Hi All,
Travelling to Canberra and working at the AIS gets me in the mood to
do something physical other than gorge myself on residence food. So
this time before I headed South I contacted Cleveland dojos prodigal
son/sensei Murray Loader (although he is yet to return so we can kill
the fatted calf etc..). Loader Sensei invited me to train with him
where he currently trains at Meidokan dojo in Queanbeyan with Mike
Macgregor Sensei. At least I think that was where we were... what
with all of those roundabouts I get real confused esp. at night.
Afterwoods we indulged in some 'poly' spotting at Manuka whilst
dining a suitablely kitch resturant.

Murray picked me up in his latest sports car, an XF station wagon and
off we headed arriving just a few minutes late. The dojo is owned
outright by a jujutsu club with links to some living samurai legends
and pictures on the walls show them wearing hakama and doing lots of
sword/ kenjutsu type stuff - I think they also do muso-ryu Jodo there
as well. After bowing on to the mat Murray introduced me to MacGregor
sensei and many of the seniors there who were all welcoming and fun
to work with. Macgregor Sensei was also a terrific nage/uke and I
believe has completed a somewhat grualling 4th dan exam in Japan
recently. Having trained at a number of Aikikai dojos before I was
prepared for the inevitable breakfalls etc. on what looked to be
extradornarily hard tatami. However the style practiced is aikido
kenkyukai which is somewhat softer.

I believe Kenkyukai is/was started by a senior student of Tohei
whilst at the aikikai hombu (prior to starting his own organisation).
The style places great emphasis on breathing/breath control to
perform waza. Simplistically it seemed you were breathing in to
gather uke and out to project or pin uke. The teaching style is
aikikai like with little overt explanation and with Sensei refining
the teacing by working with each pair in turn. in terms of softnes i
would place the style somewhere between mainstream aikikai and
yuishinkai/ki society. I'll qualify this though by saying i have
trained at Aikikai that are softer than most ki Society and Ki
Society harder than many Aikikai.

If you want to find out more checkout http://www.aikidocanberra.com/

dan

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daniel james, d.james@... +61 (0)401 683 592 (m)
griffith university aikido club, http//griffithaikido.com
nathan, southbank & logan, brisbane, australia