There’s a new DVD in the Dojo webstore, shot at a seminar in Dublin in March 2008.
Alan Butler hosted Swedish shihan Sveneric Bogsater and the seminar was recorded and edited into a DVD by dojo member Quintin Ahern. Alan has already passed on DVDs to those who pre-ordered them, but to make the disk more easily available to others, it’s now available from my webstore. If you order it, the order goes to Alan, who will look after shipping it himself.
As the subject line says, last night we looked at bits and bobs from the weekend, including waza from the santo tonko no kata, kieru no kankaku, randori & bojutsu. Everyone was a bit tired from the intensive training over the last few days, so it was a relaxed class.
There was also a longer than usual talking bit in the middle, as we discussed some of the things Doug had to say regarding the practicalities of training and how important it is to keep things vibrant, alive and healthy. Lots of fun.
– Alex Meehan
Thanks to Doug Wilson Shihan from Japan for an excellent three days training this past weekend. Doug covered material taken from Togakure Ryu Ninpo Taijutsu and the sword, rokushakubo and kyoketsu shoge of Happobikenjutsu over the weekend, with a pervading theme of ‘keeping it real’, ‘ninpo ikkan’ and working towards kieru no kankaku, or the feeling of disappearing.
I know I had a great time and it was a pleasure to welcome visiting budoka (and shihan instructors) from EVERY club in Ireland as well as visitors from the UK (David Oliver, David Webb, Andy Whalley, Chris Caulfield) and Shihan Gillian Booth from Australia.
Thanks are also due to Rex Dunlop for being so incredibly helpful with the organising of this course, as well Quintin Ahern for filming and Jason Coleman, Richard WeldMoore, Mat Harvey and the others from the Rathmines Dojo who also mucked in. Thanks guys!
We recorded enough material to put out a DVD of this seminar, so watch this space for news of when it will be available.
There are loads more pictures on the dojo webforum, for those registered to view it.
– Alex Meehan
Please note that due to the seminar that took place this weekend, there is no training at the Rathmines dojo tonight.
Normal Monday night training will instead take place tomorrow, Tuesday, using the same times as we usually have on Monday.
See you there!
– Alex Meehan
So we have training tonight at the Rathmines Dojo at 7.30pm with Doug and then tomorrow in Clondalkin, with training starting promptly at 11am. Please remember to arrive early for both sessions, and in particular, please help the organisers out by checking through to the blog entry for the weekend session.
There you’ll find a downloadable registration form – please print it out, fill it in and bring it with you to training on Saturday morning. We will have a stack of them available but if everyone has to fill in the form on the day it will slow things down, and we need to actually start at 11am, rather than 30 or 40 minutes later.
Hope to see as many of you as possible for this.
– Alex Meehan
It’s a busy week for us here at the Rathmines Dojo. Because there are lots of scheduling irregularities in May, students should note that there is:
Anyone is welcome tonight – even if you’re not doing a test, it will be a good opportunity to go over lots of basics in a fast manner.
– Alex Meehan
Class: Monday 19th May
The kata Jigoku Dori or “Hell capture” , which is in the kyu-grade syllabus and comes from Takagi Yoshin Ryu , was done in it’s basic form before being looked at with variations. We saw different ways of capturing the punch, taking balance, kicking and dropping the opponent. This was a good chance for uke to practice relaxed movement and zempo ukemi too.
The seniors moved into more dangerous variations with muso dori’s and oni-kudakis beeing created naturally within the rhythmn of taking balance with timing, strikes and hidden kicks. We worked against boxing-style jabs too.
We continued with syllabus work ahead of the grade test on Wednesday.
It was great to see everyone give an enthusiastic help cleaning up in readiness for Fridays class with Doug Wilson.
Thought provoker: Jabs versus lunge punches. How does it change your taijutsu?
Because of the weekend seminar coming, the class next Monday 26th will move to Tuesday 27th instead.
– Ali Martinez
Class: Thursday May 16th
We did some rolling drills up and down the dojo from seiza, both backwards and forwards. Next we did some take-downs using the feet from which uke had to perform zempo-ukemi as the angle/timing didn’t allow for rolling. We used the feet in other ways to control uke’s attack.
Next we did some Takagi Yoshin Ryu Jutaijutsu looking at a few kata that demonstrated some of the footwork, locks, and throws from this Ryuha, in the seated position. Some “kuden” was given. We did similar stuff from standing also and does with that jutaijutsu feeling Alex showed how the resulting throws could be very meaty indeed so good ukemi was required.
We then did some syllabus work – “uchi-mata” and “gensaki otoshi”.
Thought porovoker: Alex’s classes are described as “intermediate to advanced”. Do they make you think you need more basic training? Have you tried Rex and Shanes classes?
-Ali Martinez
Class: Monday 12th May
A pretty advanced class containing all sorts of ideas that show how our skeletal struture, driven by timing and spirit, allows us to interupt an adversaries skeletal structure. It was all manipulation of kukan both in the taijutsu and with the sword work. From a basics perspective it showed how making the kamae your own and really knowing them with your body, can lead to unknown techniques. The sword work had similar ideas to Kukishin Ryu Dakentaijtusu of drawing your opponent out in the first few cuts before entering in. We saw how this might be usefull with the ninjato. There was also the idea of decending leaping, cutting with kamae, shielding while moving and using the uke’s extended skeleton – by virtue of them holding a sword – to take various balance points using the hips. Body-and-sword-as-one is wrapped up in all of this and doesn’t necessarily involve an actual sword.
Though provoker: What home-training are you doing to make these things your own?
As Alex has said recently before: “What are you waiting for?”
-Ali Martinez
The next opportunity for dojo members to test for a new kyu rank will be on Wednesday, May 21st at 8pm.
There will be class from 7pm on, with testing starting at around 8.15pm.
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