Black Hills Expeditionary Clinic 2016

There were 14 of us from the Dickinson Roughrider Judo Club, Bismarck Gentle Ways, Red River Judo, Saint Cloud Judo Club and Custer.

We got started about 9:00 am setting up mats on the lawn between the tall pines. The temperature was about 58 F, sunny and almost calm.  Back in June I used the blade on the tractor to create a flat spot for the mats and planted new grass.

Our training began with John Vetch, godan (5th degree black belt) in Ao Denkou Jujutsu. Vetch sensei reviewed the material that we had learned from Rick Clark sensei, the founder of Ao Denkou, in June at Dickinson. John is a terrific teacher and everyone was enjoying the give and take of practice.

About 11 am I started our study of the throws of the Gokyo no Waza with deashi barai (advanced foot sweep). The Gokyo no Waza is the teaching syllabus of Kodokan Judo, an invention of Dr. Jigoro Kano. We talked about the difference between a sweep (barai) and a reap (gari). Then we practiced ko soto gari (minor outside reap), a reap. As everyone was catching on quickly we moved on to ko soto gake (minor outside hook), a hooking motion. I showed a nice counter to tai otoshi (body drop) with ko soto gake that everyone thought was pretty cool.

We followed with o soto guruma (large outside wheel). These 4 techniques are contained in the 1^st dan of the Gokyo no Waza. We followed that with hiza guruma (knee wheel), ko uchi gari (small inside reap) from the 2^nd dan; sasae tsurikomi ashi (propping ankle lift-pull foot throw) from the 3^rd dan; ashi guruma (leg wheel) from the 4^th dan; osoto gari (major outside reap) and okuri ashi barai (assisted foot sweep) from the 5^th dan.

At noon we broke for lunch. Carol and I had set up the garage with two long tables and 14 chairs.
Carol provided delicious hoagie sandwiches with potato chips. After lunch everyone went for a tour of the house as many had never been here, there were lots of ooohs and aaahs. The fish pond in the front entry was a special hit.

About 1:30 pm we resumed practice with osoto guruma (major outside wheel) and harai tsurikomi ashi (sweeping lift-pull foot throw) from the 6^th dan, and ouchi gari (major inside reap) from the 7^th dan.

As that included all of the leg techniques from the Gokyo no Waza, we took a break and then started
working on Modern Arnis, a Philippine martial art using sticks as training tools, that was taught to me by Jose Bueno sensei, (Grand Master Jose Bueno). It had been about 10 years since I had practiced some of the drills so I was happy to discover that John Vetch had a background in Modern Arnis through his study of Ao Denkou and a Kali Club (another Philippine martial art that practices with sticks). John's education was very similar to mine and so he was able to fill in some blanks and we were able to push into the depths of my memory. After practicing some stick drills we switched to a kansetsu waza (joint lock) drill that was also taught to us by Grand Master Jose Bueno. Stick training really messes with the brain and after about an hour everyone was beginning to slow down so we switched back to judo.

The last session of the day was an open session, participants had an opportunity to ask questions. Jeff Ficek asked about kata guruma (shoulder wheel – sometimes called a fireman's carry) a difficult throw where tori (the thrower) picks up uke (the person being thrown) on his shoulders. There are good technicians that can pick up people in this manner, amazingly over twice their weight but I am not one of these people, my body doesn't bend in this fashion. A few of the attendees were able to demonstrate a good kata guruma and we had a good discussion.

There were no further questions so we did one of my favorite drills, standing uki otoshi (floating

drop) into a crash pad, it is an incredible looking throw using only the hands as connection to your partner. I use a method that requires the incorporation the core muscles and to a large extent this powers the throw. Each participant throws everyone else for a total of 12 throws and then the thrower changes. After everyone got in their dozen throws including me, I switched to sumi otoshi (corner drop) a throw that is more difficult to do than uki otoshi and also more difficult to fall from as the fall

requires kind of a backward flip with a twist and is more spectacular. Another dozen throws each involved a dozen falls each also. Both throws are great drills for learning how to incorporate hip muscles to generate power.

At the end of practice Sam Rudd, one of the instructors from the Saint Cloud Judo Club gave a passionate speech about the history of our judo organization. I was deeply touched.

About 4:30 we pulled the plug, picked up the mats and cleaned up the practice area. We retired to the garage to drink beer and sing the praises of the day. After about 45 minutes Carol served a 14 pound lasagna, a delicious lasagna, 30 minutes later there was nothing left. A lot of people sampled my home brew garage beer, some people even liked it.

The last of the crew left about 8 pm. It was a very, very good day!

The picture at the top of the page is a graphic I created especially for this event, I printed them on t-shirts and presented them to the participants at the clinic.  The graphic shows a boat and a crow with the Japanese kanji "Ichi Go Ichi E" which means "one lifetime on meeting", the idea that every moment is very special and will never come again.  I have another translation that I have been using as a koan and more recently, 20 years anyway, as my e-mail address "Not Twice Today".

Warm regards to all,

Vern