Can intuition be trained? Can the rationality -that gives structure to technical training- support intuition, which is not rational and logical? In Japanese, intuition is chokkan and is represented by two kanji that have many things in common with practitioners of Martial Arts, especially Aikido: 直感. The first is choku, 直, which means direct, immediate. […]
Categoria: Martial Arts
True Budo is to become one with the low-cost seats. 2023 Aikido FIJLKAM Seminar in Palermo. Part 1
Ten centuries after the descent of the Normans into Sicily, today a horde of sleepy Turin people gathered at Turin Caselle airport to take the first flight to Palermo. We’re heading to Aikido FIJLKAM National Seminar. An itinerant formula which, after a couple of editions hosted in Piedmont, moves to the Pearl of the Mediterranean. […]
Training with the Doshu
On July 31st, 2023 we had the chance to train at the Hombu Dojo, in Tokyo, during our trip in Japan. Among others experienced during those week, the emotions we felt and lived changed a lot our perspective on things, especially about the discipline we practice. We dayly posted a short post about what we’ve […]
Doing well, doing wrong
Doing well. Doing wrong. A world opens up right behind and inside the words. A world made of attitudes, actions, beliefs. A world made of enormous chances and equally enormous misunderstandings. In the world of Martial Arts, as well as in the larger world of human activity, we all witness two extreme realities. On the […]
Grabbing the void
A quote attributed to Morihei Ueshiba has always triggered my mind. That one in which he says that in order to practice Aikido, you’ll need the same strength that is needed to hold an apple. A few days ago I had the chance to meet on the mat a dear friend who has been practicing […]
Dissatisfied and happy
Can we be dissatisfied and happy at the same time? Dissatisfaction is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it offers an incentive to achieve goals. On the other hand, it can become a regressive spiral. An invisible network that increasingly tangles personal initiative. A crushing burden. The experience of dissatisfaction is common to everyone. […]
Losing and the fear of definitiveness
Losing. Nobody likes to lose. But what does losing mean? Like almost everyone else, we give a meaning to a concept that derives from the situations we experience. You lose a wallet. An earring on a beach. A relationship. A job. Your confidence. A competition. A bet. Sometimes you lose weight…And so on The concept […]
Fear of missing out (FoMO) and the practice of a discipline
Have you ever picked up your smartphone to check for messages and updates even if you hadn’t received any notification with its sound? Have you ever opened your messaging apps to check if your message has been read? Finding yourself in the office, at home, in the car, traveling, on holidays, scrolling your finger for […]
“One centimeter game”: Miles Kessler and a mindful practice
This year we had again the privilege of participating in an Aikido seminar led by Miles Kessler Sensei, in the splendid environment of the Aiki no Kokoro in Boves (Cuneo, Italy). A total experience, from every point of view. It was also the first time in all these years that a training session was dedicated […]
“Death in his eyes”
“He has a killer look. He has death in his eyes.” “Aikido Tadashi Abe. Metodo Morihei Ueshiba ” is a book which recently came back to me, written a few years ago by one of the pioneers of Italian Aikido, Pier Domenico Anzalone. An interesting reading because it offers direct testimony of the first people […]