Tuesday, April 20, 2010

5th kyu test Sunday

A big hug for everyone at Rochester Phoenix Aikido. Thanks for your help and support.
xoxoPaula

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Gallery updated

Gallery of Bill Plank sensei's seminar is updated. --> Gallery

Bob Poresky Sensei's Class 4/18

 Bob Poresky Sensei will be at Rochester this coming Sunday, April 18th, 2010.
Class will start 11am.

When : 11am to 1pm, April 18th, 2010
Where : Rochester Phoenix Aikido Club. Check Direction Here

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Some points on Plank Sensei's Saturday class.

Saturday's portion of the seminar began with Plank Sensei's description of the rowing exercise as a valuable "Hojo Undo", or, daily exercise.

He discussed how at first the movements were to be attended to closely, until, as sufficient layers of practice have built into the unconscious, one achieves proper form with less attention. A daily buildup of this practice, according to Plank Sensei, would allow one to develop good basic habits, and provide for the beginnings of both structure and connection in themselves.

Structure was the primary theme of the day, and connection was directly discussed in the latter part of the class. Anyone who attended Sunday's class is invited to convey their experiences and impressions.

I will try to summarize a portion of Plank Sensei's discussion on structure, as seen in both the rowing exercise, and in basic sword cuts.

The way I heard him, and subsequently considered it, is in terms of a right-triangle. Imagine your weight distribution in hanmi from a side view. If your weight is forward, as though you had just completed a strike, it may look something like this:If you had need to repeat the strike, you would shift your weight, and exhibit the 'right triangle' on the left, and onward.

Plank Sensei also described defensive strikes, as though you were late to strike, or behind the incoming attack. Weight would be forward (or to the right), except the strike would be raised and at the ready. In the defensive cut, the weight shifts back (or to the left), and the 'right triangles' are reversed, as below:
The difficulty here, is that this particular practitioner is practicing the first type of offensive strike, so the 'triangles' don't quite match up to the posture we would expect. Just imagine the image on the right shifting his weight back (to the left) in order to avoid and block an attack.

In each of the above images, the straight vertical lines correspond to the higher weight concentration (ie, front foot or back foot)

Next time, pictures of the authors!

That is it for now. I welcome anyone who attended Sunday's portion of the seminar to comment here and tell us how it went.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Seminar by Bill Plank Sensei this coming weekend

We have seminar by Bill Plank Sensei this coming weekend.

When: April 10th, 11th.
Where: Capital Aikikai of Syracuse

If you plan to attend, check location and start time.

Detail is here

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Yokomen entering

  Yesterday was Tom's class. We exercised entering to Yokomen attacking. Eight people attended class. One of off centering technique against Yokomen attaching was very unique. I personally like it. After the class, some of students trained Randori with Tanto. It was also fun.
  Next weekend, we will have Bill Plank sensei's seminar at Capital Aikikai of Syracuse. Check time and map to Syracuse at Dojo.
Note: We have Youth class on Sunday as usual.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Seminar information: Bill Plank Sensei

April 10th and 11th, 2010
CAPITAL AIKIKAI, SYRACUSE, NY
Featuring
Bill Plank, 5th Dan, Shidoin

  Bill Plank Sensei is the chief instructor of both Capital Aikikai, in Washington, DC and Jackson Hole Aikikai, in Wyoming. He holds the rank of fifth degree black belt, and is a Shidoin instructor, registered with the Aikikai Hombu dojo, in Japan. He sits on the Board of Governors of the Capital Aikikai Federation and is one of the senior students of Clyde Takeguchi Shihan. Plank Sensei has been a student of Clyde Takeguchi Shihan of Capital Aikikai since starting Aikido in 1981.

Registration:
  • Saturday 4/10/10 11 a.m. 
  • Sunday 4/11/10 9 a.m. 
Cost:
  • $30 Saturday only
  • $20 Sunday only
  • $40 Both Days
Saturday Class Sunday Class
  • 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • 2:15p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Capital Aikikai, Syracuse NY
5869 Fisher Road, Building 2, Suite, B, East Syracuse, New York 13057
Chief Instructor: Bob Poresky (315) 559-5061

More information is here

Google recognized this Blog!

Google search recognized our blog. You will find this blog by searching "aikido rochester" in google.

Friday, April 2, 2010