March 26-27, 2022
Online and In Person
On Behalf of CHET VALLEY AIKIDO
Saturday 9-12 AM – 1-4 PM / Sunday 9-12 AM – UK Time
Join us for this Fundraising Seminar on March 26-27. Everyone is welcome: all styles, all affiliations, all levels of experience. This seminar will be held both online via Zoom, and in person at Claxton Village Hall, Norfolk UK. All the training will be designed to suit solo home training, but will include interactive elements for those joining as a dojo or with a training partner at home.
The schedule for the event is (UK Time):
Saturday 9:00-12:00 AM – Opening and First Class
Saturday 1:00-4:00 PM – Second Class
Sunday 9:00-12:00 AM – Third Class and Closing
Participation for the Seminar is on a voluntary DONATION basis, with all procedes going directly to Chet Valley Aikido. Please register via the link and you can make a contribution using the “Donate” button below. Also, we will not exclude anyone based on financial considerations, so please feel free to join us.
For Online attendees, the link and login information will be sent out 48 hours prior to the event. If you will be attending in person, please make a note on registration form.
Bring your weapons!
Learn more about Chet Valley Aikido and their fundraising efforts below:
Chet Valley Aikido, a new Aikido club in Norfolk, UK. Based in Claxton Village Hall. Training Mondays 9am-11am.
How to donate:
If you are moved to make a contribution to help support Chet Valley Aikido, please use the below link to the gofundme page, thank you!
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Instructors for the Seminar:
Michael Ormerod, 3rd Dan AIKIKAI
Michael Ormerod began his training in Aikido at the age of 15 in the UK. He has trained extensively throughout Europe and under taken an intensive training period in Japan under the guidance of Hiroki Nemoto Sensei (7th Dan) and training in the Founder’s Dojo and Hombu Dojo. In 2016 he began a full time apprenticeship under his teacher Lewis Bernaldo de Quiros (6th Dan), training and teaching in the Takemusu Aikido Motril Dojo and attending international seminars as assistant. In 2019 Michael received the rank of Sandan (3rd Dan) from the Aikikai in Japan, Tokyo. Early 2020 saw the creation of the Takemusu Aikido Online Dojo, as a response to the Covid Pandemic – giving people the opportunity to continue their daily practice and the comfort of knowing that Aikido is just a click away under any circumstances.
Adrian Punt, 2nd Dan AIKIKAI
Adrian (2nd Dan Aikikai) is an instructor at West Cumbria Aikido.
Adrian started aikido in 1994 under the direction of Geoff Flather Sensei of Banyu Hatten Aikido (BHA) and was awarded his shodan in January 1999. Later that year he moved to West Cumbria and established the first aikido club in St Bees where he taught for a number of years.
Adrian has been a member of Traditional Aikido Europe (TAE) since October 2018. He trains extensively with the TAE clubs in Lancaster and Wolverhampton (takemusu style), with which he has very close ties. He attends numerous TAE weekend seminars and summer schools with Lewis Bernaldo de Quirós, 6th Dan Aikikai (Lewis trained full-time under the late Morihiro Saito Sensei from 1986 until 1993 in the Iwama Dojo in Japan). He also attends daily asageiko (morning training) with Michael via the Takemusu Aikido Online Dojo. In July 2020, at summer camp in Swizerland, Adrian successfully tested under Lewis for his Aikikai shodan and then in Motril in Spain for his nidan in October 2021.
ABOUT CHET VALLEY AIKIDO:
Chet Valley Aikido was the brainchild of Sarina Abdul- Rani (4th kyu).
Sarina’s first Aikido class was in Darwin, Australia, about 20+ years ago. After many starts/stops and changes in life situation, she started training again about 16 years ago in Norwich, UK, with the late Sensei John Tidder and Sensei Alan Prescott. She paused after a couple of years when she realised that life was about to change with a baby on the way. Just a few weeks before the UK went into a full lockdown in early 2019, Sarina managed to train for about 6 weeks with Sensei Frank Burlingham and Sensei Vince Price (Broadland Aikido Club).
After many weeks with the online classes organised by TAE and subsequently being mad enough to do most of Michael’s Online daily classes through the pandemic (which was more interesting that home schooling her children!), Sarina was invited by Brendon Buchanan to join his Kou Ki Do Kan Club. Fast forward to summer 2021, the idea of a TAE-style club based in Sarina’s Norfolk patch was born and after two successful online seminars in her local village halls with Michael and Adrian teaching, Chet Valley Aikido became a reality.
Footnote: the baby that paused Sarina’s training in 2007 is now a non-grumpy 14 year old teenager Isabella, who is enjoying her regular private Aikido online classes with Michael.
FUNDRAISING:
We have developed a good working relationship with Claxton Village Hall, Claxton, Norfolk, where we have our regular Monday classes from 9am-11am. Our 9 mats were kindly loaned to us for the last 4 months from another community centre, Brian Clark Room, Chedgrave, Norwich. As a club we had managed to secure £300 funding from Go For It (local council) specifically to purchase mats.
In mid-January, through a series of very fortunate events, we were incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to purchase 100 second hand mats at £1,200 from Sampson Sampson, 8th Dan, and Bob Bushness, 6th Dan, of the Sobell Judo Club in London.
We needed £900 more to commit to the mats and here Chet Valley Aikido would like to thank Nick Larkin, Roy Murray and Adrian (on behalf of West Cumbria) for putting up and lending Chet Valley Aikido the £900 collectively that meant that we were able to purchase these mats without delay.
We hope this fundraising seminar will help to cover some of the cost for the mats, but also for everyone to have an enjoyable time as this will be the first time that Michael will be instructing with the Takemusu Aikido Online Dojo and Chet Valley Aikido .
SEMINAR THEME:
SHOSHIN (Beginner’s Mind)
“It is understood that Budo begins with Shoshin and ends with Shoshin.”
T.K. Chiba Shihan
Shoshin (初心) is a concept in Zen Buddhism meaning “beginner’s mind”. The kanji was chosen by Sarina to represent Chet Valley Aikido, hand drawn by fellow aikidoka Naoko Ueda. It refers to maintaining an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, especially when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. To quote zen master Shunryo Suzuki, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” To approach our training every time as a unique experience, as if with fresh eyes, is a way to bring us back into an active learning mindset rather than one of passive performance.
Socrate’s statement that, “I Know That I Know Nothing”, is a reminder that any attempt to gain a deeper understanding is rooted in a primary experience of ‘not-knowing’. To hold this paradox in the mind as we train again and again familiar techniques, our practice can become one of constantly returning to the demands of the encounter at hand, and meet it fully for the first (and only) time.
The Seminar will explore the idea of Shoshin as we weave in and out of the Takemusu Aikido Bukiwaza and Taijutsu systems (both solo and partered), and explore the levels of Kihon to Ki no nagare.
…ruthlessly tear your practice down to the basics and understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. What are you really doing on the mat? What are you really trying to learn with all those endless falls and ikkyo’s? Don’t take anything for granted and don’t be fooled by grades or levels of attainment. Martial arts practice is a practice of consciousness. Of waking up to being present and responsive to the demands of the moment beyond the personal agenda of the person. To my mind then it can have meaning not only on the mat but beyond and not only as a martial art but as a way of life.
Lewis Bernaldo de Quiros, 6th Dan Aikikai – direct student of Morihiro Saito Sensei
Register NOW to secure your place, and if you are moved to make a contribution to help support Chet Valley Aikido, please use the below link to the gofundme page, thank you!
TAKEMUSU AIKIDO ONLINE DOJO 