Yoshigasaki Sensei has written a small essay on Meditation in Japan. It can be found here

He has also written a small essay on listening which can be found here.

All of Sensei’s essays can be found here on British Ki Society website.

We’ll be taking a couple of weeks off during Christmas and New Year. The last class this year will be on 17th December in the City and 19th December in Ruislip. The children’s class will run until the 22nd December.

We start again in the 2020 on the second week of Janaury. So the 7th January will be the first n the City and 9th January the first in Ruislip. The children’s class start again on the 12th January.

Congratulations to Sensei Roy Cliff who received his Nanadan (7th Dan) Certificate at the Scottish seminar this weekend.

This was one of the highlights of the weekend which included visitors from the Zagreb club this year.

Doshu Yoshigasaki has been coming to the Highlands for over thirty years now and, as usual, hasn’t disappointed with this year’s seminar. Everyone had an great weekend, abliet a little tired and are looking forward to next year.

There are very good reasons why the Aikido Summer Seminar in Croatia is probably the best attended course in the whole of our international Aikido calendar.  Yoshigasaki Sensei’s teaching (in English) is, of course, the main attraction and there are three classes a day for everyone for most of the six days and the good mixture of men and women, of all levels, among the hundred or so students regularly attending, makes for a really varied and enjoyable practise.

The dojo is in a very large marquee which can be opened up on three sides to the fresh air and the countryside of the Velebit National Park.  Practise sessions are in the cool of the morning and the evening. So, for the whole afternoon, you can enjoy the mountains, woods and nearby seaside in reliably warm, sunny weather.  

Our local Croatian friends extend their really warm and practical hospitality to all comers, who arrive from a wide variety of countries: Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia’s immediate neighbour countries, the U.K. and more.  Accommodation is offered at the nearby campsite and hostel as well as in the hotels and apartments of the local small seaside town of Karlobag. This provides a good range of affordability. Look at the photographs and watch the short video for a reliable impression of the course.  It is a popular and enjoyable course attracting the same students back again year after year. I am already looking forward to my own fifth visit in 2020.

Doshu Yoshigasaki will be in Scotland next month, from the 13th-15th September to teach his annual course in the highlands.

As with last year, I’ll be going up for the weekend to enjoy the course and the Scottish hospitality again.

More details can be found on the British Ki Society website.

Congratualations to new black belts who were presented with their Shodan Certificates earlier this month from Shihan Burgess at this month’s Coventry seminar.

Doshu Yoshigasaki will be teaching several seminars across Europe in the next few months.

He will be in the United Kingdom, teaching in Burton on the 21st-23rd June.

Some of our club members will be traveling again to Croatia for the seminar in Velebit, Baške Oštarije. This course always attracts an International audience and is a great blend of Mediterranean sun and European hospitality

Sensei full itinerary  can be found here

Next week’s Children’s Aikido class, scheduled for Easter Sunday,  21st April, will not be running.

All other classes will be running as planned.

The NHS has an article on their website describing a method to use breathing to manage stress.

Breathing is a key aspect of all of our training and is taught explicitly during Kokyuho and Misogi

In fact, Tohei Sensei suggested that it was the secret of Aikido.