This is my personal re-cap on the seminar I had the opportunity to participate in this last weekend at The Aikido Center in Sacramento. Enjoy

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I was able to attend the Sunday portion of the seminar with Mitsuo Tasaka Shihan (aka Master, beyond rank, from my understanding thats what Shihan means).

Needless to say it was awesome! I had the opportunity to take ukemi from him for a few techniques, such as nikkyo and kokyo doza. His nikkyo was so relaxed, so gentle, and it hit LIKE A BRICK! It was a great opportunity to feel what that was like from a Shihan.

Tasaka Shihan had a joyful manner about him, and he made many jokes to illustrate what he was trying to teach. I got a lot of helpful pointers on many different techniques, and we spent a fair amount of time on kotegaishi pin's as well.

Tasaka Shihan also told stories about his training. He said that in 1995 when he was feeling really comfortable and confident with his technique, he decided to 'start again' as a beginner, and try to learn what his sensei was actually teaching. I'm pretty sure the implication was the softer, more ki-full form of Aikido. I thought this was a wise concept and apparently it worked well for him.

He said his sensei used to tell him not to harmonize his ki to his partner's ki - that this waqs incorrect. He should unite / harmonize his ki with the ki of the universe. Tasaka Shihan said he does not think it is wrong to harmonize your ki to your partners ki, but it is wrong if that is the only harmonization you are working on in the long run.

He talked about nature, and observing nature to the point that you make it part of you. Then you will find your purpose in the world.

He also talked about how O'Sensei said the purpose of Aikido was to unite the world as one family. The purpose of Aikido is to bring joy to the world. Every day bring joy into your life, and he said that this is easy to understand intellectually, but very different to experience constantly.

Some training points of interest he spoke about and we practiced were:

ENTERING:

- When entering, he said do not push off from your back foot. He said it is too slow and you will get hit. Lead with the front foot and/or hand. If you stand still in an even stance (as if standing casually) and bring your arms up, you will notice your body will move slightly and slowly forward. Lowering your hands, you will notice your body's center of gravity will lean slightly back. We tried this slowly a few times and he said to practice on your own and get the feeling of that, and it will help you be able to enter faster and more effectively due to using your body's natural motion instead of power and muscular strength (from the back leg). The importance of this is speed, as well as lessening the chance your entering movement is "tracked" by the attacker (thus still getting hit even though you may move off the original line of attack).

- Another practice on entering was to keep your head and face straight, and let the body/hips move off the line. If you need to move the head to blend/enter/evade an incoming attack, the full blend should be completed with the body and the head should move very last, just before the strike makes contact. This is another magic trick to practice to avoid being tracked by an incoming attack and having the aggressor's line of attack follow your attempted blend. Very helpful for me, and to see Tasaka Shihan do this was supremely effective and amazing to witness. Don't look at your hands. =)

- Enter. That was part of his advice and practice as well, just enter!! When extending a hand out for a katata tori or cross hand grab, it is ok to let someone grab when practicing kihone (pardon my incorrect spelling haha) but as your training progresses develop a habit of entering before or at the moment they think about the grab. This is also a very useful practice for randori.

ENTERING - Practical Application / Practice:
**** NOTE that Tasaka Shihan had extreme control over the bokken when doing these excersizes and if someone did not enter correctly, he was able to stop mid swing to avoid anyone getting hurt. *****

- SIDE TO SIDE: To practice entering he took a bokken and started swinging it from one side to the next. The class lined up in a single file line and took turns entering as he swing the bokken predictively left to right etc. We went through three different speeds of this, and the third was pretty fast. It definately introduced a certain level of fear factor which is awesome for training in my opinion.

- STRIKE: Same as above, but he did a shoman sword cut (my apologies if thats not what its officially called in sword) over and over. Slow at first, everyone tried, and it got increasingly faster. He said to enter in, and try to strike him in the rib as you did.

- STRIKE 2: Same as above, however, instead of striking consistantly and predictably one after another, this time the practice was to feel when he was going to strike, and he would only do it once. you either entered and didnt get hit, or you died. =)

OPENINGS:

- Train as if your partner is aggressive and skilled. Leave no opening. Obviously extension is important here. Something he said that I picked up on regarding this is to keep hands about chest level, if your hands are lower someone can just come up and punch your face and you may be expecting them to take the hand haha. He demonstrated different openings over and over and said to always ask yourself where your openings are and try to find them to improve your practice time on the mat. Leave no openings.

POSTURE:

- Keep your spine straight and elongated. Our school is very good about emphasizing this as well, but it was highly reinforced to an almost ridiculous degree by Tasaka Shihan (hey it has to be if you want to do real aikido). He used the metaphor of the string through the spine, pulling up through the crown of the head. This includes also kokyo doza, in which he corrected me specifically on my posture (which really wasn't bad aka i wasn't slouching, but it wasn't 100% actively extended upward).

BLENDING:

- Don't push or pull. Be active, and he used the term "spread the energy" a lot. Keep hands in front of center. We all know this intellectually, remember to practice it with your body and mind though =)

- Be relaxed. He talked a lot about how when you use strength/force, it actually gives strength to your oponent to play off of.

EMOTIONS:

- Check your emotions and intentions several times during class. Even a highly advanced aikidoka's waza can become ineffective if he is having unsettling emotions, intentions or thoughts. Emotions can also lead to unwanted openings. =)