Aikido Yoshinkai

The members of Sowakan Dojo (Maple Ridge) and Sokushinkan Dojo (Vancouver) had the pleasure and honour of a second visit from Blackwell Sensei of South Carolina.  Five members, including one taking his first ever aikido class, enjoyed 2 hours of training with Blackwell Sensei.  Although his techniques and precise methods are a little different from our usual techniques and methods, we were all able to see the similarities of our different forms of aikido.  As Blackwell Sensei said during class, “there is really only one aikido”.  We also experienced two other of his basic lessons: “get out of the way” and “go with the flow”.  During the class, we practised katate mochi shihonage (omote and ura), ushiro ryote mochi ushiro nage, shomen uchi ikkajo, ryote mochi kokyuho, a form of kokyunage (connection/breath throw), and a seated wrist grab throw.  Blackwell Sensei was in Vancouver to do kyudo (archery training) with the kyudo group at the Vancouver Japanese Language School.  We thank both Blackwell Sensei and the Kyudo group for taking the time from their training to share Blackwell Sensei with us.