For those who do not know Nadeau Sensei, he is a great aikidoka with a one-of-a-kind personality. He is serious about keeping the teachings and philosophies of Osensei alive.

Throughout the seminar, Nadeau Sensei had us experience things on our own. One day, he said something like "The body is its own functional unit. It has a 'mind' of it's own (e.g., when you take a walk, you aren't instructing your legs on how to take each step, your body just knows). So. Settle into your body. Let your body be. Be present. Separate your body from your 'I' (your intellectual mind) and just move your body around... How do you feel?" Shortly thereafter, he brought up the concept of a base. "Make sure you have a base, a solid base." (The feeling of sinking into the mat / The feeling of having roots going way down / etc.)  I started to feel more balanced and relaxed after a while, which is a great way to start off training!

Nadeau sensei demonstrating a strong, relaxed base:

As far as the seminar is concerned, I had a big 'a-ha' moment. I was trying to do a certain technique on Nadeau Sensei, and was using too much shoulder. He was giving me instructions, (like 'let the body figure out the motion') and then, I executed the technique very smoothly. Nadeau Sensei said "that was it." At that moment, I thought "a- ha, this execution was a perfect example of using the 'mechanical principles'!" The 'mechanical principles' is something Nakayama Sensei was trying to get me to understand. I think all great aikido teachers are ultimately teaching the same thing, just through a different method. :)

Another "aha" was that I realized that my body always wanted to take the easy route. It seems obvious, but I categorize this as an "aha" moment, because the idea suddenly hit me, and I understood it better. I now have a visceral understanding of this concept. According to Nadeau Sensei, "if you stop thinking so much, your body will naturally find the best way to do a movement." The easiest way to execute a technique is very similar to using the mechanical principles to execute a technique with the least amount of effort. It seems that both ways of thinking ultimately produces the same results. Of course, if someone was out-of-touch with their body (such as being very uncoordinated), then Nadeau Sensei's method may be harder to learn.

He told us to start small (small = basics). We always want to learn a new technique, and then suddenly be the master of it. We should slow it down, make sure we are comfortable with it before we jump straight to our end goal of being masters. Another way of talking about it is called "dimensions." We start small and make sure we're 'squared away' in our basic dimension before we move to the next dimension. These dimensions go on forever. I like this idea. It makes me think of one of Osensei's quotes

"The secret of aikido is to make yourself become one with the universe and to go along with its natural movements. One who has attained this secret holds the universe in him/herself and can say, ‘I am the universe.’ "

 If this is so, and if he is centered within his universe, this means that he is the center of the universe. One of the big bang theories state that all points in the universe are the center of the universe. The universe is simply expanding in all directions. Therefore, in the sense that there can be multiple "centers of the universe" according to one of the big bang theories, then it is quite possible that every single person can be the "center of the universe." I thought that was kind of cool.

Back to dimensions. When you pass through to the next dimension (the next step towards improving your basic techniques), you might feel some 'turbulence'. You might feel like you've taken a couple steps back and are getting worse, but that is not necessarily the case. You're seeing the next level - you're realizing that your techniques could be better, and therefore, feel that what you're currently doing isn't very good anymore. Stay with it, and you'll improve. With each level, you will be a new you. You will be an 'exalted you.'

The M&M theory: We're all just peanuts (the basic level), then when we have gone through multiple dimensions, it is like dipping ourselves in chocolate to get nice chocolate-y coatings. When we have encompassed the universe, the 'last dimension', the last layer, is the the crunchy outer-shell. This fun M&M theory has spurred the phrase "You're just a peanut." 

He told us that back in the day, senseis used to take ukemi for beginner students so the students could focus on the nage technique. If the uke has proper ukemi, the nage simply has to relax and let his body react to the attack. So Nadeau Sensei was trying to get us to take correct ukemi. He wanted us to understand the importance of appropriate ukemi. Something clicked this time when he was trying to explain this because I thought of my tennis days. When I play tennis, I always 'feel' how the ball hits the racket, and then I keep adjusting accordingly, little by little, until I start hitting the balls just how I want to. If I start over-thinking it and stop focusing on the feel of the racket contacting the ball, I usually end up not knowing how to correct myself, and my tennis game sucks for the entire practice. So, using the tennis analogy, if my tennis partner starting hitting me balls that are flying all over the place (a bad uke), then I am not going to learn how to improve my tennis at all. I'll probably just get really frustrated - both the uke and nage are left unsatisfied. On the other hand, if I have a really good uke (who hits consistently and well), then I'll be able to focus only on my own movements and not worry about the uke (tennis partner). Then, my techniques are going to improve. 

At one point, Nadeau Sensei told us a story to emphasize a point he was trying to make. It was supposed to be something of a joke (I think), but we were a bit slow to catch on. To our chirping-cricket response, Nadeau Sensei suddenly said "Ok everyone, take 5!" and clapped his hands. Then we all snapped out of our daze and got up for some water. Looking back at this moment always makes me smile an embarrassed smile.

He talked about 'finding your lineage.' Your lineage can be all sorts of things, such as "Being successful at work." "Being a good mother." etc. What you have to do is "Let your body mix itself into a better person." Find out what you gravitate towards, what you want to do, and let yourself do it. Go for it!

During the entire seminar, we were separating our "body" from the "I". (The "I" is another discussion on its own that can be discussed another time. For now, let's just say that the "I" represents the intellectual mind, the critical mind that is always correcting you. Some call it the ego.) Now, at the end of the seminar, he did something called "forging," which is what Osensei called unifying the "body" and the "I" to form a positive, cooperative 'you'. Again, he uses the phrase "producing an exalted being." This is the whole water/fire/steam thing. "Fire comes up and goes down. Water falls down and goes up (and around). These mix and become steam. From the steam is a birthing, the birthing of a new, exalted being." For those that don't understand the water/fire/steam concept, he suggested an alternative version: The male force and the female force mixes and comes together for a birthing, a new being. Here is my  artistic rendition of the forging process:

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The end of another great seminar. :D

Nothing can quite compare to a life where each day brings you a challenge, with the goal just out of reach so you're always giving your best. Just for fun, I even did tai chi once a week. There were a couple of aikido seminars that I was able to attend - and they are always fun! Meeting new people, re-connecting with others, receiving instruction from wonderful senseis, and rolling around, what more can you want? Those are the days when water has never tasted better!

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     There is a "natural order of things." Though I didn't understand this concept fully, I think he means that there is a natural flow to each technique. You can always try to force someone down, or you can let your uke attack, and the let each successive movement evolve, which eventually leads to throwing or pinning your partner. Gravity takes a huge role in this. In some aspects, you can just think of letting gravity do most of the work.   

   Since the focus of the seminar was not the actual techniques themselves, it would have been difficult to follow if I was not already familiar and somewhat comfortable with executing most of the techniques. Yamane sensei's students came around and corrected us once in a while, but mostly we were on our own.

     I enjoyed the fact that he would pick various seminar attendees as ukes. Though he might use his students to initially demonstrate a technique, he would often call up local aikidokas and throw them so we would get a feel of what he was demonstrating. This always helps a lot, since watching can only get you so far. When you are thrown by the one who is teaching, you also get to learn through first hand experience. A couple of times when he was demonstrating a two-person attack, he would call up my husband and me. He would make us bump into each other with his techniques, smile, and make jokes about how we were a couple and that we belong together.

     I found out that Yamane sensei studied under O Sensei, which I thought was pretty special. He is the first person I met that studied directly under O Sensei. Yamane sensei is such a nice and modest person. During the first session, he came around and greeted the people he had never met before, and asked our names. He wrote down the names of every one that came to the seminar into his little notebook. We had the opportunity to spend time with him off the mat as well. He is truly a sincere person and opens his heart to everyone. His lovely wife also came to the seminar. Though she did not practice aikido with us, she was always there to greet us with a smile and a bow, and I could tell she supported her husband very much.

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It was just another Saturday morning. Then came a text that said "Want to go explore a cave today?" My first reaction was "No, I already have so much stuff to do today." And then my sense of adventure kicked that thought and said "What are you talking about? What else do you have to do that will even compare to something like this?"

We found the cave entrance, which was literally a little hole in the ground. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't have thought that it lead to a huge underground cave!

Once we were all through the entrance, we decided to take a left turn. Wow, was this a small tunnel!

This was fun as we squirmed our way through. It did not go as far as we had hoped and had to turn back. Crawling back up was 10x harder than forging ahead!

This time, we decided to go right. It was much more spacious!

We found a guest sign-in sheet, but it was wet, so we didn't bother filling it out.

Angela found this bone, and we were wondering what it belonged to?!

After a long, wide, but low strip, we came to our "club house."  :)

We also discovered a music room! It's a small one-person space, full of resonating stalactites.

Here is a short video clip of Thad performing on stalactites! I have titled this piece:

"Suspense in the caves of the underwater"

We went

up...



down...



carmel??


Hours after we first set foot in the cave, we had explored it to our heart's content. Angela skillfully guided us back to the mouth of the cave.