Friendship Training hosted by Two Rivers Aikikai
March 18th, 2006

The 1st annual Portland Friendship Seminar (to benefit the Oregon Food Bank) was an amazing success, well attended and well received.  The event, attended by about 80 local aikidoka, featured instructors from 6 Portland aikido dojos as well as a special appearance of Ed Dimarco, co-founder of Two Rivers.  The instructors were (in order of appearance); Craig Fife of Aikido NW in Milwaukie, Ed Dimarco of Lake County Aikikai in Florida, Michael Selin of Ecole de Budo in St. Johns, Dan Penrod of Budo Dojo in Beaverton, Ty Barker of Portland Aikikai in northwest Portland, Suzanne Van Amburgh of Multnomah Aikikai in southwest Portland, and Spiros Koyanis of Two Rivers Aikikai in southeast Portland.

Review of the days training sessions follows below

Click on the pictures below to enlarge them.
 

Review of the day of training...

Koyanis Sensei bowed in class, warming up the group up with a series of movement and stretching exercises.

Starting off the training sessions Fife Sensei demonstrated a series of kaiten nage movements involving receiving  a strike or grab.  He discussed how to receive the attack, often parrying uke's hand gently off the line or drawing uke out, striking uke's side of neck and entering strongly to the center for the throw.  Sensei Fife possesses wit and sophisticated light touch that simultaneously welcomes uke and captures his center.

Sensei Di Marco lead the 2nd session where he focused on tegatana (the idea of hand as sword), receiving a grab (katatedori) and cutting to the outside of uke's hand, through the thumb.  Carrying this theme he demonstrated numerous ways to receive this attack, focusing on tegatana to off-balance uke, usually leading into large irimi's, kotegaeshi's, and kokyu nages.  Di Marco Sensei demonstrates powerful aikido resulting in explosive throws.

Selin Sensei taught the 3rd session working from suwari waza introducing the concept of sen-no-sen (simultaneous timing).  He explored kokyu tanden ho, ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, and yonkyo as well as pinning in seiza.  I was particularly interested in his yonkyo from the inside and the outside.  Selin Sensei possesses an exquisite timing and clarity of movement.

Penrod Sensei, in the 4th session, continued to explore this idea of simultaneous timing... nage touches uke at the same time uke touches nage, and expanded the thought to the principle of touching uke at 2 points at the same time.  Penrod started with an unusual hand-shake throw to tip his partner, followed by a quick yonkyo from katatedori and ended with a series of kokyu nage movements from various wrist grabs, all focusing on the ideas of touching uke simultaneously as uke touches nage... and touching uke at 2 points at once, both points of contact concurrent with uke's touch time.  Penrod's eclectic style focuses on light movement with precise timing to capture uke's balance.

Sensei Barker started the 5th session focusing on the movement of receiving yokomen uchi while cutting down the center line to dominate the center and draw uke off balance.  The initial movement involved tenkan omote and was followed by irimi ura, entering to the rear.  From there he explored ikkyo and shihonage from the yokomen attack.  Barker shows precision in form, deep grounded stances and powerful throws. 

Sensei Van Amburgh lead the 6th session focusing on a ryote mochi sokomen irimi style movement expressing strong kokyu.  Her kokyu nage movement is expressive; exhale (compress).... inhale (expand)... exhale (project)... resulting in large, powerful throws through her hip movement.  She moves in deep stances, rooting herself into the earth before projecting uke outward using a strong center and hip rotation.

Sensei Koyanis, the gracious host of this event, took the 7th and final session.  He demonstrated a koshi nage style technique from kata dori that he refers to as maki otoshi.  Maki refers to winding up, like sushi maki rolls, and otoshi refers to the idea of a body drop.  This was essentially an omote (front side) sumiotoshi involving arm extension and a 270 degree hip rotation ending in a big diagonal breakfall.  Koyanis has a nice sense of connection between himself and his partner.

This event was special for a number of reasons.  It's the first time this number of Portland dojos have come together for a single event, where each dojo has an opportunity to share thoughts, ideas, and principles that say something unique about the aikido practiced in each of these dojos.  It provided an opportunity for teachers and students alike to gain insight into the styles, characteristics and personalities of each these communities.  But perhaps more importantly it resulted in an opportunity to create a new, larger virtual community of friends in aikido across Portland.

Many thanks to all who participated and those who made this event possible.