By Dominique Pouchard
Bolvir, it is a bucolic setting where the green of the lower Cerdagne valley and the immaculate white of the peaks, still covered with snow, mix in early spring. Around this Catalan village in the province of Girona, France and Spain also seem to mix and we go from one country to another without even noticing it.
Diversity is also in the participation in the Naginata seminar. Three countries were present, Spain with people coming in numbers from Barcelona, those who came from the west, from the Basque city of Pamplona and those who live far south in Andalusia. From France we came from Paris, Toulouse and Mérignac. Finally from Belgium, Yolanda arrived from Brussels.
We supervised the seminar with Loïc and the program of the two days gave equal attention to technical work and its applications in the fight in Bogu. In addition to the review of the classical bases of the practice of naginata, Kamae, tai-sabaki, uchi, happō-buri, uchi-kaeshi…, some themes have been deepened : to evolve the practice from a simple strike to the realization of large and effective cuts, the importance of Seme, of Maai and the central line between the fighters, observation, essential tool in the shiai with mastery of different attack opportunities… and more classically the Ki-ken-tai no ichi as well as the ippon criteria.
On the two days it was possible deepen knowledge of each shikake-ōji wasa. However, there was not enough time to study Zen Nihon Naginata Rei-me Kata. This was not a priority because of the majority of kyusha participants in the seminar.
On Sunday morning, the objective of the work was to put into practice the previous day’s achievements in a long «Asa mawari-geiko».
The seminar stopped at the end of the morning and at the time of the assessments everyone seemed satisfied and sometimes a little tired. On our side we were positively satisfied with the full commitment of everyone in the training, and finally the very good technical level of this group.
We also do not forget the cordial atmosphere of all moments, in and out dojo and the final touch before everyone takes the road again, the hot bath in the «Onsen» of the village of Llo. A big thank you to all and especially to Spain, our new European nation of Naginata.