Seminar with Maurizio Volpe and Bernhard Boll
On Saturday, March 11th, 2023, the third Aikido seminar this year took place in Balerna, this time with Maurizio Volpe and Bernhard Boll as teachers.
The participants came in large numbers, most of them from Piedmont and Lombardy, Corrado from Bologna, Michal from Prague, Christian from Nuremberg and Ryan from Vienna. One participant had even his dog with him, it could watch what was going on from the stage in the gym.
Bernhard started in the morning with kenkotaiso and stretching as well as aikitaiso exercises.
He intended to repeat the Katame Waza techniques from Ikkyo to Yonkyo.
In order to form suitable pairs for practising, Bernhard first asked the participants to line up after graduation. Then he divided the row in half and assigned the highest level of the second group to the highest level of the first group, and so on. So the less experienced Aikidoka always had an experienced partner to benefit from. And the higher grades had to make an effort to do the exercises in a way that could be well understood by their exercise partners.
Bernhard took the techniques to be practiced from the Kyu examination program and the examinations for the third and fourth dan. In addition, he brought variants of the attack forms, some of them are no longer practiced in Ki Aikido.
Maurizio led the second practise session in the morning. He started with Jo Kenkotaiso and Aikitaiso. Then he turned to the exercises of Jo with Bokken. He explained the sequence of techniques from the beginning, and in particular explained the variations in the detailed forms of both Tsuzukiwaza 25 and 26. He also made sure that there was always enough time for the exercises so that the participants could work out well the exercises.
Maurizio pointed out that in his opinion it is counterproductive when some teachers think they have to develop something of their own in Aikido in order to differentiate themselves from others. We should cultivate and deepen what we learned from Yoshigasaki Sensei.
During the lunch break, most of the participants went to the Grotto del Mulino. Some had brought their own food and used the nice weather to have a picnic in the shade of big old trees. Unfortunately, on the way to the Grotto, it was found that the Breggia river was carrying very little water, it's about time that it should rain again.
Bernhard and Maurizio continued their program in the afternoon. The participants on the tatami were very active and some even started to sweat, also because of the strong sunlight coming through the high glass wall.
Classes ended at 6 p.m. and two Dan exams followed.
Fabio was the first to take the exam. His ukes were Vincenzo, Stefano, Laura e Paolo. The program for the third dan is extensive. Fabio did it calmly, with precision and a good overview. His uke still who performed very well and worked up a sweat at times. Fabio made the randori against four attackers very dynamic.
Congratulations for third dan!
Then it was Michal's turn. His ukes were Tina, Ryan, Matteo and Andrea. They too performed very well. First Michal showed the entire Hitoriwaza exercises in good rhythm, good posture and clear voice. He presented the Tsuzukiwaza Katadori Menuchi with two attackers. Kumitachi and Shinken followed. His Randori after Jodori was also very dynamic, he showed variations of technique with and without Jo.
Congratulations for fourth dan!
The seminar went very harmoniously again and everyone had a lot of fun practising and off the mat too. Thanks to all participants for coming and helping to take down the tatami. We'll see each other again soon in Novara at the memorial seminar for Gianni.
Photos: Yvette Voumard, Domenico Saida, Francesco Ingemi