Ronaldo Burger of Grahamstown recently returned from an international aikido seminar which took place in La Madellena, Italy from 22 to 29 August. Burger, who represented the Aikido Federation of South
Africa, said the seminar was a “great success” with about 25 students in attendance.
Ronaldo Burger of Grahamstown recently returned from an international aikido seminar which took place in La Madellena, Italy from 22 to 29 August. Burger, who represented the Aikido Federation of South
Africa, said the seminar was a “great success” with about 25 students in attendance.
Most of those attending were Italians, with a few from Germany and from South Africa. Aikido is a non-competitive sport code although members train semi-full-contact during each sparring session.
There is also weapon training where they make use of the bokken (wooden sword/katana) and jo (wooden spear).
“Therefore, there was no competition and therefore no world champion, said Burger, adding “that is why we call all national/international aikido events seminars”.
The classes at the recent seminar were instructed by Franco Martufi sensei (6th dan), Piero Villaverde sensei (6th dan) and Mutsuko Minegishi sensei (7th dan).
“The aikido training was very intense and of a very high standard from all instructors”. One of the instructors focused mainly on good basic aikido technique, the other on basic foot movement and then added basic hand/eye coordination.
The other instructor added some variations in technique and moved on to more complexed techniques but started with the basics.
Burger noted that “It is important to be a good attacker (uke) during training/ sparring so that the defender (nage) is able to exercise the techniques against the attacks effectively”.
Burger said it was great to interact and learn about other languages and cultures, to see the world and “then of course to also share some of our own culture”.
