Chiba Seminar

November 5th, 2005

Hosted by Multnomah Aikikai

A few of our students recently attended the Chiba seminar at Multnomah Aikikai. 

I attended the Saturday training.  Darrell Bluhm Shihan, 6th dan from Ashland taught the first class.  It was an interesting class on cross-hand and matching hand grabs where he would throw by cutting down across the center or cutting to the outside.  Class began and ended with kokyu tanden ho.  It was a very enjoyable class. 

The remainder of the day was taught by Chiba.  His class started out focusing on irimi nage.  The first variation involved slipping behind the uke with a deep irimi.  The second variation involved the same movement, followed by a 180 degree tenkan movement.  In both of these variations he emphasized cutting down strong and keeping the partner held down by the weight of the arm so they could not rise.  He demonstrated and had us practice repeatedly bouncing students off the mat, dribbling them if you will, while emphasizing this principle.  Later his techniques seemed to focus largely on ikkyo and nikyo.  One variation of ikkyo he taught which was of particular interest was an ikkyo that received (slightly back) and then entered down deeply into uke's center (lap), blurring the line between ikkyo and nikyo.  He ended the training with two attackers each grabbing a hand.  Nage practiced, turning, leading, and throwing the two uke's together by mixing shihonage and sayo undo movements.

Thanks to our friends at Multnomah Aikikai for hosting this event and allowing us to participate.  I was glad to see some old acquaintances again and delighted to meet some new friends.

Thanks to Melanie Moo Young for taking the photos.