Yes, we are just back from Kyoto in Japan for the international tournament and festival, what agreat event this was. For all the news and pictures, please visit the SAUK Team official blog: http://sauk-team09.blogspot.com/
For the August bank holiday, 12 of us went up to the Lake District for our annual Weapons seminar, which involved a lot of running in the pouring rain or fog, up hills, crags and quarries, doing some bokuto tsuburi down the longest beach in the world (well, that's how it felt to me!) or forward rolling down sand dunes, an experience to renew!
The July Shodokan National Open Competition was hosted in Dartford (Kent), and saw a hoard of medals rewarding our competitors.
June: Garrigil, Cumbria, first (and definitely not last!) student intense training weekend: running, training, cooking, waterfall mizogi, more running and sauna...Say no more, my idea of heaven!
In February we hosted our second kangeiko, following on from last year's resounding success. "kangeiko" is Japanese for "cold training", ie intensive training in winter. We opened the dojo every morning at 7.30, at lunchtime and in the evenings for a week, making up a total of over 32 hours of training. The challenge was to achieve over 24 hours of training over the week and 23 of us, townies and uni students alike, made it! This was also the perfect opportunity for beginners to start with a week long intensive course and we have some very talented and motivated recruits!
In March, we had the immense pleasure of a visit by Satoh Shihan, 6th dan instructor from Waseda University. Satoh demonstrated basic principles of balance breaking and movement and how to best practise this with a host of useful exercises, in pair or individually.
In April, we supported the Sheffield University and the Sheffield Hallam University Aikido Clubs for the National competition which Sheffield University won for yet another year. Great results and even greater team spirit!
In May, we attended the Koshiyama Cup in Geneva, the very first Aikido European Cup, held in the Memory of Koshiyama Shihan who brought Shodokan aikido to Switzerland. What a great festival it was!
In June, a few of us headed South to my hometown in Burgundy for some serious food and wine tasting, err I mean aikido training of course! We trained with the local aikido club in Sennecey le Grand who welcomed us very well. I hope we can go back next year with a bigger delegation, as well as return the favour and host the French aikidoka.
In July we hosted the national Shodokan Open at the EIS in Sheffield, with a few students from both universities boosting our ranks. Double gold for current Captains Sam Coveney (Sheffield University) and Lou Saul (Sheffield Hallam University) for the suwari waza and the randori no kata. For randori, great gold title (kyu grades) for previous Captain Karen who has now returned to Malaysia, with a very well-earned student shodan grade. Grrrrr!
In August, we headed for our "Weapons on the beach camping weekend" in North Wales (Colwyn Bay) and braved the raging elements (well, a bit of wind and rain never hurt anyone!) for a weekend of running up mountains, dashing in the freezing ccccold sea, icecreams and some legendary camping-stove gastronomy. We even managed to fit in some tsuburi work up and down a rugby pitch... Surreal?! You ought to check the pics on Facebook!
After the resounding success of the Student National Competition held in Nottingham in March, which Sheffield University club won (see the "Other Clubs" section), Sheffield Shodokan Aikido club went on to repeat their success at the National Open competition in June in London Dartford.
More important than the great results though was the amazing team spirit. We were also on both occasions the biggest delegation, with beginners who had started within the past 6 months showing great spirit and tenacity. Well done guys!
In August and September, Scott and Celine went back to Japan for 5 weeks' training at Osaka Hombu "Shodokan" dojo, the headquarters for our style of aikido where Nariyama Shihan (8th dan) teaches. Needless to say it is one of the best clubs in the world. There is training every day, with a total of 19 weekly sessions, adding up to a minimum of 26 hours...not even including children and university students sessions...Add to this the great number of high grades - especially women - and it made for a very inspiring - if not exhausting - schedule!
The academic year started and the Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University clubs have resumed their training. There is a great intake of beginners both men and women already showing great signs of training hard! If you are a student and would like to learn competitive aikido, visit the Sheffield University Aikido website:
In early November, 25 of us took part in our very first "aikido marathon - train all you can in one day", with the session starting at 7am in the dark, going on for 14 hours to finish at 9pm...in the dark! It was an amazing feeling to be able to train for all this time with no more than 5mn breaks every hour. Well done to all the beginners who took up the challenge!
Late Nov, we organised the national Shodokan UK closed event at the English Institute for Sports. This National event showcased a seminar, instructor demonstration, scoring and refereeing course and team "kongo dantai sen" competition. We worked on the "kaeshiwaza" kata in the morning, moving onto the instrcutor demo, refereeing course before finishing with an informal team competition, the first competition for our first years who started in October. Well-done to all!
