Seminars

[Mr Punch]

There's already a thread about one (http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53334) of these but it's only in the internal forum.

This guy is scary. I'm no newbie, and I've met a lot of charlatans and bull****ters in my 19 year MA experience, but this guy is well worth experiencing whatever your primary art, TMA, MMA, IMA, striking, grappling, whatever. The Youtube stuff doesn't do him justice.

I used to train in his class regularly, but had to quit, and I'm going to his Tokyo seminar tomorrow.

Website. (http://www.aunkai.net/eng/) Don't let the hokey English put you off either.

Anyway,
Paris (the French one!) 18-19 April.
Seattle 2-3rd May.
Atlanta 9-10 May.
Washington DC 16-17 May.

[Mr Punch]

Well, had the seminar today. Three hours.

It was great.

Akuzawa's background is in Hsing Yi (apparently a famous teacher, but I don't know any Hsing Yi so I wouldn't know, plus it was the Japanese translation of a Chinese name I guess), a little Tai Chi (don't know what line), and a lot of juukenjutsu (bayonet), yari (spear) and daito-ryu. Most of his stuff is based on the last three. He won some san shou competition in China years back as a representative of Japan... don't know what, or where it is recorded. Total dream of a bullshido resume filled with private and secret lessons, lost records and fallings out... but hey, you test him: you won't care either! :D

His whole premise is on building a strong core body structure that you can concentrate on maintaining under any environment: he likens it to building a strong frame you can hang your meat off! It is internal MA as close as I've ever come to finding something that really fits that somewhat vague definition, yet with very clear explanations of how to do everything and very clear no-bull**** demos.

He can do all the standard silly tricks and points out that that's what they are and why, and yet he can do things I've never seen before on seasoned, experienced fighters with no experience of his style. I've seen him throw people literally twice his weight (he's only 63 kg) with apparently very little effort or wind up. He has the strongest kicks and punches (especially the punches) of anyone I've met (and I have trained with pro MMA fighters) with again, an unbelievable lack of wind up, and seeming disregard for getting his body in any kind of ready position and coming along recognised angles. He's happy for anyone to test him, but it will probably hurt!

OK, so what we did today consisted of core building exercises. The first 15-20 mins was just shiko (the sumo stamping exercise). I say just: it was enough to get some people sitting out! It's a hard exercise the way modern sumotori do it, but the old-style way Akuzawa does it is really hardcore. It hurts, but he will demo how it's used practically and you will start to understand where he's coming from. Incidentally shiko means 'four thighs' and you will feel like you have four thighs and all of them will be hurting by the end!

We did his take on mabo (kibadachi) - not so different from some others except for his point of balance and his moving mabo based form... so actually quite different. Again, very painful, and very useful. I'm not going to describe the rest: it'd take too long - but there was a lot of resistant partner drilling. There was no sparring, but he does include variations on push hands, padwork and sparring in his longer seminars. He also went into some spear/bo work which is a fundamental part of his unarmed stuff, and is the real hiden (indoor technique) of what he has learnt.

I'll just finish by saying you can apply his principles immediately whatever your art: I've used them with a tangible degree of success in wing chun, aikido, submission wrestling, Thai kicking, and boxing in full contact sparring in MMA and some of those disciplines separately, and he has converts and art-mixers from all of those arts including a pro shooto fighter, an all Japan kyokushin champion and various others regularly attending his school.

If you can find the money and make it to any of those seminars, you won't regret it. Except for the pain - even if you're in good shape it'll probably push you to your limits... and although he's a good teacher his warm-ups are old school Japanese static and bouncing stretches, so make sure you warm up properly first. Take lots of water and protein drinks and carb drinks wouldn't come amiss.

[sanjuro_ronin]

great review bro, but more detail wouldn't kill you ;)


His whole premise is on building a strong core body structure that you can concentrate on maintaining under any environment: he likens it to building a strong frame you can hang your meat off! It is internal MA as close as I've ever come to finding something that really fits that somewhat vague definition, yet with very clear explanations of how to do everything and very clear no-bull**** demos.

I to have found out over the years that yes, structure is perhaps the most crucial of elements, dynamic stucture that is.


I've seen him throw people literally twice his weight (he's only 63 kg) with apparently very little effort or wind up. He has the strongest kicks and punches (especially the punches) of anyone I've met (and I have trained with pro MMA fighters) with again, an unbelievable lack of wind up, and seeming disregard for getting his body in any kind of ready position and coming along recognised angles.

Sounds like "silk reeling" stuff at its higher levels.
Excellent.


OK, so what we did today consisted of core building exercises. The first 15-20 mins was just shiko (the sumo stamping exercise). I say just: it was enough to get some people sitting out! It's a hard exercise the way modern sumotori do it, but the old-style way Akuzawa does it is really hardcore. It hurts, but he will demo how it's used practically and you will start to understand where he's coming from. Incidentally shiko means 'four thighs' and you will feel like you have four thighs and all of them will be hurting by the end!

Having done a Sumo seminar years ago I know where you are coming from and yes, the "stamping/stomping" is the key ( one of them) to the power.

[Mr Punch]

great review bro, but more detail wouldn't kill you ;)Actually on that day, I was already half dead from the seminar...!

So, what do you want to know? Basic descriptions of the exercises won't really do them justice, longer explanations are complicated, and anyway it's the kind of stuff you need to feel.

Basically, he believes in stressing that you need to be able to stand, sit and walk properly before you can have a good enough body structure to do MA effectively. Whether you're from one of the more internal schools that stresses the same things or not, the way he demonstrates (mostly) and explains (sometimes) things are directly and immediately easy to understand and practise yourself. My waffling may not help!

His horse stance ('sitting') exercises come with demos of how exactly to use those principles in your fighting art. Same with his standing exercises. And his walking exercises. He practises those separately, then puts them together in moving versions, then non-resistant exercises together with a partner, then resistant exercises with a partner, and then assuming his longer seminars will go that way, directly into sparring.


Having done a Sumo seminar years ago I know where you are coming from and yes, the "stamping/stomping" is the key ( one of them) to the power.Oooh, now. We might have to disagree on that.

According to Akuzawa, the key is maintaining the spinal column and having the control to transfer your bodyweight as and when and where you need it. The maintaining of the spinal column comes through understanding pushing and pulling from differetn directions at the same time and practising that yourself by stretching and tensing various muscles. The transfer of the bodyweight comes from opening and closing the sukene (in Japanese... kwa, crease of the thigh) as well as this reaching out/pulling in. So the stamp itself... just shows that you have the control to issue the force (direct the weight of your 'meat') in any direction: it's a sign that you're doing something right rather than the aim.

As I said, he comes at it from a kobujutsu PoV, rather than the modern sumo version which comes across primarily as a stretch and show of strength...!