Summer school Třešť 2012
Aikido summer school Třešť, 2012
It is for the second time that I was given the honor to write a small article about our aikido summer school. It was also my second summer school with those people and I must admit that it was as great as last year, if not better. Even though I took some school stuff with me, it remained successfully packed and never saw the light of a day. We were continuously practicing basic aspects of every aikido technique – firm show of direction, movement originating from the center, firm and straight posture, relaxed movement, contact with the partner and perception of the partner’s intention. Every day we focused on something different, but nevertheless firmly connected with what we did the day before in order to connect everything together and see the connection and similarities in all aikido techniques.
I must emphasize that apart from last year the training wasn’t as physically challenging as before, which was partially due to Anka’s absence of her special movement classes and their replacement by Martin’s relaxing stretching and massages. Also Jarda couldn’t complain about the lack of massaging girls anymore, so he must have enjoyed that too ;). All of us have duly voluntarily entered the “morning chakra breathing”, soon renamed to “Good morning, Ramadan”, in short, Ramadan. It´s not that it wasn’t interesting, but the early morning hour was the biggest block of our following attendance.
This year our card games (apart from last year, where very simple card games dominated) became more sophisticated and included some other games, such as Monopoly Deal and aikido inspired Yojimbo. Nevertheless the main fun of every evening was the game Jungle speed (aimed at quick perception). Broken nails, scratched hands, bruised fingers and wrists – nothing could prevent us in our effort to catch the brown totem in the middle of the table.
Fresh reinforcements, part of them even from across the Atlantic, arrived on Wednesday. Next day we had a relaxing day and we went together to a nearby lake (actually, not really a lake, but a flooded quarry) to visit our “totally safe” swing. A few bruises and scratches couldn’t kill us, of course. Our new Olympic sport discipline “child throw” will surely become official in a short time, since it´s permitted to compete in water as on the ground. It’s even possible to make categories according to the child’s age, weight, height, etc., as Ondra found out. A few of us even found time for bowling, where grandmaster Luboš ended up last with the score 91 points (Michal doesn’t count, because he always scores low, and that´s why we all love him so much :)).
I’ve almost forgotten to mention another very important aspect of this summer school, and that is every year’s restaurant “Svět”, meaning the great food they make for us there. ZONka, grand portions for good prices, divine pancakes, mix grill over 2 tables officially only for 2 people – we had all that last year too, but this year we’ve order for Saturday the best, most luxurious, the biggest and best looking and smelling grill consisting of 4 tons of boar sausages, mountains of chicken and pork steaks, wagons of vegetable and trucks of grilled pineapples and peaches. (a little grill for 22 people). Even though no one touched the bread or any other side dish, after the 4th course, where even the most stubborn ones couldn’t eat anymore, we still had so much food left that we decided to take it away with us for breakfast and lunch the next day.
And of course in the end the exams came, or as Martin called it this year an “exam festival”. All participants successfully festivalled themselves to the finals and received great marks for style, creativity, and public amusement.
Congratulations to all! New hakamas didn’t, however, due to delayed order come, so the official show of dressing up didn’t occur. Nevertheless it soon will and I am sure, that especially the malicious ones will enjoy it very much. 🙂
(Text by Lucie Arlethová, translation Jakub Bretšnajdr, photos by Michal Roder, Pavel Linhart, Martin Švihla and others)
