If you have any events to be posted here, please send them to jjbieler@airmail.net.

Judo and Aikido clinic in Oklahoma City taught by Karl Geis shihan. Friday night Judo 6-9 PM, Saturday Aikido 9 AM - 6 PM.

Capitol Areas/Great Lakes Jodokai Gasshuku in Washington, DC, taught by Kaminoda Tsunemori, Shindo Muso Ryu Menkyo Kaiden, and Nihon Jodokai. Training continued in Wisconsin, USA, on Aug 17-19.

We worked on Kihon, Seitei Jodo, Kenjutsu 1-3, Omote and Chudan 1-10 kata. Also had a session of Seitei Iaido. Take-away ideas:

• Keep tip of the stick on the center line (e.g. both strikes in Raiuchi)
• Use the tsuki to maintain distance, hold opponent's center till they move (e.g. end of Hosomichi)
• Attend to proper maai (e.g., half step in Ranai/Oshizume to mess up attack)
• Make big movements with the whole body (moving body takes time anyway so use to best advantage)
• In Seitei Iai, sword should only whistle from entry point to center (not overhead or at end of cut)

Special Fugakukai Aikido clinic in Houston taught by Miyake Tsunako shihan and Karl Geis shihan. Miyake sensei will be teaching Kodokan Goshinjutsu. As of 24 June 2007, I am no longer a member of the Fugakukai International Aikido Association. I am grateful to Karl Geis for the many years of instruction, to Miyake sensei for the brief but delightful and enlightening moments over the years, and to all the friends I have known and trained with. May their paths prosper. 二十二年間住む蝙蝠

The Dojo is back in operation. Last Friday and Saturday, a few of us from the Aikido, Iaido and Karate groups removed all the mats, spread them outside, cleaned them with disinfectants and bleach, and let them bake in the sun. We had to put them back in the dojo, but we stood up the rolls and have been running a dehumidifier since then. They are dry and we reassembled the floor on Friday night. My especial thanks go to Corwin Glasser and Stephen Eaton, who scrubbed mats on Saturday, and to Sam and Toby who helped with the dehumidifier project.

Dan Martin & Crow Mountain Dojo will be hosting a Judo Playday in Russellville, Arkansas on Saturday, April 28. Start time is around 10am, ending when we're all tired. For more information contact Dan Martin at (479) 890-0033.

The Dojo was flooded by torrential rains on Tuesday night, April 24, 2007. The mats have been cleaned with disinfectant, but it is too early to tell if the open-cell foam is salvageable. More to follow as the story develops.

A new sushi bar has opened in a little building just north of The Dojo. The owner is a very nice guy named Keiichi Nagano, hailing from Kagoshima, Japan. The menu is set each day based on what ingredients are best and what entrees he is making. The entrees range from roasted fish to Rack of Lamb. The sushi and sashimi are among the freshest I have had in this country, and he selects hard-to-find items like uni (urchin roe), toro (fatty tuna) and baby yellowtail. He grinds real wasabi from the root fresh to order -- what more need I say. The quality and ambience are outstanding, and I hope we can help make his efforts a success. Price is moderate. Beer, wine and liquor are available. Keiichi restaurant is located at 500 N Elm St in Denton TX. Tel 940-230-3410. From The Dojo, take Bolivar north to Parkway, turn right and go 1 block to the corner of Elm. Keiichi is on the northeast corner.

Judo and Aikido clinic in Oklahoma City taught by Karl Geis shihan. Friday night Judo 6-9 PM, Saturday Aikido 9 AM - 6 PM. Congratulations to Stephen Eaton on his promotion to Nidan.

Nihon Jodokai Gasshuku in Kashima, Japan, taught by Kaminoda Tsunemori, Shindo Muso Ryu Menkyo Kaiden. Sam Tipton and I will be in Japan from Mon 30 Oct to Tue 7 Nov. Charlotte Siegel, Stephen Eaton and David Gibson will run classes on Monday 30 Oct, Wednesday 1 Nov, Saturday 4 Nov, and Monday 6 Nov.

We worked on Kenjutsu, Tanjojutsu and classical Jodo kata and kihon. Take-away ideas:

• Align stick with body in proper kamae, aim with the feet (sounds familiar)
• Power comes from koshi (hips/sacrum/center)
• Make large movements with full extension throughout
• Use the kamae to do waza - otherwise the waza is not right
• Makiotoshi is the supreme of kihon and most difficult
• If you have good kihon, you can do good kata, if not, you cannot

Judo and Aikido clinic in Oklahoma City taught by Karl Geis shihan. Friday night Judo 6-9 PM, Saturday Aikido 9 AM - 6 PM. Contact Sam Tipton to carpool on Friday, or Stephen Eaton if you want to go early Saturday morning.

Karl Geis also held a Jodo session on Friday afternoon. Take-away ideas:

• There can only be one ma-ai (one honte no kamae), back hand 12" from your center
• All strikes are based on forward motion, not downward
• Strike using the body like a whip
• The swordsman is slowed by rise-and-fall (fighting gravity), jo is not
• Strike slowly so power develops from whole body (esp. hikiotoshi & makiotoshi)
• Stick angle is almost a line; if angled, your structure is very weak (wrists not honte)
• Align stick with body in proper kamae, aim with the feet

This is a special day - the 10 Year Anniversary of John Ray's "The Dojo". It is also the 10 Year Anniversary of Jack Bieler teaching Tomiki Aikido in Denton. We will have an Open House with hotdogs, sodas, demos and Q&A for the public from 2-4 pm, in conjunction with the Antique Fair in the Downtown Square. Afterwards, we will have a celebration dinner at Prairie House restaurant. All Dojo members are invited.

Fugakukai Aikido Summer Clinic in Houston, taught by Karl Geis shihan. Congratulations to Mark Morgan of the Dallas club on his promotion to Rokudan. This was a major Randori clinic. Here is some of what we covered:

• Grip must be secure and allow mobility, but allow it to break so you can switch hands
• Figure 8 (moving evasion) drill, Shear Pin (changing hands) drill, Swinging rope (release) drill
• Take small steps, let hands drift, get equilibrium with both feet, time with foot-strike
• Add curl or cocking wrists to extreme with each step
• Give Up Control in order to get control
• Osoto gari - ALWAYS practice on Forward step (3 feet in line) to build correct visceral feel

Jodo Intensive with Corey Comstock and Dan Pearson of Nihon Jodokai. We will be work on Jodo kihon, seitei and classical kata. We will have all-day training on Saturday 20th starting at 11:00AM, and afterwards at 7:00PM there will be a potluck dinner at my house. This photo is from the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival in April.

Take-away ideas:

• close the waki (armpit)
• use the jo to its full advantage (lead with the weapon, don't expose yourself, extend forward)
• stretch! and build tension before striking (don't waste power moving stick through air)
• maintain "perfect wrist" sword grip
• close the waki!

We are sorry to see the back of him, but we must wish WALTER LEE and his wife Lyn the best of luck in their new home in Wichita, Kansas. Walter was my first student in Denton, Texas. We were both waiting for our cars at Discount Tires when he noticed my Aikido t-shirt. He and the Bobbie Vash started training in Aikido at my girlfriend's doublewide in rural Denton county in 1996. The following year I started Aikido of Denton at Ra Baker's Kundalini Yoga Ashram on Locust Street, and Walter has been training with us ever since.

Walter is hard-headed, insightful, loyal, responsible, nice, and one of the best friends I have ever had. Without him, Denton Aikido might not even exist, and surely would not be the juggernaut it is today. I certainly wouldn't know the taste of an 18-yr-old Macallan single malt. We can't wait to visit the new Dojo he will be starting up in Wichita as soon as he can. He knows he doesn't have a choice! Fortunately, he is just a short drive from Oklahoma City, where we will see him at the Spring and Fall clinics.

Here are some memorable Walter-isms:

• Good body mechanics is always good body mechanics
• Hoo-ah! (we never did find out what that means)
• Tenkan evasion in the 23 is the same as a rodeo clown, keeping on shoulder of a bull
• I just realized (fill in the basic principle) -- Jack, why didn't you ever tell us that?
• I call the walking "The Calibration Kata" (spoken like a field service engineer!)

We also wish the best to Stephen Eaton - black belt, computer entrepreneur, bon vivant and wielder of psychic powers (but only for good). He is moving to Sedona, Arizona. Ashram survivor and brand-new black belt David "Graymalkin" Gibson is entertaining a great job opportunity elsewhere in the sunny state of AZ. And starting next year, Nicholas Ross will be attending beautiful UC-Santa Cruz.

We wish they could all stay, but barring that we wish them good fortune, good health, happiness and successful branch dojos!

Judo Play Day at Windsong Dojo, all day Saturday. Sam has to work, but all Fugakukai judo people are invited.

Judo and Aikido clinic in Oklahoma City taught by Karl Geis shihan. Friday night Judo 6-9 PM, Saturday Aikido 9 AM - 6 PM. Budo-mobile leaves the Dojo at 6 AM Saturday morning for Aikido - be there, or contact Sam Tipton to carpool for Judo on Friday afternoon.

Take-away ideas:

• step in arbitrary direction, one step only, just as the attacker steps
• coke-bottle grip (shear pin allows grip to transfer)
• develop immmunity to adrenalin (force to relax under stress)

Nihon Jodokai Gasshuku in Kashima, Japan, taught by Kaminoda Tsunemori, Shindo Muso Ryu Menkyo Kaiden. Wish I could go.

Judo and Aikido Clinic in Oklahoma City, OK, taught by Karl Geis, Judo 8 dan, Aikido 10 dan. Friday night Judo 6-9 PM, Saturday Aikido 9 AM - 6 PM. Congratulations to Hector Perez, Aikido Nidan, for his successful test at the clinic.

This is an experimental web page copied in whole cloth from John Ray's new "The Dojo" page. My apologies for any malfunction or misrepresentation.

I plan to include lineage charts for Aikido and Jodo, and biographies of our teachers:

• Kano Jigoro
• Ueshiba Morihei
• Tomiki Kenji
• Kaminoda Tsunemori
• Miyake Tsunako
• Karl Geis