Spring Aikido Training Camp

Each season we have a training camp. In March we just had the Spring training camp and it was great. We trained a lot, five hours a day for the whole weekend, but we also had a lot of fun. We started off with variations of techniques from katadori menuchi and yokomenuchi. We practiced shihonage, kokyunage, kote gaeshi, ude garami, tenichinage and many other techniques. We freshened up some of the jo katas also, which I have the tendency of always messing up because I don't focus enough. There was a kyu exam at the end of the training camp, as always. I did not take any exam this time as I was not ready, yet. I know I should train harder, but I will eventually get to the next kyu level. Probably not in summer, but maybe after the fall training camp. Who knows... During the exam I was uke for the 6th kyu exam participants and the 4th kyu also. They all did very well. After having piled the tatamis up and then back down to the storage, we celebrated by going out to have a pizza. Pizza can taste so good after a weekend of aikido training! ^.^y 

Aikido Summer Training Camp 2011

I love to fly during the aikinage. I can't wait to meet my friends on the next training. This is all the effect of the summer training camp. We had such a wonderful summertime together with a lot of training and a lot of fun. So I really feel like posting this group photo of us. I hope we will build even stronger friendships and become really good aikidoka.

2011 Aikikai Aikido Summer Training Camp in Szantód

There is still a lot of work we need to do on our website. It is actually my boyfriend and I with the help of a senpai (the cute girl with a hakama on Sensei's right) who are redesigning it. We also have to look for a better dojo for the future that would attract more practitioners. But these will all come in time.

What we have already is a neat Facebook page! 

Feel free to check it out and like it. I have also posted some pictures from the training camp there.

I'm off to the Summer Training Camp

Beauty and Aikido ©

It will be a lot of sweat and tears, but I am off to the summer training camp. This will be one week of intensive trainings through which I hope to get better. In the picture you can see my old belt and the new one with which I am stepping into an era of perseverence in training...ok I am at least trying...

Wish me luck! o(^^o)(o^^)o わくわく

Training Camps

Training camps are really important events in each martial art. It is there that people usually get their kyu exams, but more important than that is that you finally stay focused. In your everyday life, it is hard to stay focused on one single thing. Everyone is multi-tasking and impatient. I myself have been so since my childhood. But with the occasion of a training camp you cannot help but focus on just that one thing.

As the spring training camp is approaching, I remembered the first I went to in the summer of 2010. It was quite an experience I must say. We would train around five hours a day and have free time just for eating and sleeping. This is of course really tiring, but also a great opportunity to develop. It was there that I finally learned the forward roll (at least on the right side) and started to get familiar with the free fall also. At the beginning it seemed just a funny game, but it got more and more serious every day, as my muscles were beginning to feel stiff and my whole body was aching. It was a period of great uncertainty for me, where I was asking myself questions like: are you able to push through? How many times do they need to explain you that until you understand? The others are doing much better, can you also make it?

 

 I remember a certain point where I felt it was enough, where I almost gave up. This point probably arrives for every aikidoka. You are trying so hard, but you are still not able to do the basic things. At this point you either give up or you go on and you passed over your first dead point. Just like the marathon runners, just as Murakami describes it in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I came to a serious standstill towards the end of the training camp. My left (obviously my left) shoulder was totally busted from falling incorrectly and it ached each time I had to roll. It was not as much the physical pain as the anger with myself that made me stop the training and go home to think about the whole thing. There I was, on a training camp a whole week, and no sign of getting better. As I would later realize, I did develop slightly and gained much better physical condition. However, at that point, I only saw my incapacity of performing basic moves and was really down. The last days passed as if through a dream because I was so tired and exhausted. But my body somehow adapted to workout and the normal trainings in the first week after the training camp seemed so short that I would go home on foot, even though I live far away from the dojo. The training camp definitely thought me things about pushing my boundaries. I learned that I just had to be patient and that it was just a question of time and perseverance. And isn’t that just the case in all we do in life?