Seminar with Bernhard Boll
The autumn seminar with Bernhard Boll took place from November 3rd to 5th, 2023 in Michal Hájek's dojo in Prague Libuš.
There were two Shodan exams coming up. Therefore, training began on Friday evening with Tsuzukiwaza 27 (Bokken 1 with partner) and Tsuzukiwaza 11 (Katatedori irimi).
On Saturday morning, Michal first ran the misogi. After a tea break, we continued with the Tsuzukiwaza for the first Dan all day.
The usual restaurant for lunch "Božská komedie", which had always been within walking distance, had changed location. Since we had to use the car anyway, the choice fell on the "Ristorante Di Carlo" in Šeberov, about 6 km from Libuš.
The atmosphere in the spacious rooms was very pleasant and the food tasted very good. The restaurant advertises on its website "The best of Italy. On the outskirts of Prague."
At the end of the afternoon training, Mikulaš and Jana took their Shodan exams. Both themselves as well as Claudia, Adolf and Karel did the ukemi.
The video shows some short scenes from the exams.
At the end, both were congratulated on their success and given the applause they deserved.
To celebrate the day, in the evening we drove to the modern Restaurace Podolka, about 10 km from Libuš. It is located in the center of Prague below Vyšehrad, Prague's stronghold, at the beginning of a headland that encloses the marina. The photo is from 2014.
A lot of tea and beer was drunk and the food was again very good.
Sunday morning started with Ki-musubi. After Jo Kenkotaiso and Jo Aikitaiso, the forms of Jo & Jo from the programm of the third kyu were practiced, both the basic forms and the forms with throwing. Afterwards, the Tsuzukiwaza 25 in the form for the third dan was on the program. This was an opportunity to learn the Czech numbers from 1 to 22:
"jeden, dva, tři, čtyři, pět, šest, sedm, osm, devět, deset, allesáct, dvanáct, třináct, čtrnáct, patnáct, šestnáct, sedmnáct, osmnáct, devatenáct, dvacet, dvacet jedna, dvacet dva".
At 10 a.m. Michal left the scene to get the soup from home that his wife had prepared. At lunchtime there was another picnic on the mat with delicious cakes from Jana and Karel. Bernhard and Yvette then set off for the journey home while Michal led the afternoon training.
His report:
Afternoon session saw the participants still practice intensively - physically tired, but with strong will and undefeated spirit. Mainly focusing on the ukemi movement throughout various basic katate-dori techniques. Starting from static forms and finishing with rhythmical execution in the movement. At the end there was some time devoted to few tips how to improve one's health during incoming winter season and ki-breathing in seiza. Before finally leaving home, everyone helped to quickly remove tatami and efficiently worked together to put everything in order.
Photos: Bernhard, Yvette, Christian