Memorial Seminar for Gianni Gioconto
This year's memorial seminar for Gianni Gioconto took place on Saturday, April 5, 2025. A total of nearly 40 aikidoka attended the Meishinkan Dojo on Viale Kennedy in Novara.
Francesco Ingemi, Domenica Saida, and Riccardo Lupi each taught for an hour in the morning. Maurizio Volpe and Claudio Fasola followed in the afternoon. The topics included basic hitoriwaza exercises with the bokken and variations, basic kumitachi techniques, breathing with the hands and establishing contact in techniques with kokyu, sensing and transmitting the physical and mental intentions of uke with applications in jodori, realizing the connection between nage and uke, releasing mental blocks, concrete imagetions as exercises for better understanding of the techniques, detailed explanations of tsuzukiwaza 4 ryotedori from the second dan program, etc.
In the morning, Gianni's widow also stopped by and thanked the participants for remembering Gianni. The donations that had been collected went to cancer research.
During the lunch break, we walked to the Piazzano pizzeria, which is 10 minutes from the dojo. Maurizio once again took care of the complex organization. Next year, this will be the task of Claudio and Francesco.
At 6:30 p.m., an interesting and informative seminar concluded, which not only remembered a great Aikido master but also offered the opportunity to see some Aikido veterans back on the mat.