This year we celebrated 30 years since the first seminar of Franck Noel in Prague. Aikidokas from all over the Czech Republic and indeed all over Europe came together again and had a great workout.
And will Franck come to Prague next year? Let’s be surprised!
This interview with Franck Noel is a very special and information-rich event! Franck talks about his beginnings, his stay in Japan and especially what he thinks about Aikido and its teaching. Fluent narration, a lifetime of experience and also gentle jokes.
“Aikido is not what you think” is a very nice video from our friends at Dojo de la Roseraie. In it you will see among others Franck Noel and Gaston Nicolessi, with whom we train regularly in Prague and France.
s the years go by, our Shihan Franck Noel gradually reduces the number of his seminars in Europe. And yet this year he found time to visit Prague.
It was still bitterly cold in Prague in February, and we were greeted at Barcelona airport by the sun and the smell of the nearby sea. And so we began to thaw…
We sat on the mats after practice, resigned expressions on our faces. I think Honza broke the silence: ‘When is the next training? And where?”
On that Thursday in November, the first snow fell in Stockholm. The beginning of winter. We slept on the tatami at the Iyasaka Aikidoklubb (there’s an insanely noisy air-conditioning system running at night) and got up at six in the morning. An hour practice, a quick change of clothes and a subway ride to Vanadis, where there was another morning practice at another club. Then we had breakfast at the cafe where Astrid Lingren used to go (Pipi Longstockking was written in the tenement across the park) and the lunchtime training was starting, which of course we also attended. Three workouts in half a day wouldn’t have been too much, but we kept up the pace of 3-5 hours of exercise on our sixth day in Stockholm… and we still had three more intense days to go.
After three years, our French teacher Franck Noel visited us again and it was a great success – more than 170 aikidists gathered on the tatami.
Another seminar with our shihan Franck Noel (7th dan) is over. We managed to take three photos from the practice, here we share them with you.