Some time ago we wrote a post: Carrot and stick: kumi jo and fourtwelve steps kata. Summarizing, in that post we wrote that what may appear from the outside when looking at jo exercises, especially in relation to the various forms – kata, may sound messy. From the inside it often has the flavor of […]
Can intuition be trained? Can the rationality -that gives structure to technical training- support intuition, which is not rational and logical? In Japanese, intuition is chokkan and is represented by two kanji that have many things in common with practitioners of Martial Arts, especially Aikido: 直感. The first is choku, 直, which means direct, immediate. […]
Ten centuries after the descent of the Normans into Sicily, today a horde of sleepy Turin people gathered at Turin Caselle airport to take the first flight to Palermo. We’re heading to Aikido FIJLKAM National Seminar. An itinerant formula which, after a couple of editions hosted in Piedmont, moves to the Pearl of the Mediterranean. […]
On July 31st, 2023 we had the chance to train at the Hombu Dojo, in Tokyo, during our trip in Japan. Among others experienced during those week, the emotions we felt and lived changed a lot our perspective on things, especially about the discipline we practice. We dayly posted a short post about what we’ve […]
Doing well. Doing wrong. A world opens up right behind and inside the words. A world made of attitudes, actions, beliefs. A world made of enormous chances and equally enormous misunderstandings. In the world of Martial Arts, as well as in the larger world of human activity, we all witness two extreme realities. On the […]
A quote attributed to Morihei Ueshiba has always triggered my mind. That one in which he says that in order to practice Aikido, you’ll need the same strength that is needed to hold an apple. A few days ago I had the chance to meet on the mat a dear friend who has been practicing […]
Can we be dissatisfied and happy at the same time? Dissatisfaction is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it offers an incentive to achieve goals. On the other hand, it can become a regressive spiral. An invisible network that increasingly tangles personal initiative. A crushing burden. The experience of dissatisfaction is common to everyone. […]
Losing. Nobody likes to lose. But what does losing mean? Like almost everyone else, we give a meaning to a concept that derives from the situations we experience. You lose a wallet. An earring on a beach. A relationship. A job. Your confidence. A competition. A bet. Sometimes you lose weight…And so on The concept […]
Have you ever picked up your smartphone to check for messages and updates even if you hadn’t received any notification with its sound? Have you ever opened your messaging apps to check if your message has been read? Finding yourself in the office, at home, in the car, traveling, on holidays, scrolling your finger for […]
This year we had again the privilege of participating in an Aikido seminar led by Miles Kessler Sensei, in the splendid environment of the Aiki no Kokoro in Boves (Cuneo, Italy). A total experience, from every point of view. It was also the first time in all these years that a training session was dedicated […]
