The 2014 BAA Summer School (North) was again held at St Mary’s School, Ilkley. This year the instructors were Konaka San (JAA 6th Dan), Bob Jones (7th Dan), V. Fairchild (5th Dan) and Toni Davies (BAB).
Konaka San taught Randori-no-kata focusing on practice for Randori. He showed how he looks to pin the uke’s weight to a point just in front of their foot and uses this pinned weight to perform the technique.
Bob Jones taught the common aspects between Judo and Aikido, and how in Hikitategeiko it is about creating combinations, counters with counters to counters. Although during his training session two minutes were allowed to devise the counters and counters to counters, in normal Hikitategeiko practice an Aikidoka only has seconds to decide on which counter to try.
Toni Davies taught techniques using a Jo and Bokken.
V. Fairchild taught principles of Hikitategeiko, and how techniques from grasps can be used to explore effective balance breaks for Hikitategeiko.
A big thank you to the BAA for organizing the Aikido School and for Yuki, Keiko Konaka and Junji Konaka coming over from Japan to teach.