Author: Aunshugyo

Akuzawa sensei’s Tokyo Open Seminar on 12th February 2018 coincided with a public holiday, accompanied by warm spring-like weather making the training that much more enjoyable.

The seminar at the Shinjuku Cosmic Sports Center (seminar details) passed all too quickly, with the participants, some from overseas, gathering a lot of information about posture and its applicability to transmitting the weight naturally, used in exercises for connecting with the partner, and making space inside the body for movement. Akuzawa Sensei’s topic for this seminar was how to train the body to overcome the limitations of age.

The initial part of the seminar involved stretching, especially the inner hip joint, inwards and outwards, on the ground, and then using the spine and hips to crawl forwards on the belly, followed by similarly on one’s back. This type of movement training is intended to help form a connected relaxed body without relaying on the upper body and shoulders to initiate movement.

Thereafter, a very difficult and important partner exercise commenced, where one person stood heels and back flat against the wall, and the partner pushed in turn against the upper chest, middle chest, or abdomen with one hand. The objective was to stand straight against the wall, and practice using the slight tilting and straightening of the back and corresponding sinking of the body in the inner hip joint to absorb and return the push and thereby initiate forward movement. The creation of “space” between joints allows the internal realignment and dispersion of external force, and requires relaxation and self-awareness of one’s body structure and the ability to manipulate it sensitively.

Next, the same type of connection was practiced without a wall as support. The person being pushed would absorb the push through the aforementioned straightening and sinking relaignment, and then let the hips glide forwards to one side of the pushing partner, legs following appropriately, sinking towards the ground, taking the partner with them if done smoothly. This “catching” of the push and subsequent ease of movement together with the connected partner, forms an important cornerstone of skill in unbalancing.

Having an entire seminar available to concentrate on a few critical aspects of training was a valuable experience for newcomers and regular members alike, and everyone felt grateful for the opportunity to learn from sensei and to explore this body movement with partners and integrate it further into their own practice.

Many thanks to all who attended.

See Tokyo Open Seminar 2017-09-18 for seminar announcement. This post is a report after the seminar, given by Aunkai founder Akuzawa Minoru, in which sensei gave explicit guidance on how to use the kua and chest to control the arms and overall body usage, in an approach intended to be useful for martial artists in competition and sparring.

Impression and Report

Despite the location being on the outskirts of Tokyo, it turned out to be very successful and a pleasurable experience for all participants, who enjoyed the intensive time spent on partner exercises designed to give feedback for one’s own training.

Attendees numbered 14, with about half being members from the Aunkai organization, as well as a few repeat attendees who had experienced Akuzawa sensei’s seminars before. Among the new attendees was a gentleman from Kyushu, and one who had seen sensei’s interview on Youtube, as well as a lady boxing practitioner.

Sensei began the seminar with detailed versions of walking exercises, where one partner pushed on the other’s chest and the pushed person walked backwards without bracing, endeavouring to drop the push down the chest into the kua.
From that exercise, we moved on to walking with both arms extended, elbows straight, hands touching, and attempting to walk without leaning or bracing, using the drop of the chest and the turn of the kua in cooperation.

Since the seminar was 4 hours long, and the day extremely hot after a typhoon the previous day, there were offcial water breaks every hour, and informal ones as the need arose.

The next type of exercise involved one partner standing in wide stance with kua bent, with the other person pushing against the belly in a committed manner, just enough to put the pushed person at the limit of what they could absorb.
The objective from here was to rely on the platform created by kua rotation and chest drop, and use the legs to step and then simply drop, leaving the partner to feel glued or stuck to the belly.

After training pushing against the belly, the push position was changed to the middle of the torso, and then the chest. Feeling oneself on a platform without leaning, having free use of the legs without bracing, and sensing oneself as a unit with the partner attached, was a good introduction to how to deal with an incoming force such as a punch, as sensei demonstrated, handling it at the moment of contact in exactly the same way.

Sensei had participants train two to a staff for a while, to experience moving freely with a solid contact between the two partners. Owing to the heat, this training was done quite lightly, as people concentrated on getting their body to hold the lessons from the previous exercises.

Finally we practiced movement and application against a simple straight punch from the partner, with sensei giving instruction to individuals on how best to adjust their body usage to keep a unit-like sense and avoid using normal strength. This was both relaxing and freeing, a great balance to the constrained exercises.

After the seminar a number of participants joined in for a reserved dinner and chat until late in the evening, gaining even more open discussion with sensei.

Photos