Carisolo Alpine Budo Seminar 2006
15th-18th of June 2006
15th-18th of June 2006
The 7th Carisolo intensive seminar took place on June 15th to 18th, 2006, in the village of Carisolo, within the Adamello-Brenta Natural Park in the Dolomites. The seminar is held in a very comfortable hotel provided with a dôjô with tatami, a large terrain, and relax and leisure facilities.
As usual, training included Aikido, Aikiken, Iaido and Shinto Muso-ryu Jodo, under the direction of René Vandroogenbroeck, Aikido VII Dan, Malcolm Tiki Shewan, Aikido VI Dan, and Pascal Krieger, SMR Menkyo-Kaiden. This superb staff was supported by the presence, this also usual, of Daniel Leclerc, Aikido and Iaido IV Dan and SMR Sho-mokuroku, and Sergio Dieci, SMR Go-mokuroku.
The aim of the seminar is to bring together practitioners of Aiki, Ken/Iai and Jo to share a teaching which underlines the common principles of these arts. This was especially true this year: everybody went through the many classes with the feeling of flowing naturally from the sword, to the bare hands, to the stick and round again. Classes started officially at 7:30, but extra trainings for the willing were held at 6:30: Iaido with Daniel and Judo-Newaza with Pascal, aided by Domenico Alocco.
This picture shows most of the participants... among those absent, Tiki who had to leave a bit earlier on Sunday morning.
Ready for the early morning iai… at the same time, a similar group was about to start grappling with PK in the dôjô. Le thème offert par Pascal était : « Il fait noir au pied d'un phare ». D'un concept fascinant et à faces multiples, The theme offered by PK read "It’s dark at the foot of a lighthouse". Being an intriguing and multi-faceted concept, it challenged the wit of many of the participants. We’ll leave it for the reader… it’s worth some thinking even if you weren’t there!
The main technical themes included basics and applications of kiri-otoshi, kiri-gaeshi and kiri-age in manifold flavors. Concerning SMR in particular, we had memorable common classes where the participants were initiated to a long sequence from Ran-ai and even to Shinto-ryu’s Surikomi.
Ready to start ken training.
A wide array of nationalities were represented within the 77 participants: apart from the different Italian groups (Milano, Roma, Padova, Vicenza, Trieste) we had France (and Corse!), Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Slovenia.
As traditional for this seminar, a special open-air training took place on Saturday: we spent the whole day in the beautiful Vallesinella, a valley with spectacular waterfalls and breath-taking view over the many peaks all around.
Climbing up to the base of the higher Vallesinella waterfalls...
A short walk led us to the ‘higher Vallesinella waterfalls’, were the path starts climbing with stairs and wooden bridges over the falls. We tried our best to tire up Tiki’s and Pascal’s relatively new hip articulations, but… no way! They brilliantly sustained the challenge and passed on to training in the glades above the falls.
Up we go…
And higher, and higher…
Just a couple of words from the organizer before starting bouts...
But the sensei don’t seem to be that impressed...
Better start early...
Francesca, who was born during the 4th Carisolo Budo Seminar, leads her mum down the path.
mong the cultural/philosophical notions covered by the teachers, an important explanation on the reishiki and significance of the bow(s) was offered in depth on Sunday morning.
The seminar closed with the usual Enbu (unfortunately without Tiki who left shortly before): Aikido, Judo, Jodo (with Juttejutsu and Kusarigamajutsu) and Iaido were duly presented.
Aiki girls in action.
A dynamic Judo throw.
Ran-ai.
Ikkaku-ryu kata.
Isshin-ryu kata.
All went in the best possible way. What else to say?
Sensei and all participants, thank you very much and see you next year for the 8th edition.Lorenzo Trainelli
Fédération Européenne de Jodo / European Jodo Federation