Friday 9 December 2016

Christmas & New Year Aikido Classes

If you want to wear off the mince pies and Christmas Pud you have plenty of opportunities at the Bucks Cross class this festive season. We are taking no days off this year. That’s right – we continue to practise as normal right throughout the Christmas and New Year periods. Here are the class dates:
  • Monday 12th December
  • Thursday 15th December
  • Monday 19th December
  • Thursday 22nd December
  • Monday 26th December
  • Thursday 29th December
  • Monday 2nd January
  • Thursday 5th January
  • Tuesday 10th January
The only date to note particularly is Monday the 9th when they will not be a class. However, there is a class on Tuesday the 10th. Apart from that, we practise as normal every Monday and Thursday at 7:30. As always, everyone is welcome – beginner or expert. We have no bars on Aikido styles. If you happen to be from some other club or some other area and you are staying in North Devon over the holiday period, we’d love to see you!

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Aikido 13 Jo Kata Workshop, Bideford, Devon

Come and join us on Saturday, November 19th for an in-depth aiki-weapons workshop based around the techniques, principles and applications of the 13 Jo Kata. All welcome. Be sure to bring a jo!


Saturday 21 May 2016

Aikido Street Fighting

Now, we don't generally encourage 'fighting' in Aikido. Even so, there can be no doubt that Aikido has some spectacular defences that can be used to good effect in action movies. Here is a scene featuring some Aikido-trained stunt men from a Czech film. I like the slow-motion bits...


Thursday 19 May 2016

Monday 2 May 2016

Bank Holiday Aikido

There is no class tonight (Monday 2nd May) - as normal we do not practise on the first Monday of the month. But there is a class tomorrow (Tuesday the 3rd). There will, of course, also be a class on Thursday.

Sunday 10 April 2016

Aikido on Tuesday this week

There is no aikido on Monday 11th of April. Class meets on Tuesday 12th instead (and also on Thursday as usual).

Saturday 26 March 2016

Yes, we have Aikido on Monday!

The fact that Monday the 28th of March is a Bank Holiday does not mean that there is no class. We begin, as usual at 7:30.

We also have a Monday class on the 4th of April but note that there is no class on Monday the 11th of April (due to another event in the hall). To make up for that loss we have scheduled an extra class for Tuesday the 12th of April.

Meanwhile, here is a photo from last Saturday's Workshop. Many thanks to all those who attended.


Friday 11 March 2016

In Aikido, Lead rather than Control

One of the core principles of aikido, in my view, is to lead the energy of an attack rather than to control the uke. Don't grip and force; hold lightly and blend. Don't use strength to throw. Lead your partner to the point of balance. These ideas are at the core of the way that I try to do aikido. One of the teachers who really brings out these qualities extremely well is Seishiro Endo. I recommend that you seek out his videos on YouTube. Here is a good example:




By the way, remember that we have a workshop at the Hartland Aikido Dojo (Bucks Cross Village Hall, North Devon) on Saturday 19th March between 1:00 and 5:00. This will be led by Senseis Huw Collingbourne and Richard Small and will concentrate on an examination of fundamental principles common to both weapons and freehand aikido. Sensei Collingbourne has studied principally in the Ki Aikido tradition with (at first) the Ki Federation of Great Britain and (later) the British Ki Aikido Association. Sensei Small has studied mainly in the Iwama tradition with Takemusu Iwama Aikido Europe. If two teachers from such different aikido backgrounds can work together and learn from one another, we hope that people from other styles and organizations may be willing to join us to share in our study of aikido. There are no boundaries to aikido - we can all learn from one another.


The workshop is open to students from all clubs and all styles of aikido. Aikido is about harmony and, in that spirit, we welcome everybody from all styles. Please, come and join us!

Sunday 6 March 2016

Aikido on Tuesday

Just a quick reminder that there is no class on Monday 7th of March but there is a class on Tuesday the 8th.

Saturday 13 February 2016

Aikido Workshop, 19th March, North Devon

Aikido in the Iwama and Ki traditions - an examination of fundamental principles in both weapons and freehand aikido...

Friday 29 January 2016

Aikido Class Tuesday 2nd February

As usual (for the first Monday in each month) there will be no class next Monday (1st February). There will be a class on Tuesday the 2nd of February, however. Sensei Small won't be able to make it this month so instead of his usual weapons class next Tuesday's class will include both weapons and free-hand aikido.

Monday 25 January 2016

Aikido: Knives, Sweat and a Victorian Diorama

The Diorama is a wonderful old Victorian building next to Regents Park. According to Mogg's New Picture of London and Visitor's Guide to its Sights (1844) it was “long an object of wonder and delight in Paris.” By the early 1980s, The Diorama had fallen on hard times, however, for it was there that I went twice weekly to study aikido.

But before I get onto that, let me describe the Diorama in more detail since (unless you are one of my old aikido chums) I think it is pretty unlikely that you have ever done aikido in a Diorama.

Opened in 1823 the Diorama was a building of circular construction, rather like a roofed Colosseum with various extensions branching off from around the edges. Within the central area a paying audience could watch huge pictures of thrilling spectacles such as the eruption of Mount Aetna. It was, I suppose, the IMAX of its day. Moggs’ Guide describes it thus: “This is a very extraordinary and beautiful exhibition; it consists of two pictures that are alternately brought into view by a very ingenious mechanical contrivance; the interior resembling a theatre, consisting of one tier of boxes and a pit, being made to revolve upon a centre with the spectators, thus gradually withdraws one picture and introduces the other to the view. A judicious introduction of the light, and other contrivances, give increased effect to pictures beautifully painted, which, by a concentration of talent, completes an illusion that with perfect justice may be pronounced ‘the acme of art’.”
http://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/diorama.htm
Plan of the London Diorama
Its ingenious mechanical contrivance had long fallen into disuse by the time I went to The Diorama. By the early 1980s it was simply a venue that was let out, room by room, to anyone who wanted to rent it. In fact, my first visit to the Diorama was made in order to go to the offices of a teenage magazine called ‘Kicks’ which were located on the first floor of the building (for American readers, I should explain that in Britain the ‘first floor’ is the one above the ground floor – so what you would call the ‘second floor’). I was, at that time, a music journalist and I had interviewed pop celebrities such as Simon Le Bon and Steve Strange for Kicks magazine. But I digress. Back to aikido…

On Thursday afternoons I would go to a middle-sized room just off the Diorama’s central area for a private lesson with my teacher, Sensei Currie. These lasted one hour but they usually seemed much longer. Sensei Currie would put me through some very tough tests of my skill – I remember doing several weeks practising defences against knives. These days many aikido clubs never use live blades – this is due to insurance restrictions and issues of health and safely. Back in the early ‘80s we had no such concerns. Then Sensei Currie decided that knives were too simple so he asked my attackers to think of other weapons to bring. They accepted his challenge with glee. For a few weeks thereafter I was attacked with weapons ranging from bottles to baseball bats. The most terrifying weapon of all was a pump-action ‘corkscrew’. This may not sound all that scary. But think about it. In effect, this was a device like a hypodermic syringe filled with air – not only was it very sharp, but it was also very easy to conceal. Strange as it may seem, I was glad when we went back to mere knives!

On Monday evenings the black belt class was held in the same room of The Diorama. The black belt classes were, to say the least, vigorous and during the summer months the walls of the room ran with condensation while pools of sweat ran the length and breadth of the mats.

By the time I was first dan I was practising four times a week: the general class in the Finsbury Leisure Centre, the black-belt class and my private lesson in The Diorama, and Sensei Mark Greenley’s class in Muswell Hill. In addition, I had also opened my own club in Queen’s Crescent, close to Kentish Town in North London. So, including that night, I was doing aikido five times a week. Little did I know at the time how fortunate I was to have so many opportunities to practise aikido at quite a high level.

Here I am (ah, so young!) brutally throwing a harmless yellow-belt student in my London club in Queen's Crescent.
But I’ve skipped ahead in this story a bit. In my last post I explained how I began studying aikido. The journey from white belt to black belt was a long and arduous one. Somewhere along the way we even changed our organisation. When I began Sensei Currie was affiliated with the Ki Federation of Great Britain. Then one day he decided the time had come to make a break and go his own way. That was when The British Ki Aikido Association came into being. But that is another story that will have to wait for another day…

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Aikido Principles - freehand and weapons (North Devon workshop)

Put this date in your diary: Saturday, March 19th, 2016.

On that day we shall be hosting a special workshop at the Bucks Cross Village Hall (mid-way between Bideford and Bude) in North Devon. The course will be taught by Richard Small (4th dan, Takemusu Iwama Aikido Europe) and Huw Collingbourne (2nd dan, British Ki Aikido Association). Richard will be exploring a number of core aikido principles using bokken and jo; Huw will explore the same principles in freehand aikido. The course will run from1:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon. Everyone (no matter what style of aikido or organisation) is welcome! I'll post more information nearer the date.

Sunday 17 January 2016

Hartland Aikido Club's New Black Belt

Congratulations to Dermot Hogan who finally graded to 1st dan last week. Dermot began practising aikido with Sensei David Currie of the British Ki Aikido Association in the 1990s. He later switched styles to Iwama aikido under Sensei Andy Hathaway of the London Aikido Club. In fact, Dermot was graded to green belt twice - once by Sensei Currie and again by Sensei Hathaway. After a long break from aikido practice, Dermot resumed his studies about 4 years ago at the Hartland Aikido Club and the Bideford Aiki-jo Club. Suffice to say this black belt is long overdue! All Dermot now needs to do is master the folding of his hakama. This video should help...


Sunday 3 January 2016

Aikido Classes, January 2016

A quick update. As usual there is no class on the first Monday of the month (4th January) but we have a weapons workshop on Tuesday the 5th. All other Monday and Thursday classes run, as usual, from 7:30 to 9:30. Beginners are welcome to any class.