Nakayama Sensei Seminar in Logan, UT

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This was my first seminar with Nakayama Sensei, and I really enjoyed it for several reasons, two of which are worth mentioning here. First of all Nakayama Sensei has become one of my favorite teachers. He is quite funny/entertaining and explains everything in a very easy-to-understand way. Anytime Nakayama Sensei came over to help me with the techniques, I never became confused and was able to continue training without needing any long explanations. Furthermore, I love how he loves to help students. He came over many times to offer help and was always happy to do so. He did the same with all the other students, and it seemed important to him that we worked on everything to the extent that the students felt comfortable with the technique that was being covered.

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Secondly, I have struggled with the version of Ikkyou that AAA teaches because no one was able to break it down for me or teach it in a way I could understand before this seminar. Within a minute of Nakayama Sensei explaining Ikkyou, I understood exactly what I wasn’t doing: it was the footwork. At that moment I felt like I had a revelation about Ikkyou. The version of Ikkyou that I learned initially, which happens to be the same Ikkyou taught by Christian Tissier Sensei, focuses on taking balance by utilizing a vertical circle (pushing uke’s elbow over their head). The version I learned at the seminar uses a horizontal circle. I had constantly asked myself whenever seeing this version of Ikkyou, “Why doesn’t uke just walk away? How does this even take their balance?” With the footwork that Nakayama Sensei taught, I was able to understand that I was never creating the distance between uke and myself, and I was never using my hips in the movement. I made some diagrams below. Green is uke, brown is nage. The attack I had in mind while drawing the diagram was shomen-uchi.

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1. Irimi-tenkan,	2. Feet together,	3. Rotate hips.

I’m really looking forward to another seminar with Nakayama Sensei. :)

Photoshoot with Wasatch Camera Club

Members of the Wasatch Camera Club volunteered their time to come by and take photos at our dojo of us giving various Aikido demonstrations. Originally it was supposed to just be yudansha and ikkyu only, but because there were a limited number of people available, I was the only third kyu invited. It was a lot of fun. I hope they come by again sometime and take some more photos. It’s a rare occasion when people take photos of ME training! You can see all of the photos here.

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