Happy Christmas and New Year

Happy Christmas and New Year, hope you all have an enjoyable time over the next few days.

I wish you all the best and will see you in 2009.

Pete

Christmas Greetings and Closedown

This year has certainly flown by and we have managed to get through with various successes from new members, gradings, meetings with other dojos and seminars.

I hope you all have enjoyed your Aikido this year, as I have, and will enjoy a few weeks break to enjoy some Saturday mornings at home and the seasonal cheer.

I have decided that this weekend (13th) will be the last until the New Year and we will begin again on the Saturday 10th January.

This will give us all the chance to refresh ourselves and begin with renewed vigour.

Thank you all for attending the class and making 2008 successful for the Warmley club.

Moving into 2009, I will start to focus on my own progression and aim to progress you all on your Aikido journey.

I would like to wish you and your families all the greetings and wishes that come with the season and wish that you all have an enjoyable break.

If I don't see you this weekend, have a Happy Christmas and New Year.

BKAA Winter Seminar

My eyes must be going, as this photo is fine when you click on it ?

The last weekend saw the BKAA Winter Seminar held at the University of Bath Judo dojo. Members from far and wide attended and had an enjoyable weekend of Aikido and bouncing around the superb mats.

Once again our knowledge was tested and the nuances of Aikido were brought to our attention.

I was pleased to see many of the Warmley dojo in attendance and mixing with the other members of the BKAA. These events are always a good occasion to get to meet others and understand the difference between styles of teaching.

Our next seminar is planned for the end of March, although dates have to be confirmed.

Congratulations to Oscar and Betsy

I would like to congratulate Betsy and Oscar on their start towards a long and rewarding Aikido knowledge. Betsy has been awarded with her 6th Kyu (Red Belt) and Oscar his 5th Kyu (Yellow Belt), although I have to remember my camera to document these events.

Weekend activities from End November to December

Time is certainly flying this year, and we will soon be in the December season, where again training become sporadic and heads fuzzy with the cheer of the year.

Couple of things are happening in December that effect the Aikido club:

The first weekend 6th & 7th December is the BKAA winter seminar which again is being held in the University of Bath Judo dojo, all are welcome to attend and the price will be £30 for the weekend and less, if you only attend a single day. Start on the Saturday is 11am and Sunday begins at 10:30am. Hope you can all attend.

The following weekend, Saturday 13th, we have been invited as part of the Zenshin group to join the karate clubs in their festivities at the Fry's Club at Cadburys in Keynsham. I will add further details of this, although good night is normally had by all.

As the Aikido club I would like to go out for a drink on the last Saturday 29th November , The Swan in Swineford seems a good location for me, although I am also happy to venture in the deepest parts of central Bristol, let me know what suits best. Partners are welcome at both the Zenshin and Aikido drinks.

Aikido styles

Just wanted to add some information on the style we practice in Warmley, as a Ki Aikido style we focus on the centre, or one point and inner energy we all have within us.

For us in Bristol area we have many others styles with both the HQ for the National Aikido Federation and HQ for the Ki Federation of GB in Somerset. 

Must be a popular county for Aikido.

There  are also other styles which are practiced Tomiki and Yoshinkan, the former run competitions and latter is a style which has been adopted by the security forces.

All styles have their roots with Morihei Ueshiba Sensei (O-Sensei), although have split into various forms to their current formats. 

Ki Aikido has a few forms in the UK and we practice one of them, although the principles were all founded through Koichi Tohei.

During my classes, although I present the feeling of keeping everything centred and anchored to the one-point, it is something that I will focus on more moving forward. We will start to practice being bumped and maintaining our postures throughout the techniques.

Portsmouth to Cascais,Portugal

Hiya, after my week away sailing, which I enjoyed thoroughly, even though the weather was atrocious and I spent 4 of 6 days soaking wet and cold. The picture doesn't show the night and force 8 weather, as nodody felt like getting the camera out.

My thanks go to Kate who stood in for me while I was away and ran through karate punches, kicks and stances. I'm sure that those who attended found this worthwhile.

More Weapons to come

After the weekend I am in two minds, focus on Ki and the Spirituality of Aikido or build confidence and practice more with bokken and jo.

As with all our classes there is lots to learn and little time to cover it all, although eventually all will unfold and become part and parcel of our training.

I enjoy Ki development, as it is fundamental to building posture and stance, and enables us to maintain balance when performing techniques. It gives the ability to centre on our inner strengths, which are instilled in all of us, although seldom called upon.

As speed of attacks increase, then so our ability to escape becomes more vital. However escape is the primary path, getting a technique into play is secondary. As always if you're not there, you don't get hit. Aikido is "The Way of Harmony", although maintain the harmony within yourself and move to maintain it always.

Our class is growing, and with this space for weapons practice is reduced. Therefore I will bring other weapons to the class to bring the urgency of weapons attacks. I am looking at batons and possibly short swords.

If you have further ideas, please add here as I am always open to ways to improve my teachings, whether these are positive or critical, all helps you get what you require from the classes.

I also need to find my camera and get some recent pictures you all at work, please bring your cameras to the next few sessions and we'll see what we can get.

Class Dynamics

Summer seems to have passed us by, although the last weekend brought out the shorts and sunglasses and got me sorting my garden out at long last.

As the Aikido class goes I am now finding that the class dynamics and selection of topics to choose from varies with whoever walks through the door.

I have a topics and lessons planned in my head, then 10:30 comes and all goes into the pot to deal whatever I think of at the time, although there is always a base plan that I try to follow.

With the increasing diversity of skills and levels within the dojo, I am trying to ensure that all get a fair chance to keep interests up and progress at the necessary level. However I am also maintaining the fundamentals of Aikido and keeping an eye out to ensure that these basics are still thought of and practiced.

So whatever your grade, you will find that I cover fundamental stuff and emphasise these basics to ensure they are firmly installed.

To keep the flow of the class, this weekend will be the start of an earlier class to run through, some weapons and advanced techniques. This coming weekend I have decided that various Jo and Bokken techniques will be addressed, so see you all at 09:30, if you are interested in this. Otherwise normal class starts at the usual time 10:30-12:30.

Weekend Training

Hi, as summer is on us, although tropical summer, without the sun is more like it. In the coming months I am going to go back to basics and concentrate on balance, ki, compression and anchoring the opponents. I will start to split the class into general warm-up, focus on finer points and then grading and techniques session. We will see how that goes and if I run out of time.
In addition I am going to introduce a senior or weapons hour before the normal class every other week. This will give us time to look into using Aikido in different situations, with various weapons.
I would also like to bring back Randori sessions at the end of the class, maximum 4 attacks.

2008 Gradings and Summer Classes

As an Aikido club - Warmley Aikido has been running for more than 3 years, we have had regular members from the start and recently Hannah, Betsy and Andy have show interest in this martial art and have been welcomed to the club.

In July I held some gradings, as we were well overdue for progression. My congratulations go out to Kate, Hanna and Pete on achieving their 3rd Kyu (Green) belts and Andy on his 6th Kyu (Red). The award of these grades was well overdue and rewarded for all their hard work and perseverance in Aikido.

Summer is now on us, well British summer, so classes and class sizes are sporadic, so apart from a class next week, we will practice when we can until restarting in early September.

The autumn sees us looking towards possible meetings with the Swindon, Bournemouth and Malvern dojos. Further additions to this blog will add detail.