Arona December 2022

Seminar with Maurizio Volpe and Nicola Grande

Dormelletto

Domenico Saida from Ki Aiki Dojo Arona (I) had invited Maurizio Volpe and Nicola Grande to a seminar on Saturday, 3 December 2022. The dojo, where various other martial arts are also practised, is located in the district of Dormelletto and can be reached from Balerna (CH) in about 1 hour.

Nicola Grande

Nicola Grande started with kenkotaiso and aikitaiso in the standard form, supplemented with the previously more common exercises zenshin koshin waza, zenshin koshin choyaku waza and tenkan waza.
His main subject was tsuzukiwaza 1, katatedori tenshin. He paid special attention to the tenshin/tenkan aspect. In his calm, clear manner he gave helpful advice on how to perform the movements. He emphasized that everyone can implement the movements a little differently. For yonkyo and nikyo he chose the long forms, beginning with ikkyo and where Uke, with the correct rhythm, ends up in these lever techniques .
At the end of his lesson, there was enough time for everyone to do the entire tsuzukiwaza in one go. So, the participants got warmed up for and some even got to sweat.

Domenico announced a six-minute break. First, the obligatory group photo was taken. For aesthetic reasons, some had hoped that this would have been done before training began. But probably their look was better now than before training started.
The group photo took some time. So it went into stoppage time. With tasty chocolate biscuits, the whole pause took a little longer. After more than 20 minutes, the practice could start again.

Maurizio Volpe

After stretching, Maurizio Volpe began with the first three techniques of tsuzukiwaza 11, katatedori irimi. The practice is to actually do irimi. Especially the third technique, uchiwanage, was shown very clearly by Maurizio.
The irimi principle was also evident in yokomenuchi irimi kokyunage and yokomenuchi atemi.
Two techniques against bokken shomenuchi followed. During kokyunage, Uke should not be able to follow the evading Nage with his shomenuchi. Consequently, Nage must enter with a clear irimi, preferably with his back to Uke. In koteoroshi against bokken shomenuchi control of Uke's arm is important, hands must be placed correctly.

At the end of the seminar, Roberto took the 2nd Dan exam. He was well prepared and had 5 good Uke at his disposal. He was able to present the entire program fluently without any problems. His success was applauded by the seminar participants.
The seminar ended with a common dinner at the Hosteria Grotta Azzurra in Gattico-Veruno. Domenico had organized a joint menu and, thankfully, also took into account the special intolerances of individual participants. The chef deserves praise for the good food.

The next seminar will take place next weekend with Maurizio Volpe in Valencia (ES). At the beginning of January, Maurizio leads a seminar in Thiene (I) at Roberto dalla Valle's dojo. On January 21st, 2023 we will meet in Balerna for a seminar with Domenico Saida, Giuseppe De Matteo and Francesco Ingemi. After further seminars in February and March in Balerna, a memorial seminar for Master Gianni Gioconto will take place on April 22nd in Novara.
So, in 2023 we will again have many opportunities to meet and learn and practice together.


Group foto

Seminar in Dormelletto 2022

Photos: Domenico Saida