Intensive Jodo training session
Dresden from May 12 to May 13, 2007
Again and after a short interruption of two years I was invited by Jan, leader of the Dresden group, to lead an intensive training session for two days. It is always a pleasure for me to go there, because the hospitality and eagerness of the participants in Dresden is giving this group a new impetus each time we have this training session.
Of course, to go there, this has to be done at least on Friday, for the distance from Heidelberg to Dresden is about the same as from Heidelberg to Geneva, about 550 km. That's why I left together with Rolf on Friday morning already to arrive in Dresden in the late afternoon without any problems.
When we started on Saturday morning at 9 a.m., I was surprised to see two new people, Thomas and Rico, who came from another Dojo about 40 km away from Dresden. They are training in the Shudokan Aikido style at the Budo-Center Ostrau. Thomas is teaching there.
At the beginning and before starting the training, we gave short demonstration of the Omote series to show the beginners what is Jodo all about. We were altogether eight participants and after the demonstration started as usual with Kihon sotai accompanied with a lot of comments and corrections. As some of the participants hadn't finished all Kihon yet, they were obliged to practice the first Kihon while we continued until the end. After this and until noon we did several exercises with Jo and Boken in order to get a better feeling for the angle and hanmin position.
Lunch was taken at a Chinese restaurant which is also one of our traditional places here in Dresden.
The afternoon again was dedicated to a demonstration of the Chudan series performed by Rolf and Jan who did it quite well. This was followed by Kihon tandoku by taking into consideration the corrections from the morning session. We then again had exercises with Boken and Jo and also did Ken kihon. Those who didn't finish Kihon completely (two of them knew until Tai atari) learned at least the Jo side of the last three Kihon.
It is almost a must now when we are in Dresden to have a cultural event in Saturday evening. As already explained in some older reports Jan is a member of a theatre group, but this time he was not on stage. Some other people performed sketches filled with unfathomable humour. All in all it was a nice and relaxing evening after a day of hard work.
Sunday morning again started with a demonstration of Ran ai followed by exercises and the Omote series. Those who were still in Kihon tandoku could now try the first Kihon sotai. Others who did not complete Omote could also learn a new Kata. The afternoon started with a demonstration of Tanjo, we then split into several groups to train the respective series. Following the general wish of the group, the last hour was mainly used to learn a little bit of Tanjo.
We finished around 4 p.m. everybody seemed to be happy (strange enough after having sacrified a weekend for Jodo!). My special thanks go to Jan and and of course to his partner Karin. She has to be without Jan almost the whole weekend which is certainly not very easy. But nevertheless I hope to come back to Dresden in October when we will have a Gasshuku with Kees.
Matthias Wenderoth, SMR Oku-iri
Fédération Européenne de Jodo / European Jodo Federation