My series of seminars in Europe was once again an opportunity to try to present a rich and rather different work from what is usually done in most dojos. As I explained several times during these courses, my teaching is divided into three, more or less equally important, parts. […]
Romain has been practicing martial arts for more than 15 years. In 2005 he discovered Hapkido and Hankido that he teaches today in Nort sur Erdre (France). Despite a genetic disease that affects his sight, Romain made an early choice to go for a subtle practice, based on sensation, which he completed by learning manual Read more about Words of experts – Romain Guihéneuf[…]
Richard has been practicing Nihon Tai Jitsu for 30 years. 6th dan and regional expert, teaching in Saint Jean de Luz (France) and head of the Aquitaine region, he is also certainly Roland Hernaez’ closest student. But Richard is above all a passionate practitioner, who is always in search.
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Robert John is one of the first students of Akuzawa sensei and one of the Hanshi of the school. Rob is passionate about body movement and development of skills in an efficient way. He’s also a fantastic teacher, able to deconstruct skills back to basics making them easy to comprehend for all. […]
We’ve been lucky to host Leo Tamaki, founder of Kishinkai Aikido, earlier this month for a closed-door session. Kishinkai Aikido is a very recent school but takes its inspirations in Tamura sensei’s Aikido as well as the work of some of the best martial arts masters from Japan, and in particular Kuroda sensei (Shinbukan). Kishinkai Read more about Leo Tamaki in Hong Kong – January 2018[…]
2018 is a special year for me since it marks my 20 years of practice, but also my 10 years in Hong Kong and the 10 years of my blog (in French) on martial arts. It is therefore a moment to look at what has been accomplished, but more importantly to look forward.
Thinking about it, I realized I had a number of questions that I did not have an answer to and yet seemed rather useful. I racked my brains for several months on these questions […]
Kaeshi waza (counter techniques) are an essential part of Nihon Tai Jitsu’s teachings, and in my opinion should be in any martial teaching worthy of the name, since these techniques allow to get rid of the Tori / Uke duality and enter a world where both partners seek to win and can exploit the flaws of their opponent. […]
Walking is one of the most basic and common human activities. From a very young age and from the moment we are able to move, walking replaces any other mode of locomotion that doesn’t use a vehicle and is therefore an integral part of us. The ways of walking, on the other hand, diverge, and one could almost say that there are as many as there are people, since we all build walking patterns that are recognizable from afar. […]
Ne Waza, or groundwork is not a strength of Nihon Tai Jitsu, if it is not totally absent from the curriculum it has to be clear it is not and has never been a strategic focus of the school, and it probably represents less than 10% of our teaching. However, that remains an important part for a number of reasons. […]
Martial arts require a variety of skills for the adept to become proficient. These go from body skills (feeling heavy, being connected, being elastic are some of the possible options here), to learning techniques to being able to apply both in free situations, and of course developing some mental qualities with regards to dealing with the stress of a martial encounter. […]