Summer seminar | Students' assays: Part II

Summer seminar
by Keri Simpson

There’s an energy, at a seminar that is unlike anything one experiences, during a normal aikido class. The seminar in question doesn’t have to be big. The Berkeley summer seminar is different, however. I don’t know if it’s the energy of the space itself, or the instructors, or of the people in attendance… Actually, I’m pretty sure that it’s a combination of all three.

Going to the Berkeley seminar – even just to watch – is like being put through a distillery. Over the course of two or three (sometimes even four) days, excess stuff is boiled off, leaving one with a more refined practice. Maybe one doesn’t notice it, at first… Maybe one never notices. After all, how many times can one take bad shihonage ukemi, until one finally figures out what’s not working? And, of course, what works with one particular Nage is almost useless with another. But I digress…

There is something about the Berkeley seminar that encourages one to push oneself harder than one thought possible. Whether it’s attempting to get on the mat, after a serious knee injury or forcing oneself to remain in seiza for the majority of just. one. more. class, when one isn’t sure said knee can handle it, two years later.

But one can and is pushed, from sitting on the sidelines watching, to two full days on the mat, to three full days, to wishing for an extra two or three days. After all, who needs caffeine, when the first hour of class, in the morning is enough to wake you up? The energy of the Berkeley summer seminar is potent and very addictive. It makes one want to stay on the mat for as long as one can, for fear of missing out on something, whether it’s the remote possibility that Shibata sensei will take you for ukemi or the theory that maybe this time, I might actually understand what Kurita sensei is saying; to all the little moments in between.

In the end, there are no specifics that I can point to and say “I left this behind, at the seminar”. Nor is there one thing I can say that I took away, other than the opportunity to be immersed in that energy for one more year, for I am still processing all that I learned at the seminar, along with all I continue to learn, in my practice. And, Universe willing, I will revisit that distillery many more times, in the future.