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This is a personal review of the
Norwegian Aikido Federation (NAF) Vinterleir (winter school), 15 - 18 March in Tromso.
Jessica Loeb and myself formed the London contingent - unfortunately Francis
and Craig who were due to come too were not able to in the end.
Tromso is a very nice small town in the north of Norway, well inside the
arctic circle. At this time of year there is plenty of snow and yet the daylight
is a good 12 hours (it is far enough north to range from almost no daylight
mid-winter to no real darkness in summer). There is not a vast amount to Tromso,
but one of its attractions is that it seems to take about 10 minutes by car
to go anywhere, including being out of the town and in some lovely nature.
The Vinterleir is traditionally taught by
Bjorn Eirik Olsen (6th dan),
Technical Director of the NAF, but this year, in honour of 30 years of aikido in
Tromso (which was the first club in Norway at all), they invited
Suganuma Sensei
(8th dan). He has been 11 times to Norway but always in the south for the summer
camp, and I think he very much enjoyed the different surroundings of snow and
nature.
This also worked out very well as they have the Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba leading
the summer camp in July this year. That promises to be a rather larger affair
than usual!
I have actually been half a dozen times to the Vinterleir - there was a
period when I went every year, but the last time was 5 years ago - Benedict who
is now 4 and a half years old changed life a little!
As ever, the welcome in Norway is always extremely friendly and the
atmosphere is a huge part of the success of the camp. Most people stayed with
dojo members which was very nice, and in my case, together with Geirr from Oslo,
we were kindly looked after by Ingelill.
It was great to see that Suganuma sensei had brought a large party from
Fukuoka - nine in all. As was mentioned at one point in the speeches, it was also
very nice that the Japanese group were not just fairly senior teachers, but
ranged from a 17 year old to a 70 year old, and beginners to a 6th dan.
Suganuma Sensei
The training itself was excellent as usual - very clear and precise. Suganuma
sensei's teaching seems to vary very little from year to year, and is very unflashy
on the surface and always seems to be oriented towards the basics in
these courses. He is always very clear about techniques and gives lots of
smaller pointers to particular things to watch out for ranging from use of atemi
to positioning for maximum safety during nikkyo.
There are times when this can almost seem a little boring - and it certainly
contrasts with Inaba sensei who spends quite a lot of time talking/lecturing
during courses can also give some very interesting food for later thought and
reflection (although some people find that very boring!).
Suganuma sensei is very attentive during the practice and frequently helps beginners with
great patience, including taking ukemi for them to make sure they have
understood.
Over the years it has become an interesting exercise to tease out more from
what Suganuma sensei is demonstrating, and I was starting to get a better sense of how
he uses his body and energy, and feels the connection with his partner. I still
have lots of questions about the "shape" of some of his techniques which I can
not replicate without expending a lot more muscle in comparison with other ways
of doing the same techniques. Something to work on next time.
One very interesting point for me was when he mentioned how often we tend to
provoke a negative response from our partners by inappropriate or hard
techniques. This is something I am finding very fruitful for my current
practice.
I will certainly be back again, although am interested to know if his
teaching varies for example in his home dojo(s), although
an interview with him
implies that it doesn't. It was very useful to
practice a little with Tokuda sensei (6th dan) and get an alternative feel from someone
who has trained with Suganuma sensei for many years. A very clear use of energy
and sense of sticking and controlling in some techniques. I would love to
arrange a visit on a future trip to Japan. For me a lot of the interest is
because of the contrast with Inaba sensei - two very inspiring, but very
different, teachers.
My Class
Due to the number of people on the course and the size of the main dojo not
being sufficient to accommodate everyone, people were divided up into groups and
roughly a third went off for a separate class at various points. I was asked to
teach one of these and had some fun doing it.
I taught a somewhat relaxed and
very much feeling based class rather than technique based, mainly because this
is what I am finding most interesting in my personal practice at the moment. We
started with some breathing exercises, breathing out and sucking the belly in,
and then rotating the hips to drop the tanden/belly forward and using this to allow a
fast in-breath, but with no hint of force or strain. It is important to feel as
if breathing first into
the belly and not fill the upper chest, or at least not let stiffness in there.
Also there can be a temptation is to "sniff" which tends to stiffen the body - I find it much
easier to do with an open mouth. This exercise certainly seemed a little strange
at first, but I then built on it to show some simple techniques, e.g. from katatedori, where I find that an out-breath to absorb your partner's
attack/energy, followed by a quick in-breath seems to release some energy
upwards which makes it much easier to lift their arm and indeed their energy.
I then focussed on keeping very soft and relaxed arms and shoulders while
performing simple koky-ho from ryotedori (2 hand grab) or tenchinage, and
allowing the arms to drop in a very relaxed manner without any sense of strain
or pushing.
People seemed to enjoy it (after the initial confusion perhaps on the
breathing and where I might be going with it!) and I had several appreciative
comments afterwards which is always nice. My sources are mainly Inaba sensei's
teaching regarding the breathing, and Peter Ralston's book "Zen Body-Being" for
a fascinating approach to relaxation and effortless power which I am finding
very rewarding to study.
Grading
I missed the kyu grading, but watched the dan grading on Saturday with
interest: three shodans and two nidans, of whom I knew 4: Vegard, Steinar,
Haakon and Kai Hare. The shodan grading took a good 20 minutes or more - any
number of techniques being required to be demonstrated. Somewhat unnecessary in
my opinion, but then Inaba sensei does rather tend to an alternative approach
others find not rigorous enough. Interestingly the nidan gradings were shorter,
since the requirement to work through the basic techniques was dropped in favour
of a more free style approach. The candidates all did very well and deservedly
passed. A nice surprise at the end was when Stein-Are Engstad was called out -
he seemed very surprised and didn't know quite what was going on only to be
awarded his yondan.
The Party
As always the party on Saturday night was a great success, and this year was held in Polaria
(the Polar Centre) - one of the main tourist attractions in Tromso. The food was
delicious and there were some very good speeches around the celebration of 30
years. Birger Sorenson was present who started the club in Tromso as a 4th kyu
back in 1977. In that first group were Bjorn Eirik and Kore (both present) so we were treated
to a few reminiscences of life back then (including some slightly alternative
views of exactly what did go on!), and a little earlier in the
evening a slide show of some photos over the years.
Suganuma sensei also spoke,
and offered his congratulations. He also mentioned that in the summer camps a few years ago I had asked him the
question "What was the most important thing in Aikido?" He answered that it was
musubi or connection. A couple of years later, I asked him the same
question, not wishing to catch him out, but genuinely interested if he had
changed his mind or not. When this was pointed out to him at the time, he saw
the funny side, and this year saved me the trouble of asking it again by saying
that he still thought musubi the most important thing!
I realised that he had demonstrated the importance of "connections" off the
mat as well - it is one of the qualities that make him the very impressive man
that he is. You don't build an organisation of 100 or so dojos over 30 years if
you can't establish and more importantly maintain good connections with people.
There are lots of aikido teachers who are technically very capable, but very few
who have the personal qualities and lack of ego of Suganuma sensei. I am sure
that his many years of study of zen alongside his aikido has had a large
influence.
The dancing afterwards was ably lead as ever by Bjorn Eirik and Birger
Sorenson! Having been kicked out at 1am those of us who were left walked through
the centre of a still buzzing Tromso, and while the main diehards went to the
"Fun Pub", a smaller group of us enjoyed a beer at a slightly quieter local. The
morning did however roll around rather early!
Touristy Things
The hosts had arranged a visit on Sunday morning for the Japanese, and
Jessica and I tagged along. We took the cable car up the mountain on the
mainland (to 420m), and were met by a couple of Sami (Lapp) hosts who gave us a
reindeer sleigh ride and some coffee in a "lava" or tepee like tent. It seemed
rather touristy and kitsch at first, but thanks to the really friendly and
genuine guides turned out to be a lot of fun. The reindeer sleigh rides were
only a quick circuit of perhaps 200m, but my ride became a touch more
interesting when in response to my question "do you ever race?", much
encouragement was given to the reindeer who promptly got over excited and veered
off course heading for his mates down the hill. It turns out that reindeer don't
like to be touched, and aren't terribly easy to control - starting out consisted
of pulling the reindeer forward with them initially resisting, and then turned
into a quick sprint and a leap on to the sledge as the reindeer suddenly bounded
off!
Our hosts were young guys whose family apparently has some thousands of
reindeer in their herd who spend the summer around Tromso (from April onwards),
but they winter about 100km further south and inland where the climate is drier and the snow easier to dig for
lichen/moss in. They were very friendly and enthusiastic with their explanations
on details of dress and life, and it was very enjoyable. The only problem was
that our time was a little limited and it would have been great to have a walk
after lunch given the great weather up there.
Conclusion
A great course, leaving me feeling rather well exercised, and with some more
happy memories to add to the store associated with Norway. Thanks to Bjorn Eirik
and all the other members of Reimeikan.
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