Reports

Brione (TO) May 2024

Seminar with Maurizio Volpe and Bernhard Boll

Ki Aikido Brione

For Sunday, May 26, 2024, Carlo Curcelli had invited to a seminar with Maurizio Volpe and Bernhard Boll in Brione, a district of Valdellatorre, about 20 km northwest of Turin.
Coming from Balerna early in the morning, Bernhard met Maurizio with Claudio and Ombretta in Novara. Shortly before Brione, the car's navigation device had some difficulties, so we had to use the navigation system on a smartphone. After the verbal input "Take me to Brione in Via Givoletto 3" the navigation system confirmed the command and started working. It actually took us to Brione, but it also took us out of the location. Somehow something went wrong, so we ended up in the neighboring location of Givoletto in Via Brione 3. After verbally entering our desired address again, we reached the sports hall in Brione in time.

Sports hall

The Palazzetto dello Sport in Brione, where the seminar took place, is a three-field sports hall from the 90s. The association APD Sportinsieme runs the hall and offers various sports, including martial arts such as Ki Aikido or Karate. It also organizes major running events in the valley such as a marathon or trail runs.
The hall is spacious and well organized. The mat area in the large hall seemed a bit small at first glance, but it was completely sufficient. The mats are probably about twice as old as the hall, but they were pleasantly soft, covered with a large tarpaulin.

Practise

The topics of the course should be from the program for the 2nd Dan. Bernhard started at 9:30 a.m. with kenkotaiso, stretching and some rolling exercises. This was followed by Tsuzukiwa 6 Ushirotori. Most of the participants had completed this level several years ago, even before the last major revision of the examination program by Yoshigasaki Sensei more than 15 years ago. This was followed by Tsuzukiwaza 16 Ushiro Ryokatadori. There was an opportunity to exchange ideas about variants in execution. The participants enjoyed the movements and worked intensively. Shortly after 11 a.m. this part of the practise was completed.
After a short break, Maurizio continued the lesson. He first showed Tsuzukiwaza 23 Bokkendori. There are enough details there to study if you want to do reasonable movements. This was followed by the first techniques of Tsuzukiwaza 26 Jo 2 with Bokken. Maurizio pointed out that it is important to be clear about what you want to do. The lesson ended at 1 p.m. and after folding the hakamas, the participants eagerly cleared away the 2 m² mats together.
After freshening up a bit, we drove in bright sunshine to the main place of Val della Torre, about 6 km away at the end of the valley.

Lunch

20 seats were reserved in the Restaurante dei Cacciatori. The seminar participants were joined by some of Carlo's family members. There was a very tasty and extensive menu consisting of 5 courses starters, a first and a second main course, dessert and coffee. During the meal everyone had lively conversations and there was a lot of laughter. At around 4:30 p.m. the happy get-together ended with an optional limoncello and the participants began their journey home.
It was a seminar in which we could practice and celebrate together in a beautiful environment. Many thanks to Carlo for the organization.

Gattico Veruno

The next meeting is already a week later on June 2nd, 2024 in Gattico-Veruno with Maurizio Volpe and Claudio Fasola. The practise takes place outdoors. If the weather doesn't cooperate, which could well happen given the current weather situation, the meeting will be reduced to the gastronomic part.