In conjunction with the Chinese New Year events, we were invited to hold a demo at the Spring. Many thanks to the Spring and Ronald who gave us this opportunity to perform.
More importantly, many thanks to everyone who trained so hard to participate in this demo and especially Sensei Jong who on short notice agreed to participate in the demo as well.
We’ll be putting some pictures later but for now here’s a video! Sensei Desmond’s tanto and kick session, Lovelyn’s entire session, bits of Eileen’s demo and most of my demo with Matthew was unfortunately missed out because my camera was running out of battery but we will have Jong’s video incorporated into the video as soon as I get his copy! So sorry Lovelyn and Matthew! Also Eileen as only managed to catch a few!
Well done everyone! We’ll do more demos in the future and hopefully with a working camera this time!
On the 10 October 2009, Swinburne Aikido Club organized an Aikido for Women Self Defence seminar which emphasized on practical applications of Aikido.
The kinds of attacks women face are quite different in that it tends to be more based on holds and grabs rather than striking. Furthermore, women being generally weaker than their male counterparts cannot hope to rely on strength alone. Aikido provides an ideal platform for gaining skills in defending against a stronger opponent through the use of an opponent’s strength, leverage and balance.
Sensei Desmond started off the seminar, elaborating on how self defense is grounded in being quick and efficient. He demonstrated several techniques from hand grabs and made it clear that the point of self defense is to disable your attacker so that you have enough time to get away. Just getting rid of a grip may not be sufficient if the attacker can still pursue you and showed several finishing moves to end the conflict before attempting escape.
Jack then further elaborated on this while stressing the importance of awareness which encompasses not just being aware of your surroundings but also on He also warned against trying to defend yourself against armed assailants if your life is not in danger. Heroics has no place in self defense and if giving your belongings safeguards your safety, then that should be done. He demonstrated several quick and easy techniques from hand holds and the utilization of circular hand movements to release grips.
Rear attacks were then covered by Reuben who showed a technique to regain balance when being lifted off the ground and how to appropriately ground yourself when being grabbed from behind. He talked briefly about how criminals pick their targets by observing their body gestures and stressed the importance of appearing confident and actively showing awareness of your surroundings.
At the end of the day, perhaps the two most important things to be gained from the seminar were the emphasis of awareness of your surroundings and the need for consistent training in martial arts to be able to remain calm when being faced with a self defense situation. With awareness, you can avoid dangerous situations and with calmness of mind, can you properly formulate a plan of escape.
Many thanks to Fabian and Eileen for their tireless efforts in promoting this event, the Yudansha who imparted their wisdom, the Aikido students who came to support us and also the participants who made time from their busy schedules to attend the seminar. Hope to see all of you soon!
I have imported all posts from our previous blog and have FINALLY moved to the new site.
Please note that there will be a dinner for Aikido members held at a house in Bampfylde this Saturday. It would be pot-luck style but there will be a BBQ going on as well! Please confirm your attendance with Fabian so that we have an idea of how many people are coming!
Venue: Reuben’s house in Bampfylde
Time: 5.30PM-9.00PM (flexible end time) 26 September 2009, Saturday
Dress Code: Casual though if you really want to you can come with your gi ;P
Food Arrangements: Pot-luck (try to coordinate with each other as to what you are bringing!) with BBQ
Getting There: See the map below. Drive to Bampfylde Road. The road is an unmarked road going downhill right next to Bampfylde Heights with vacant lots on each side. You will see a ‘For Sale’ sign on one of the lots. Go straight down and you will see a house in white with blue edgings. You can park at that house. The bbq itself is further in at the house at the back at the end of the private road.
This is to announce that all candidates who took the upgrading test on 4th September 2009 have passed and may hold their respective ranks with immediate effect. See below for names and new rank.
1. Jonathan Sim – (3rd Kyu) 2. Dixon Lai – (4th Kyu) 3. Law Huong Ling – (5th Kyu) 4. Gan Ger Yuan – (5th Kyu) 5. Gan Ling Lim – (5th Kyu)
Congratulation to all and please practice harder. Please bear in mind that rank or belt is not the primary goal for genuine martial artist, what all Seishinkan members should have in mind is to upgrade and hone ourselves with the knowledge through diligent training.
During daily training, I strongly advise all members to take every class seriously and not to disturb the atmosphere with unnecessary annoyance. Please maintain the discipline but at the same time practice joyfully.
I also would like to call all members to help to maintain the cleanliness of the Dojo. The Dojo is for all and we need to keep it clean. Please do not leave your empty bottles, tissues etc unattended, the rubbish bin is there…feel free to collect and throw the rubbish to the proper place.
Lastly, here are the photos taken during the upgrading.
This is to confirm that the upgrading test will be held on 4th September 2009 (Friday). Please see the list for those who are eligible to go for the test.
Name
1. Jonathan Sim (3rd Kyu) 2. Dixon Lai (4th Kyu) 3. Law Huong Ling (5th Kyu) 4. Gan Ger Yuan (5th Kyu) 5. Gan Ling Lim (5th Kyu)
Kindly get the upgrading form from me on Wednesday and submit it on Friday together with the exam fee of RM25 each.
It is festive season again, so Monday class (1st June 2009) will be canceled. I will be away for the whole week, but classes on Wednesday and Friday remain as usual.
On behalf of the Chief Instructor, and all the instructors of Seishinkan Dojo, I wish all members HAPPY GAWAI DAYAK 2009, take care and come back safely. Don’t get yourself palau too much.
Last but not least again, SELAMAT HARI GAWAI DAYAK, GAYU GURU GERAI NYAMAI, ooooohaaaaa!!!!!!
This is to announce that 23rd May 2009, a group of Aikido students from ICATS College will visit our dojo and we will have a join training with them. Practice hour is from 1pm to 3pm.
