stick as a tool to increase your flexibility and strength. It gave me a whole new perspective on using the stick, which I am used to calling a jo.

Tom showed some very effective exercises. Such as wrapping your leg around the stick and using the leverage created by the stick to increase your flexibility, balance and range of motion. You wrap your leg around the stick and push or pull, depends on what side of the leg you are doing, towards the ground. The movement stretches your leg muscles and opens your hips. I can feel the muscles, ligaments and femural heads opening up and moving. Hard to explain without pictures diagramming it.

Tom showed a shoulder exercise that helped in stretching out the shoulder muscles and laying the scapulars flat on you back. In the exercise,you grab the stick and put it behind your back while going to your knees and not compromising your grip. What happens is that you chicken bone yourself and create the stretch. Then move your head to the side to increase the stretch.

There was also a nikkyo exercise that Tom showed where you hold the stick and do a nikkyo on yourself. You grab the opposite end of the stick and use the leverage to really dig into the nikkyo, stretching those muscles to new points. Doing this stretch causes not just your wrist and supporting muscles to get a good stretch but it also gets your whole forearm.

There was a lot more that was taught. I only listed three of the things that I now use in my daily solo practice. I hope to be posting a video of this seminar which will show lots of good information.

Category: Systema | LEAVE A COMMENT