The ASC Spring Seminar was held over three days 5 – 7 September. Each year this seminar builds in terms of enjoyment and numbers attending. This year [the 18th anniversary year] we were privileged to be hosting Yamashima Shihan from Tokyo as the guest instructor. Over the 3 days 61 students attended and were treated to Yamashima Sensei’s relaxed, smooth and powerful style. Yamashima Sensei made a point of going around all students and throwing them for virtually every technique and thus every student got to experience “hands on” aikido from him.

Yamashima Shihan’s focus was on three main points: concentration on nage’s centre, relaxing but with a “heavy” feeling and breaking uke’s balance.

This was a highly successful seminar where all students not only enjoyed the training but also learnt a great deal whether they had been learning for some years or relatively new to aikido.

We hope to be able to invite Yamashima Sensei back again soon.