Black Belt Lawyer

Konigsberg Sensei came down for a seminar. I can’t remember how many of his seminars I have been to over the years. They are always awesome.

An aikido friend of mine once referred to Konigsberg Sensei as a “burning ember”. This always stuck with me and made sense. He is such because his movements are explosive. He stays in stasis until something causes him to respond. Just like an ember that can ignite into flame.

The teaching I took away from this seminar was to keep my shoulders down and move from your hips. Access your body centrally and in a unified way. This is the dominant theme in my martial arts life.

Konigsberg Sensei was stressing the point that you must engage and move from your center and also engage and move your opponents center. You must enter the dynamic sphere.

Crandall Sensei I have never met before until this seminar. He taught the first hour class.

Crandall Sensei was very good. He is a physically powerful guy who used small movements. His style is similar to Konigsberg Sensei.

Crandall Sensei stressed movement to center and demonstrated a real nice technique of aiming your thumb towards your own center from a wrist grab.This completely destabilizes the strongest opponent. It catches you off guard without a doubt.

Its like when you reach for a closed door and someone on the other side happens to be opening it at the exact moment you are opening it. You get that feeling of falling off a cliff. Your balance is falling forward and you are gone.

I already knew of this technique, but it was nice to be reminded of it again. And his version was quite effective.

I 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.

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.

Another excellent seminar. However, I must admit that I had the flu and only worked out on Saturday. I also did not get any pictures this year. I was out of it.

I attended Yamada sensei and Shibata sensei’s classes. Those two were the only two Japanese shihan in attendance.

I am always amazed with Shibata sensei. Either I see things differently now or  Shibata sensei was doing moves that were akin to daito ryu and pulling silk.

For instance, he would draw his attacker in and use that energy to off balance his attacker and then drop him. Using that energy from the attacker opened up a bunch of different points in which to exploit the attackers balance. Instant kazuchi.

I also noticed that Shibata sensei used the quiet space between movements in order to get the feel of the attacker; to keep connected. Its as if he is engaging the etheric body and the energy tendrils.

Your attacker puts out so much energy in his attack that if you slow down and move amongst the breath, the wind from the attack, you can get deep inside that person.This is something I have been trying to learn and apply. He does it. I emulate it.

A sad note, on Sunday, Shibata sensei said he would not be doing anymore seminars. He said he would not be traveling.

I guess I will have to make a pilgrimage to his dojo.

I must admit that  I dropped the ball in not posting all of my Winter Seminar Experience. I will have to go back over my notes and provide detail. I posted some pictures below. The pictures don’t necessarily correspond to the words I wrote. For instance, there are no pictures of Shibata Sensei or Berthiaume Sensei.

There is a picture of Bernath Sensei teaching class. And a picture of the Aikido Technical committee grading a test. If you look real close, you can see me in the mirror taking the picture. I also posted a picture of the kamize.

But, I can assure you of this, it was awesome.

I attended the last two classes of yesterday’s seminar. Unfortunately, I could not make the full day schedule.  I took Shibata Sensei and Berthiaume Sensei’s classes.

Shibata Sensei is one impressive guy. I swear every time I see him he moves faster, quicker and more powerful. Time is not slowing him down.

Shibata Sensei was doing some great kokyu nage moves. He makes it look so easy and effortless. I also noticed that he moves in a spiral not unlike how O Sensei moves. Everything about Shibata Sensei was a spiral. Amazing.

Sensei Berthiaume was showing some awesome shihonage work. He was doing this one thing where you rotate/spiral the attacker’s hand and it makes his whole body move.  was working out wiht Eliott Snsei from Miami Aikikai on this move and it was impressive. He was moving my whole body from hand down through the opposite foot just by spiraling/rotating my hand. Nice stuff.