YoshRama
Martin Katz sensei
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| "Is that what I did? That's not what I did... Do what I showed you!" |
Katz sensei either had a mischievous grin, a huge smile, or a seriously strict look on his face. Rarely will you see anything in between - he is truly present every moment of his life!
Katz sensei is always very creative with his warm-ups.
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| you sit when you have completed your 'mission' |
Dynamic partner stretching
For one of Katz sensei's sessions, he taught
Don't try to slip anything by him, he'll see it and call you out! :)
Katz sensei loves to tell jokes, especially impersonations of Toyoda Shihan. One of these days, I'll have to catch his voice on tape! I have heard that he has an amazing way of teaching kids - it can be seen through his sense of humor, watchful eye, and his youthful spirit. Playful, yet strict. Oh, and I cannot neglect to mention that Katz sensei started studying aikido at the same dojo on the exact same day that my teacher, Veera Kasicharernvat sensei started studying aikido!
YoshRama
(1 of 7)
Can we? Maybe? Should we?
Perhaps? Maybe just one? Oh, let's just do it! Is it possible? Wait...
What? You're kidding me!
Seriously? Ok!
Let's go! ...by a stroke of last-minute good fortune, Amjith and I made it to the Oct 2010 Western Region Aikido Camp in Vista, California (affiliated with the
Aikido Association of America).
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| Kirsten Simms and Jeremy Neff |
A camp differs from a seminar in that a camp has multiple instructors. In this case, we had (right to left)
Toyoda sensei,
Nakayama sensei,
Katz sensei,
MacBeth sensei, and Dyer sensei. It was spectacular!
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There were a few exams held during the camp: Mike Hackett and Alan Sweeten for Shodan, Jeremy Neff for Nidan, and Rick Berdini for Yondan! Congratulations to everyone for a great test!
I only have pictures for Alan Sweeten's exam - here are the juicy bits!
(Alan is the guy in all white with a brown belt.)
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| yudansha waiting to be thrown... |
For Alan's Shodan test, he had to demonstrate "five arts" on various techniques. For example, he had to do a minimum of five different techniques against a stomach punch, a minimum of five different techniques against a grab from behind, etc. Then, he had to defend himself against attacks from a wooden sword (trust me, it will hurt if that thing makes contact with you!), and then demonstrate his jo (wooden staff) skills through a 22 movement kata. After all this, he had to defend himself against four attackers to show the test committee that he can use his aikido to successfully defend himself.
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