Thanks for Another Good Year

Had a bit of a get together last Saturday night before our final class for 2019 on 22 December. Looking forward to 2020 with classes resuming on 2 January.

Final Juniors Class for 2019

Had the last juniors class for 2019 on 17 December and presented grading certificates to Lucian Van Staden (7kyu) and Ayaonshin Kitayama (10kyu) for tests conducted on 3 December.

Congratulations boys!

QKR December Seminar

There was hot weather and hard training at the QKR Seminar held at Chandler on 8/9 December. Congratulatons to Baysiders successful in their grading tests: Andrew Dahms and Duong Thai iaido 2kyu, Duong Thai jodo 2kyu and Louise jodo 3kyu.

End of Year Schedule

We are fast approaching the end of the year and a few changes to the schedule. There will be no training from Sun 8 December to Sun 15 December inclusive. Classes the following week will be as normal.

We will go out together (details TBA) on Saturday evening 21 December before the final class on Sun 22 December. Training will resume on Thurs 2 January 2020.

David Brown Sensei October 2019

We were privileged to have David Brown Sensei visit the Bayside and take classes on Tuesday 15, Thursday 17, and Sunday 20 October 2019.

It was great to be able to see him again and also welcome DB fans from all over the place to join us.

I think you could say that if aikido was Rock n Roll, then Dave Brown would be Keith Richards. He’s now 72, and over the years we followed him through chronic arthritis, a hip replacement, heart surgery and more recently cancer treatment, but luckily he is still with us and challenging the status quo (Rock n Roll reference unintended). It is fair to say that Dave’s approach can be polarising, he certainly doesn’t hold back on expressing his take on the way that aikido is commonly practised and pursuing the concept that aikido must be a budo.

I’d like to be able to give a run down of precisely what we covered over the three sessions, but if you’ve experienced Dave’s classes you’d know that is not possible. Be that as it may, he concentrated on a few themes.

Correct posture.

Correct distance.

There are no techniques in the sense that you apply particular responses to attacks.

The shape of every technique exists in each technique.

Hopefully, we’ll get DB back before too long. When we do, make sure that you get along.

Full House

In spite of the long weekend and being NRL Grand Final Day, we managed to get a pretty full house on the Bayside this morning. Notables included former Raiders star recruit Rob Fleischer flying the flag for the Green Machine and Mick Nash, freshly back from his European IP Tour. Turned out to be a good day to run Louise through her 5 kyu test. Congratulations and well done to Louise.

David Brown Sensei Visit

Happy to announce that we will be hosting a visit from David Brown Sensei next month. Sensei will be taking classes on the Bayside on Tuesday 15 and Thursday 17 October. Time 6.30 – 8.00pm.

Please note that the regular iaido class will be cancelled on the Tuesday night.

Mama San Article

The Articles Page has been updated with a piece on Mama San. Please check it out here.

Congratulations to Rabbit and Lou

Presented Omkara Wrightson Junior 7 Kyu and Lucian Van Staden Junior 8 Kyu with their certificates last night for tests conducted on 25 June. Well done!

Actually, there are a few spaces in the junior aikido class at the moment, so it is a great time to get started. Tuesdays at 5.30pm.

July QKR Seminar

Just had a big weekend on the Goldy at the July QKR Seminar which attracted a really pleasing turnout for iaido and jodo. A lot of really hard work by everyone who attended the seminar and attempted grading tests. By my calculation there were 16 people doing iaido tests and a further 9 candidates for jodo kyu grades. For Bayside Budokai members, congratulations to Narada Wrightson 2 Dan iaido, Ka Lun Leung 2 Kyu jodo, Duong Thai 3 Kyu iaido and 3 Kyu jodo, Andrew Dahms 3 Kyu iaido and 4 Kyu jodo, Louise 3 Kyu iaido and 4 Kyu jodo. Thanks to Tom Johnson and the QKR Executive for organising another great event.

Junior Gradings

Put Lucian Van Staden and Omkara Wrightson through their paces on 25 June. Great effort!

Aikido Dan Certificates

Great to be able to present the boys with their Grading Certificates last Thursday night. Congratulations once again to Col, Rob and Gotaro.

IJSC 2019

Just had a great couple of days in Hobart for the jodo component of the AKR Iaido Jodo Seminar.

Fantastic level of instruction with the delegation led by Shiiya Sensei. Here’s a shot of the group and also one of Shiiya and Tsubaki Sensei in action.

A New Year and Another Certificate for Dreamy

One of the first items on the agenda for 2019 was to present Ka Lun Leung with his iaido 2 Dan certificate from his grading last month. Here’s another photo for the album from last Friday night.

Welcome to 2019

Classes are now back in full swing so Happy New Year everyone. There are a couple of events coming up which will impact on our schedule. Firstly, the Iaido/Jodo Seminar at the end of the month means that there will be no training on Friday 25 or Sunday 27 January. Then on the aikido front, Bill Gleason will be visiting Australia in early February meaning that classes will also be cancelled on Friday 8 and Sunday 10 February.