I had the opportunity recently to attend some classes at Dennis hookers dojo in Orlando, Florida whilst attending the inaugral IEEE Sensors Conference in 2002. Sensei hooker is a 6th? dan aikido instructor who is affiliated with the ASU (aikido schools of usehiba) and the aikikai. I got onto his dojo after being recommended it by some of the folks on the ki-info list and wasn't disappointed. His dojo also has an excellent web site at http://www.shindai.com which helped me no end in finding the dojo - though i must confess to getting lost in an african-american neighborhood that seemed to boast 6 churches to the 1/4m mile (and that was just on one side of the road). But enough ranting ..what was the class like? Alas owing to my geographical embarrassment I arrived in time to watch the end of what looked like a great weapons class. The style of weapons follows that of Satome sensei and seems to be more circular in nature - more so than Ki sociey and certainly more than Iwama. Unfortunately Hooker sensei had to leave before the next class. The class began with tenkan blending movements - with quiet a different emphasis to the yuishinkai/ki sociey way of practice I'm used to. The dynamic sphere was emphasized and very strong extension by nage was encouraged. Uke's movements too required an attack and push mindset that took some getting used to. The power.. I was really struck by the power of aikido when practiced in this way being quite different to the blend like water style of practice I am used to. I must say however that it was really interesting to practice aikido in this way and i enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me of something i read on the net about the power of 10 e.g. if uke has a power of 9 then you need only use power of 1 but if uke has only the power of 3 then you should use a power of 3. The class then went on to practice katate dori and kosa dori techniques based on this initial blending movement and class finished by suriwaza (zagi) techniques and kokyu dosa. I was sorry not to be able to do more classes and enjoyed the dojo's hospitality a lot. |