Ryushin Shouchi Ryu seminar!!

A couple of days ago, I went to the open seminar day that New York Budokai hosted. The guest teacher was Yahagi Kunikazu sensei. It was a great time and it felt great to be just a student again. One of the best parts was the fact that all the things I correct people on, I ended up doing it too in the seminar haha. Anyways, some thoughts from the seminar......

The great part about learning a different style is that you'll always get a nice reminder of what you should do, from a different source. Even as a teacher, you teach the same things over and over again, and you forget about it. What I mean by forget is that you know it, but you forget about it because it becomes just a habit. Something you do naturally so it becomes something you don't think about. This is why I enjoy taking seminars from other styles. To feel like a student again, you're reminded of a lot of things! 

Ryushin Shouchi Ryu is quite interesting to me because most of the techniques are one handed. Also, the foot work is quite different from most styles you see. The way they cut, most of the time is to drop the hips real low with the cut. The targeting is the same but the method is a bit different. Makes me want to try it in cutting class! 

What was really fun for me though, was the fact that I don't know any of the katas, and they weren't taught really step by step. More so, I just followed people along the best that I could and just "pretend" I know the katas. That was a great practice of trying to memorize through your actions on the fly! The standing techniques weren't difficult to memorize (doesn't mean I did it correctly), however the seiza techniques were different. Mainly because I haven't done techniques from seiza in quite awhile and my knees were killing me at first. At least I had knee pads this time! 

Overall, it was a great time! Yahagi sensei is quite a strong teacher. I say this because he doesn't have to express what he's trying to teach in words all the time, he can express something by actions alone. That's always a reminder of how a well teacher can teach. Maybe I will pretend to not speak English haha.