Sensei Anders organized this four part seminar, where each class was lead by a different Sensei.

The morning classes where held by Esko and Andreas and the afternoon classes where held by Monika and Anders.

Class held by Esko

This class had a Hanbo kata , made for kihon practice, as it´s central theme. Since you can´t assume you will have easy acces to a Hanbo all the time, I demonstrated how to use a Jo, which is 38 cm longer than a Hanbo, in the kata not changing your distance to your opponent.

We continued to practice the same kata with a Tanjo, half the length of a Jo. Finally I demonstrated the same kata using a Bokken, to show it can be used with minor addaptions.

Class held by Andreas

I had been asked to plan and lead a session focusing on Randori with Bokken. I was very happy for this, because I'm not sure that I had dared to choose that theme my selves, given that it felt like something of a challenge.

Randori on our Saturday training has, for my own part, had a tendency to get a little stiff, so I took the opportunity to put together an exercise session that focused on the flow, movement and interaction.

The first part of the session we worked on getting the softness and flow of Juri all the way to pair exercises with Bokken. Then we finished with two and two show a Randori pair exercises where the interaction was in focus.

The exercise was based on the outset was decided who would win every round. It was therefore to jointly create an interactions to find its way to the very finish.

Class held by Anders

We worked with techniques that aimed to put an end in the form of closures and restraints. All techniques were based on close contact, and from there via the restraints and closures took control over the opponent, either by locking or other tekniques.

All techniques were discussed,if they would work in a real situation, if not, how would you change the technology so that it would work, this was interesting and fruitful discussions.

Continued with Randori in various forms at the end of an interesting seminar. All instructors offered interesting and rewarding workouts, I think the whole seminar was a great success, though, so we missed of course Sensei Marshall.

Class held by Monika

Perhaps it is only when you face an opponent that is larger or much larger, as the importance of Meaning, Dimensions, Flow, Application and Mu becomes clear. When muscle strength may be incidental need other things to get the opponent to where you want.

Likewise, it is good to have "The Three Treasures" - Essence, Spirit and Ki in mind. If the deficiencies in Essence, (in this case, the size and strength, not necessarily knowledge and experience) must be compensated by Spirit and Ki. Different views emerged how the Spirit may be affected. As I see it, the Spirit raised by "pepping" which increases my energy (Ki) and I get more out of Essence.

After this discussion we went to practical application; Everyone Ritsu Zen, Yuri, and Hai Neri challenged by Anders Bengtsson. He offered great resistance, despite his injured shoulder. Everyone helped to tackle the problems that arose. Pushing hands No. 4 - push on ukes third step, is a good timing exercise. Without timing no flow. Without flow uke regains balance and I end up at a disadvantage.

There is a series that could be called Shichi Kumite - as we usually do at times with different intentions. In this case, it was adapted to this class theme. Finally, a Tanshu. Free, but with a great opponent (Sensei Marshall) in mind.

Thanks especially to Anders, but also all the others who gave good feedback.

Osu Monika