Toulouse Training - Le Dojo
25 October, Toulouse, France

Contributed by Rob Clements*

On a recent visit to Europe, I found myself with a wonderful opportunity to fit in some training at Sensei Joël Chemin's Le Dojo in Toulouse, France. The dojo was cozy, clean and comfortable with cloth-covered sport mats over a raised wooden platform. The mats were firm, provided good traction and seemed sturdy. A large, simple kamidana sat at the far end of the mat, and jo for Chemin sensei's bojutsu classes hung on racks along the walls.

I watched a beginner's class led by one of the dojo sempai on the first night. The concepts that were being emphasized included moving from hara, total 360-degree awareness, maintaining good posture, and gripping with "le petite doigt" (the little finger). Nage was encouraged to keep all the senses open and to see everything going on around him or her, rather than looking directly at uke. It takes some time to get used to having nage NOT look at you as you move in to attack. Projection through the fingertips was emphasized on all techniques, rather than using muscular strength. Hearing a Japanese art explained in French to a United States American is most interesting!

On the second day I was fortunate enough to attend a noon class with Joël Chemin sensei, 5th dan. Chemin sensei began aikido in 1974 at Tokyo Aikikai and is a student of Hikitsuchi sensei. During our noon "all levels" class I was fortunate enough to take ukemi for Chemin sensei several times while he corrected some aspect of my technique to better match his example. His aikido was very elegant, with great, gentle power coming up out of the ground. His motions seemed refined and effortless.

Chemin sensei chose to show a number of kokyu techniques, including two from ushiro attacks, as well as yokomenuchi ikkyo, iriminage and kotegaeshi. Atemi was emphasized in responding to yokomen in order to break uke's posture. Iriminage was expressed with nage entering and rotating horizontally to take uke's balance, then adding vertical movements to complete the technique. The feeling was of the momentum being carried up uke's front like a wave, then curling down their back to make the throw.

Sensei made it clear that he wanted nage to enter with one's whole body during irmi and atemi. One specific technique involved an interesting rearward irimi as part of ushiro katate tori kokyunage. With uke grabbing ushiro, Chemin sensei entered toward uke (irimi) and off the line, placing him almost at uke' side, facing in the same direction, weight on the outside leg. The outside hand then comes to hara and the inside hand raises up to the sky in a kokyu motion, then nage turns 45 degrees towards uke and steps through uke's center in one flowing motion. I can attest that this works extremely well! Chemin sensei launched me across the mat several times with this technique. I felt like I was being uprooted and tipped over rather than being pushed away.

The senior students attending the class were very proficient aikidoka with relaxed arms and strong centers. It seemed that in general, uke's center was broken further along into each technique rather than at the beginning. The first connection was often very gentle, merely guiding uke's motion for a while without stopping it. There seemed to be a soft yet solid feeling to the center power.

Everyone at Le Dojo treated this foreigner very well. The experience was similar to attending the Aikido-List seminar in held in Boulder, CO, earlier this month: we all spoke the common language of aikido, but with different dialects. At the Aikido-L seminar we were all "tasting" different flavors of aikido, taking in everything we could, keeping what works best for us. Le Dojo provides some tasty French cooking for your Aikido buffet. I would recommend visiting them in Toulouse if you are able. You can visit online at http://assoc.wanadoo.fr/le-dojo/. You can also e-mail Chemin Sensei from the website if you would like more information.

*Rob started his aikido training in New York in 1995, and has been training at Boulder Aikikai for the past three years.