Summer School 2013 - Ukemi for Horii Sensei

Horii Sensei is a 7th dan Shihan from Honbu dojo and led the 2013 Summer school.
He is the most senior teaching I have ever taken Ukemi for.

In Summer School the teachers will in general, mostly use hakamas to demonstrate to the class. The previous I had entered with entirely the wrong mind-set and had been more focused on locating senior teachers than actually paying attention to the demonstration, which as I have mentioned was a big mistake.  So this year I was quite keen to get as close to the demonstrations as possible so that I could absorb as much knowledge as possible. I think as a result, for the first day or two, I was sitting noticeably nearer the demonstrations than the other juniors who seemed to move in closer as the week went on.
Now I did not want to take Ukemi for Horii sensei in front of the whole summer school because I knew I would somehow bugger it up. But the more you sit in the front row of students the more your chance of getting picked for Ukemi increases. And I think I may have come across in the first two days as being a keen bean who was determined to be used for Ukemi. Nothing could have been further from the truth. But of course it happened.

You know how every teacher has their own way of signalling to a person to come up for Ukemi, or to sit down again, or that they want to perform the technique from a different angle so that the class can see some subtle thing. It can be a bit confusing at first when a teacher makes these signals in a way you are not used to.

So when Horii sensei signalled to me for Ukemi I was up in an instant, presenting the image of a calm student who was ready for this. I was of course absolutely terrified.
I took Ukemi acceptably well twice. But I was trying so hard to spot any kind of subtle signal, so as to be perfectly on the ball, that I completely imagined a signal for me to sit down.

A signal so subtle that only I saw it, and Horii Sensei didn't even make it.

I knelt down and bowed to Horii Sensei who just stood there and looked at me confused. I then took Ukemi twice more, feeling like a prat. To be honest it wasn't that bad, I had taken Ukemi acceptably well which was the main thing. But damn it I was so close.

You know the feeling, when your training and you get so close to getting it right. So close to doing some vaguely impressive. And then you mess it up at the last hurdle.

Well anyway I'm very honoured to say he then used me for Ukemi a second time that day. I think by this stage I was the only none hakama that he had used for Ukemi and he used me twice! I felt like bloody royalty. But with that came a scarier thought. What if seniors who didn't know me had noted this occurrence? What if they thought I was good at aikido? This was not going to work in my favour.

Luckily this didn't seem to happen. However the juniors did seem to have noted this and were far more insistent to be the first to take ukemi first when training with me. They eventually realised that they were wrong to think I had any level of skill but it was amusing that there was a noticeable change in the way the juniors treated me for a while.


Nearing the end of the week there was a lesson in which Horii Sensei was taking a lesson just for the juniors. By this point most of the juniors had taken Ukemi for Horii Sensei at least once. But what was special now was that we were doing Nikkyo.

And we all know how I feel about Nikkyo.

Every demonstration I sat as near as I could, mentally screaming at him to take me for Ukemi. I had to be Nikkyo'd by Horii Sensei. If I missed this chance I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I think my attempts at looking fired up actually worked.

He took me for Ukemi and Nikkyo'd me. Oh sweet bliss and glory. My wrists had been touched by a God. I wanted the Nikkyo's to go on forever. But alas, like all good things, that too did eventually have to come to an end.

Summer School 2013 - washing Gi's

So, my first full summer school. Although I'm yet to know for sure I imagine every summer school is quite an experience regardless of how many times you go.

Having learnt my lesson from my mini summer school adventure the year before I entered into this one with much more restraint.
I recommend summer school to everyone, it's brilliant, but it is damn hard. It is both physically and mentally challenging and I noticed this year that even the senior students approach it with care because it is just as challenging for them.

Generally members of EMK all stay in the same flat and a chore rota is put together. Everyone should in theory have one job to do each day, such as cooking dinner or preparing lunch. And generally people do different tasks each day. I signed myself up to wash and dry the all the Gi's. Everyday. Woops.
Despite Tom and Tim asking me if I wanted to reconsider, genuinely giving me a way out because I wasn't to know, I decided that since I had signed myself up for it I would therefore do it. Woops.
We were doing the washing for two shihans and several shidoin and their Gi's needed to be cleaned and returned to them bone-dry every day.
When you have to get up every morning for either Zazen or Batto-Ho, you don't want to be up until 1 am waiting for the Gi's to finish their third cycle through the tumble dryers.

You see there are lots of other things to do in the evening as well so sometimes you may not get to start washing the Gi's until way after classes have finished.

If it wasn't for Tim having the foresight to bring a very interesting piece of kit that I believe is called the "Dry Buddi" then some nights I wouldn't have even been in bed by one.

To be honest most of EMK stayed up until the Gi's were dry anyway. Each night Sensei's Gi had to be checked by Tom Tam. There was something rather enjoyable about presenting Sensei's Gi to Tom and watching as he performed the official Tom Tam bone-dry test (patented of course) and waiting to receive his stamp of approval. I also finally learnt how to fold a Gi properly, that's right, there's a proper way.

Not much more to say on this. I hope you enjoyed reading.