đź“° REVIEW: AKI USA 20th Anniversary Seminar By Elishai Shapiro
Oct 17, 2016Note: Elishai was 11 years old at the time of this experience. This is his report about an Adults’ 5-Day Seminar he participated in with black belts from around the world.
I was at the Aikido 20th anniversary seminar and I thought it was an amazing experience! Takeda Shihan came along from Japan with Satoshi Sensei and Numata Sensei. It was really amazing with the five different Sensei teaching us different ways of doing different things in aikido. There was also Jean Rene Sensei from Canada, and of course our own Lia Sensei.
Two years ago when I was watching the seminar and I saw Takeda Shihan teach and saw him moving people through the “ki,” I thought it was all an act. Now, I know that he guides you and shows you the way and you follow. This year I got to do it, too! The seminar really helped me with my aikido. If I didn’t know how to do something there were lots of people around me that could help me. For example, if I needed help with shiko, people were there who knew how to do shiko well and they would help me. It was such an honor to study with all these amazing teachers and all these black belts. I hope one day to go to the dojo in Japan and study with them. I’ll never forget this amazing seminar and I feel blessed that I got to go.
I even got to watch an amazing black belt test. It was really awesome to see so many more techniques than I knew there were. It was also amazing to see what I am hoping to work up to. It was also cool to see what I will be able to do if I train long enough and hard enough. Everything was a really amazing experience!
Elishai Shapiro
