Hello!
First two bits of News, we have been invited to run our ‘Holistic Martial Art Class’ at the ‘leisure@Cheltenham’ centre on Tuesdays at 6.30pm! This class will be starting on June 26th, so tell any friends or family who might have an interest in the ‘gentle’ Tai Chi type martial arts!! Look out for write up’s in the ‘Spotlight’ blog.
Also our next open event is on the 21st of July and is on; ‘Art of Harmonizing Spirit’!
This is very much an open day introduction to what Wisewarrior runs on Tuesday nights, in the form of its ‘Reflective Aikido’ lessons. If any of you haven’t had the chance to try this yet, then the 21st July will be a free taster session. This is a FREE Wisewarrior event, open to members and non members alike, so please feel free to bring along any family/friends that you think may be interested, there’s no charge. This will again be in the Cheltenham Pilates and Yoga Centre.
Full details in the ‘What’s On’ blog.
So this was the week….
Combat Class, Monday 6.45pm
James San and Dave San added a new stretch routine to the ‘Combat Class’ this week, which gave the students a well earned break between the up-tempo work out patterns!
Remember all Wisewarrior students are welcome to this session, if you fancy a great work out and want that ‘beach body’ for the summer or just better fitness then come on down!
We have new posters for this class coming soon so please ask for one.
Ken-Kai-Ryu, Monday 7.45pm
Great to see some of our black belts in the class this week, all-looking very good with sword in their hands!
Richard San was asked a question about improving our connection with the blade during his lesson, so he taught the ‘seeing without seeing’ lesson. This really helped some of the students understand the connection with the sword and stance, feeling the blade not seeing it. Some did struggle with the ‘letting go’ required for this exercise, but some, like Mark San just improved so much!
BAMA Black Belt Class, Monday 7.45pm
As high grades we have to learn not just to throw punches or kicks but to feel what the body wants to do and when to do it!
This was the exercise that Richard San had the Black belts doing on this Mondays’ session, to stop thinking and react, moving with the body not against it.
The Sen’s really began to feel techniques and not just repeat them, lead of course by Nick San, who has spent many years in high-grade class’s learning this art!
Reflective Aikido, Tuesday 8.30pm
This Tuesdays session began with an excellent warm-up session, ran by Hayley San then moved swiftly on to explore more of our ’7 elements’. The element being taught this week was fluidity, in particular, to feel rather than simply see the effect our movements have on our opponents posture. Tim San this week explained how our minds own rigidity leads to a lack of fluidity in aikido type movements. There may well be an entry on this soon in his blog, watch this space…
Japanese Sword Class, Tuesday 9.30pm
We were lucky to have both Tim San and Richard San tonight in this class, so were able to split the class in to both beginner and advanced sessions. Tim San took those new to sword through the feel and flow of the cut, governed by posture and focus, it is always remarkable to see how, when properly taught, a complete novice quickly forms in to the shape and spirit of a swordsman!
Hayley San’s lesson with Richard San was on ‘cutting a man down’, but the philosophy behind this lesson might need a whole blog to explain!
BAMA Karate and Aikido Te, Wednesday 6.45pm
With a clean sweep at the National BAMA gradings from the Wisewarrior Cheltenham dojo it was nice to see some new coloured Bushido belts being worn this Wednesday. We had students going for Weapons, Karate and Aikido-Te and all did brilliantly, all had a great day and passed the new format style gradings.
With the next grading not until September we took a step away from the grading syllabus this week. Sensei Richard ran a great advanced session for the higher grades. With three black belts and three brown belts it was almost a Monday evening advanced session! The feel of it was very much to do with practical self-defense/reality street combat. It was great to be able to explore these more advanced concepts, and multiple opponent scenarios, and is also helping to make the brown belts look really sharp.
Sensei Tim and Tor San took their students through intensive private lessons, which were of great benefit to students like Dohigh Wills who, since training on a Tuesday nights as well, is looking a firm candidate to be one of our Wisewarrior students going for brown belt in September!
Philosophy group, through out the week
The subject of ‘koan’, (a short message conveying wisdom) writing was one of the main themes of this weeks lessons, so important for the Zen student; to write beauty every day is to begin to think beauty every day!
So the students were introduced to some simple ideas of koan writing to get them started, as some had never written koans before. But the results from the class were very promising, so we may see some great writing in the future! For if we can express an idea of philosophy in this form, then we may begin to find a place in our heart for it, and if we can do that….. then it may become something more in our lives.
…..so another great week.
See you in the dojo!
0 Comments