Ikeda Shihan at the Chicago Aikikai Spring Camp
May 17-20, 2001

Contributed by Marsha Turner*

"As with most seminars, I was looking to be shaken out of whatever rut I was in and to be reminded of things I tend to forget."

The recent Spring Camp in Chicago with Ikeda sensei started on Thursday night at the University of Chicago in the large, but sweltering, wrestling room in Henry Crown Field House. Aikidoka from all over Chicago and the Midwest showed up to participate in the two-hour class that kicked off an action-packed weekend. Moving up to the Chicago Aikikai on Friday, students had the opportunity over the following three days to participate in seven more aikido classes, a performance of the Blue Man Group, and a billiards tournament. Aikido in Chicago is work, but it's also about having fun!

I asked several students, ranging in experience from five months to twenty-five years, what they thought of the seminar. From least to most experienced, I found an understanding of several recurring themes: emphasis upon simple movement, of starting with larger movements and moving to smaller ones, of the ability to generate more power with smaller movement - now, that's a hard one! - and connection, connection, connection. Not surprisingly, the more experienced people had a greater appreciation for the difficulty of the transition from external to internal movement, of how to find and imbue small with the power of greater movement. From all, however, came a sincere appreciation for Ikeda sensei's teaching and the opportunity to try and - for want of a better word - steal elements of his practice.

"I liked that he went through basic technique very simply...more simply than I've been making it. He stressed going from larger to smaller movements. That made sense." (Fernando, 6th kyu.)

"Ikeda sensei makes the learning experience illuminating and worthwhile. He brings positive energy that encourages further exploration into the art. What I took away from this last seminar is the simplicity of movement. This may possibly be one of the elements that contributes to power but the hardest to achieve and understand." (Marilee, 4th kyu.)

"Much of what he did involved being in the right place at the right time. [He] mentioned that body movement happens in the hips first, then the upper body and arms...throughout, the motion manifests first in the center and travels to the extremities...we start training with these large movements and find smaller movement over time. [You might] say that we start with external movement and discover internal movement." (Tod, nidan.)

"When I see Ikeda Sensei, I think of an elemental, unstoppable force. His ability to connect with and then completely destroy his partner's center is without compare. As for training with him, he has only improved on what he has been doing and I have finally gotten an intellectual handle on the basic concepts. Now I get to spend the next twenty years trying to get a physical handle on his technique." (Wendy, rokudan.)

For many of us, it's like trying on an elder sibling's clothing. The garments are at first baggy and awkward, making us feel out of place and ill-at-ease. As we train, as we grow, they begin to feel more familiar and become more comfortable. Then they start to feel like they fit. However, if we're lucky, we realize that there's always more that we don't know about the very things that seem familiar, and we look more deeply, to find new Œgarments' that will challenge us once more.

That's what I finding training with Sensei to be like: he does have a few recurring themes that he seems to want people to understand. But he keeps refining his own understanding, so the rest of us, who want what he's got, are drawn willy-nilly down the path after him.

In all, I would say the seminar in Chicago was an exhausting, enlightening experience, filled, as always, with the opportunity for good, hard training, excellent food, and great companionship. We'll look for all of you there next year!

* Marsha has been training at the Chicago Aikikai for 15 years. In real life she is the CEO of a small not-for-profit healthcare trade association. She holds a master's degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, and, in a prior life, studied ballet, gymnastics and fencing.