SHIN SHIN TOITSU AIKIDO - Ki Aikido - New Year's Seminar Vienna

New Year's Seminar at Vienna

with Bernhard Boll, Michal Hayek, Ryan Jepson
10.01. - 12.01.2025

Vienna

From Friday, January 10th to Sunday, January 12th, 2025, Ryan Jepson had invited the aikidoka to a New Year's seminar at Vienna. The announced outdoor Misogi exercises and the Japanese New Year's food sounded particularly attractive. However, even with the sun shining, it was very windy and cold in Vienna that weekend, so changing the place for the Misogi to the dojo turned out to be optimal. An unexpectedly large number of participants who registered made a change in logistics necessary. But the small dojo that was initially planned for Friday and Saturday could still be used for overnight stays.
All locations were clearly described in the flyer and there were QR codes with the coordinates and also small map sections to get there easily.

Friday evening

On Friday and Saturday the seminar took place in the SHUDOKAN DOJO at Ehrenfelsgasse 16. This is a nice dojo, which was founded by a well-known judo master, 8th Dan, and in which nowadays judo and karate are practiced.
Bernhard began with Kenkotaiso and then - as his "cultural contribution" to the New Year's seminar, as he said - presented the 1st form of the almost 100-year-old Radio Taiso (gymnastics). The exercises are similar to our Kenko Taiso.
He then explained the techniques of Tsuzukiwaza 2, ushiro katatedori. This sequence of techniques was demonstrated by Max and Mirela at the end of the lesson.

Types of interaction

To describe skills in Aikido, Tohei Sensei sometimes used a comparison from calligraphy (Shodō). He used three of the five writing styles to describe the levels: the regular script (楷書 kaisho), the cursive script (行書 gyōsho) and the grass script (草書 sōsho). As can be seen in the illustration, the style becomes increasingly fluid and the grass script hardly reveals the fixed forms of the regular script.
Bernhard thought that in class, the explanations and the way the techniques are carried out should be adapted to the existing skills. The different levels require communication/interaction at the corresponding levels. Even a "normal" attacker, in his/her perhaps crude manner, "knows" nothing of the subtleties of the higher art and would therefore not react to them at all.

Saturday morning

Saturday morning began with a breathing and misogi exercise for an hour, which was very skillfully led by Ryan. After that there was a break with Sencha and cake.
Bernhard then began the aikido lesson, again with the joyful Radio Taiso. This was followed by Tsuzukiwaza 21, tanto dori 1. He had most of the techniques practiced first without and then with tanto. There are many details that make the techniques easier and more harmonious. Here too, Max and Mirela demonstrated the entire Tsuzukiwaza at the end. Among other things, Bernhard also explained his ideas about good choreography in the presentation.
For lunch, most of the participants went to the Meidling market, which is about a quarter of an hour away, in a strong and cold wind. The Bistro Saigon served delicious and inexpensive Vietnamese food.

Instructors' class

Michal took over the instructors' class. He introduced additional variations for the long form of Tsuzukiwaza 25, Jo 1 and Bokken. In the 60 minutes available, we managed to work out the sequences of 5 new variations between counts 2 and 8. Obviously, it is important to know which situations you are imagining in order to develope reasonable sequences.

Saturday afternoon

Bernhard chose for the last lesson of Saturday Tsuzukiwaza 8, Yokomenuchi. He proposed economical steps in the first three techniques. The zenponage sudori is always a nice exercise for coordination because it contains unusual combinations of arm, hand and foot work.
At the end, Max and Mirela demonstrated again the entire Tsuzukiwaza.

Black Raven

For dinner we went to the "Schwarzer Rabe" pub on Ottakringer Strasse, which was just a few minutes' walk from the overnight dojo at Heindlgasse 3-5. Since there were significantly more people than originally planned, they had at first to put together enough tables for a long table. But then there was good beer and good food.

Sunday morning

The lesson on Sunday morning started about half an hour late. The reason was that Google Maps located the dojo address "Stadtbahnbögen 189" on a small piece of grass about 2 km away from the dojo. The sports centre is located in the three Stadtbahnbögen (arcs of the city train) no. 189 to 191, but the official address is Döblinger Gürtel 191. Those who used the QR code with the coordinates arrived right away. A group of aikidoka who took a UBER taxi found themselves dropped off at Bogen 94. Fortunately, the stranded people were rescued by two other cars that had also arrived at the strange Google destination.
To the Sunday lessons came two aikidoka from Steyr. A few years ago they had met Sven Millei as an excellent Ki-Aikido teacher. In total, we had an impressive number of 27 participants.

Sunday lunch

Two of the three arches of the city metro which are used by the sports centre are equipped with tatami, the third has a nice lounge and a kitchen with a bar. There, Ryan and his helpers finished the “Osechi” dishes for the New Year that had taken days of work and served them. There was a version of Zōni (雑煮 or ぞうに), a broth using a vegetarian dashi served with grilled mochi; Nishime, a variety of roots and vegetables which had been cooked in shoyu; and Zenzai, a cooked dish of sweet azuki beans, again served with mochi. Other items included Tamagoyaki (Egg roll), Kuri Kinton (Sweet potato and chestnuts) and filled mochi made with matcha.
When the tasty food was nearly all consumed, the participants from Croatia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic said their warmest goodbyes and headed home. The others helped with the cleaning and then went back to the tatami. Only Ryan stayed in the kitchen and did all the remaining work.

Sunday afternoon

In the last lesson, Bernhard mainly taught Tsuzukiwaza 27, Bokken 1 with partner. He began with a series of basic exercises to achieve a reasonable handling of the Bokken. By the end, the remaining participants knew all the Tsuzukiwaza techniques and their sequence.
Max and Mirela then demonstrated them all again. The lesson ended with three strong Kiai.
Afterwards, all the cooking utensils were packed up and stowed in David's car, who drove them back to Ryan's house.
The New Year's seminar in Vienna was an interesting experience. It took place in two dojos. The weather was sometimes a bit windy and cold. But the atmosphere on the mats was very good. Many thanks to Ryan for the extensive organization and to all participants for coming and their constructive cooperation.

Saturday's group photo

Photos by Karel, David, Marjan, Bernhard