Akuzawa And The Aunkai, a couple thoughts returning from DC seminar Options

[Brady]

So just got home from the Akuzawa Seminar in DC and am happy to say it fulfilled my expectations and I took alot out of it with me.

In the two days we were there, we worked the full progression from foundational single man exercises all the way up to high repetition bag work. The amount of exercises that kicked my ass and showed me glaringly the limitations in my body is outstanding. Plus most of the stuff was easy to understand to the point that it won't be too difficult to achieve good results through steady practice at home.

Akuzawa himself was quite a force and definitely a testament to his system. His student/translator Rob was also ridiculously skilled and moved me easily despite a size disadvantage. This was my first seminar experience and it was good to match some names on this board to faces. If you guys have the chance to head out and see Akuzawa and you like good hard training then its definitely worth it.

[Taoist]

Sounds good is he teaching in Europe?

Martin.

[Interloper]

Now you have to do a lot of training on your own to wire it in, Brady. But you have the foundation blocks. Good start.

[Brady]

Sounds good is he teaching in Europe?

Martin.

Japan is his homebase but he does seminars abroad.

You are right interloper-- alot of the stuff he does (drops down to full crouch with straight spine, etc) is so incredibly not in my body but we'll see what an hour of training this stuff a day will do after a year.

This post has been edited by Brady: Jun 2 2008, 09:03 PM

[wolfram]

So just got home from the Akuzawa Seminar in DC and am happy to say it fulfilled my expectations and I took alot out of it with me.

In the two days we were there, we worked the full progression from foundational single man exercises all the way up to high repetition bag work. The amount of exercises that kicked my ass and showed me glaringly the limitations in my body is outstanding. Plus most of the stuff was easy to understand to the point that it won't be too difficult to achieve good results through steady practice at home.

Akuzawa himself was quite a force and definitely a testament to his system. His student/translator Rob was also ridiculously skilled and moved me easily despite a size disadvantage. This was my first seminar experience and it was good to match some names on this board to faces. If you guys have the chance to head out and see Akuzawa and you like good hard training then its definitely worth it.

You beat me to the punch, Brady. It was certainly nice to meet you, somathai, and the other EFer in DC.

I'll be writing up a more extensive recap and review of the seminar tonight. Love to get your thoughts on what I have to say.

[Aksijaha]

You beat me to the punch, Brady. It was certainly nice to meet you, somathai, and the other EFer in DC.

I'll be writing up a more extensive recap and review of the seminar tonight. Love to get your thoughts on what I have to say.

Wolfram,

If you could.. add it to this thread. The thread will then be moved to the appropriate
space as soon as construction is finished (~2 days).

[wolfram]

All right, so I'm going to do my bits in two posts. This first post will cover the curriculum of the seminar. The other post will be a "review" of the seminar.

Curriculum:

Much of the material covered in the seminar is discussed on the Aunkai website. There wasn't a huge number of things taught, but the training and teaching were very densely packed. We learned (in the areas where I'm unsure of my Japanese or the actual name, I've substituted descriptive English names/explanations and add ""):

1. Shiko - looks like sumo "stamping."
2. Ma bu
3. Ten Chi Jin "Heaven Earth Man" - kind of looks like Hindu squats with "upwards pulling" aspect
4. "Cross Walking" - outwardly resembles (but is different from) a "lazy" version of Wushu kicking drills
5. "Push Out" partner exercises in standing, ma bu, and "taiji stepping"
6. "Cross Body" standing practice - looks like ma bu and "x stance" with extended arms
7. "Body connection punching" pt 1 - partnered version of the classic "spear thrust"
8. "Body connection punching" pt 2 - strikes with full body connection while hitting a target
9. "Body connection kicking" - see item 8
10. "Kneeling raise" - looks like Aikido kneeling waza practice, where one student holds the other student's hands down while the other student trains to raise them.

Now that I'm listing them, there was a fair amount of material taught in two days.

All exercises/drills were done "internally." No overt force, "muscling" through stuff was strictly verboten.

Corrections/translations are very welcome. I may have omitted a thing or two because my notes are at home, but this is what I recall.

This post has been edited by wolfram: Jun 3 2008, 05:18 PM

[wolfram]

My review of the Aunkai seminar and material presented:

1. Akuzawa - very nice guy. Akuzawa is a small, athletic Japanese man, and doesn't speak a lot of English. Did not "present" the majority of the material himself, but was very active in explanations and individual corrections. Akuzawa walked amongst us, making adjustments and corrections and doing demos to emphasize his points. I can imagine him being a great one-on-one teacher. Presents Aunkai as a collection of tools for "self-research."

2. Akuzawa's staff/students - Rob, one of the Tokyo class, was Akuzawa's main translator and also the main presentor. Rob's presentations and explanations were very clear. Never hesitated to answer a question, and never hesitated to present a question to Akuzawa himself when unsure of the answer. Of the staff, clearly the most advanced student. I watched him roll a little with a couple of guys, including an Army Combatives instructor. He did some very interesting things on the ground.

In addition, there were a few guys from the US who had done Akuzawa's first seminar and have been closely corresponding with him and each other online. I know that Hunter Lonsberry, the host, has been out to the Aunkai HQ a few times for extended training, but am unsure of the other guys. All of them presented various degrees of proficiency in the material presented, and all of them were at least "pretty good."

Akuzawa also brought along his student and webmaster (and perhaps gf or wife, didn't ask), Nori, who also did some presenting of material.

3. "Business side" of the seminar - not much of one. Waivers were signed and given to Hunter. Akuzawa had T-shirts and "review" DVD's for sale. I picked up both, since my own video camera died before the seminar started and I liked the t-shirt design. No big "push" to buy anything. Cost was $180 to me with pre-reg, $108 for full-time students. We went a full 7 hours both days.

4. My two-day impression of the material - Akuzawa's training in CIMA is very apparent and clear. If I had to make references, I would describe Aunkai as "Systema if invented by a Chen TJQ adept." While incomplete, this description works for IMA students to think about the methods presented. Theory-wise, Aunkai is all classical CIMA that I can see (although there may be some Daito-ryu and other more "internal" JMA influence as well). Akuzawa talks a great deal about spinal alignment and its foundation to feeling the ground connection. He also talks a great deal about axial rotations and conditioning the body. Movement in the Aunkai method is designed to help improve your root, create a "frame" from which to move and act, maximize the potential of your movement, and eliminate waste from any movement. Power and movement are all generated from a properly aligned spine. The material also helps stretch and condition the internal body.

5. Impressions of execution of Aunkai from demos - I really like my description of "Systema created by a Chen TJQ adept." Akuzawa's movements are very solid and rooted but flow with the adaptive energy I associate with Systema, although there is no "snakiness" or "weaving" (which Akuzawa interprets as wasteful). It's very apparent that he can and will hit you with any part of his body (possibly multiple parts simultaneously). His body connections are apparent. When he hits, it's with the rooted power that I associate with Chen Xiaowang's form demos - his root looks as solid as a rock. No apparent effort in any movement or demo, even when he was carrying around 240-pound guys on his back.

6. Attendess/Atmosphere - most of the attendees were Aikidoka, although I met a Silat/Shuaijiao guy, and somathai and Brady are Yin Fu BGZ. They came from all over the US, a good number of them flying out from the West Coast. The atmosphere was relaxed, respectful, and encouraging - no confrontational bullshit, no challenges being issued, testing one another definitely encouraged and allowed within agreed-upon parameters.

7. Would I recommend going to an Aunkai seminar? Yes. While CIMA people may not learn anything new from a theory perspective, the foundational exercises are great for spotting weaknesses in one's own practice. After doing the seminar, I found that my alignment and root awareness during circle walking has increased significantly. Push-out is very good as a pre-cursor to push-hands; in fact, I think that my partnered sensitivity training from other systems would have been better served by first doing Aunkai's push-out. In my opinion, the fundamental Aunkai exercises Akuzawa teaches are very useful for any CIMA (or any MA period). In fact, they seem to be largely be distilled from CIMA methods to begin with; Akuzawa's TJQ and XYQ training were both very apparent to me.

Non-CIMA people will probably benefit the most from the fundamental material. Most of the seminar attendees were Aikidoka, and most had never had "structure" training or theory explained to them. It seems to me that the good Aikidoka are the ones that can eventually intuit the structural training/theory that CIMA guys get from Day 1 (at least, that's what I was being told by the Aikidoka there).

8. Would I recommend going to more than one Aunkai seminar? Depends, as usual, on what the attendee's goals are. I would certainly go to at least one more, to pick up a few more exercises and to pick Akuzawa's brain.

9. My impression of Aunkai - I certainly think that Akuzawa has been able to create a very efficient way of developing internal fighting skills that can be passed on effectively. Some of his theory reminds me of Wang Xiangzhai's writings on Yiquan. Akuzawa and Rob's skills were definitely well-developed (of course, Akuzawa being far more formidable). The pedagogical process of Aunkai is clear, with multiple layers of depth and meaning that can be mined with reasonable clarity in a reasonable timeframe. It seems to me that training in Aunkai prior to any other IMA would give any CIMA "beginner" a definite edge over his peers. It also seems to me that training in Aunkai for any period of time would accelerate any CIMA student's progress. Furthermore, I believe that one could just do Aunkai on its own, provided that a good teacher is available (Akuzawa and Rob were definitely both good instructors).

[Iskendar]

Sounds good is he teaching in Europe?

Martin.

He has done a European seminar tour last year: Nunspeet (Netherlands), Brussels and Paris.

[macbutch]

Question for those of you who have been to an Aunkai seminar - would you say theres a minimum level of skill required before it's worth attending one of these workshops? I've a couple of years experience in IMA but I'm not particularly skilled at all so it seems like it could just be beyond me - that said I'm keen to soak up anything I can...

Any thoughts? I kind of get the opinion that you guys writing up your experiences are vastly more experienced than me...

[wolfram]

Question for those of you who have been to an Aunkai seminar - would you say theres a minimum level of skill required before it's worth attending one of these workshops? I've a couple of years experience in IMA but I'm not particularly skilled at all so it seems like it could just be beyond me - that said I'm keen to soak up anything I can...

Any thoughts? I kind of get the opinion that you guys writing up your experiences are vastly more experienced than me...

Quick background on me: 28 years CMA, 12 years IMA

I've studied with some real-deal cats, met a few more, also met a few con men or people who didn't know what they were doing.

That said, I think that the ideal student for an Aunkai seminar is someone with some MA experience but not necessarily IMA experience. Aukuzawa will show you things that will help to build a great IMA fighting body. I didn't learn anything "new," in my two days with him - but I did learn some new ways to approach developing skills that I've been working on for a while. The majority of attendees at the DC seminar this year were Aikidoka who were looking to put some "teeth" into their training.

So if you have a few years IMA experience, then an Aunkai seminar is definitely worth it, IMO. If you've had a lot of IMA training, then you may not get so much out of it. If you have a lot of IMA training and are interested in teaching IMA, then I would really suggest looking up Aunkai.