This is a personal review of the Norwegian Aikido Federation (NAF) Vinterleir (winter school), 15 - 18 March in Tromso. Jessica Loeb and myself formed the London contingent - unfortunately Francis and Craig who were due to come too were not able to in the end.

Tromso is a very nice small town in the north of Norway, well inside the arctic circle. At this time of year there is plenty of snow and yet the daylight is a good 12 hours (it is far enough north to range from almost no daylight mid-winter to no real darkness in summer). There is not a vast amount to Tromso, but one of its attractions is that it seems to take about 10 minutes by car to go anywhere, including being out of the town and in some lovely nature.

The Vinterleir is traditionally taught by Bjorn Eirik Olsen (6th dan), Technical Director of the NAF, but this year, in honour of 30 years of aikido in Tromso (which was the first club in Norway at all), they invited Suganuma Sensei (8th dan). He has been 11 times to Norway but always in the south for the summer camp, and I think he very much enjoyed the different surroundings of snow and nature.

This also worked out very well as they have the Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba leading the summer camp in July this year. That promises to be a rather larger affair than usual!

I have actually been half a dozen times to the Vinterleir - there was a period when I went every year, but the last time was 5 years ago - Benedict who is now 4 and a half years old changed life a little!

As ever, the welcome in Norway is always extremely friendly and the atmosphere is a huge part of the success of the camp. Most people stayed with dojo members which was very nice, and in my case, together with Geirr from Oslo, we were kindly looked after by Ingelill.

It was great to see that Suganuma sensei had brought a large party from Fukuoka - nine in all. As was mentioned at one point in the speeches, it was also very nice that the Japanese group were not just fairly senior teachers, but ranged from a 17 year old to a 70 year old, and beginners to a 6th dan.

Suganuma Sensei

The training itself was excellent as usual - very clear and precise. Suganuma sensei's teaching seems to vary very little from year to year, and is very unflashy on the surface and always seems to be oriented towards the basics in these courses. He is always very clear about techniques and gives lots of smaller pointers to particular things to watch out for ranging from use of atemi to positioning for maximum safety during nikkyo.

There are times when this can almost seem a little boring - and it certainly contrasts with Inaba sensei who spends quite a lot of time talking/lecturing during courses can also give some very interesting food for later thought and reflection (although some people find that very boring!).

Suganuma sensei is very attentive during the practice and frequently helps beginners with great patience, including taking ukemi for them to make sure they have understood.

Over the years it has become an interesting exercise to tease out more from what Suganuma sensei is demonstrating, and I was starting to get a better sense of how he uses his body and energy, and feels the connection with his partner. I still have lots of questions about the "shape" of some of his techniques which I can not replicate without expending a lot more muscle in comparison with other ways of doing the same techniques. Something to work on next time.

One very interesting point for me was when he mentioned how often we tend to provoke a negative response from our partners by inappropriate or hard techniques. This is something I am finding very fruitful for my current practice.

I will certainly be back again, although am interested to know if his teaching varies for example in his home dojo(s), although an interview with him implies that it doesn't. It was very useful to practice a little with Tokuda sensei (6th dan) and get an alternative feel from someone who has trained with Suganuma sensei for many years. A very clear use of energy and sense of sticking and controlling in some techniques. I would love to arrange a visit on a future trip to Japan. For me a lot of the interest is because of the contrast with Inaba sensei - two very inspiring, but very different, teachers.

My Class

Due to the number of people on the course and the size of the main dojo not being sufficient to accommodate everyone, people were divided up into groups and roughly a third went off for a separate class at various points. I was asked to teach one of these and had some fun doing it.

I taught a somewhat relaxed and very much feeling based class rather than technique based, mainly because this is what I am finding most interesting in my personal practice at the moment. We started with some breathing exercises, breathing out and sucking the belly in, and then rotating the hips to drop the tanden/belly forward and using this to allow a fast in-breath, but with no hint of force or strain. It is important to feel as if breathing first into the belly and not fill the upper chest, or at least not let stiffness in there. Also there can be a temptation is to "sniff" which tends to stiffen the body - I find it much easier to do with an open mouth. This exercise certainly seemed a little strange at first, but I then built on it to show some simple techniques, e.g. from katatedori, where I find that an out-breath to absorb your partner's attack/energy, followed by a quick in-breath seems to release some energy upwards which makes it much easier to lift their arm and indeed their energy.

I then focussed on keeping very soft and relaxed arms and shoulders while performing simple koky-ho from ryotedori (2 hand grab) or tenchinage, and allowing the arms to drop in a very relaxed manner without any sense of strain or pushing.

People seemed to enjoy it (after the initial confusion perhaps on the breathing and where I might be going with it!) and I had several appreciative comments afterwards which is always nice. My sources are mainly Inaba sensei's teaching regarding the breathing, and Peter Ralston's book "Zen Body-Being" for a fascinating approach to relaxation and effortless power which I am finding very rewarding to study.

Grading

I missed the kyu grading, but watched the dan grading on Saturday with interest: three shodans and two nidans, of whom I knew 4: Vegard, Steinar, Haakon and Kai Hare. The shodan grading took a good 20 minutes or more - any number of techniques being required to be demonstrated. Somewhat unnecessary in my opinion, but then Inaba sensei does rather tend to an alternative approach others find not rigorous enough. Interestingly the nidan gradings were shorter, since the requirement to work through the basic techniques was dropped in favour of a more free style approach. The candidates all did very well and deservedly passed. A nice surprise at the end was when Stein-Are Engstad was called out - he seemed very surprised and didn't know quite what was going on only to be awarded his yondan.

The Party

As always the party on Saturday night was a great success, and this year was held in Polaria (the Polar Centre) - one of the main tourist attractions in Tromso. The food was delicious and there were some very good speeches around the celebration of 30 years. Birger Sorenson was present who started the club in Tromso as a 4th kyu back in 1977. In that first group were Bjorn Eirik and Kore (both present) so we were treated to a few reminiscences of life back then (including some slightly alternative views of exactly what did go on!), and a little earlier in the evening a slide show of some photos over the years.

Suganuma sensei also spoke, and offered his congratulations. He also mentioned that in the summer camps a few years ago I had asked him the question "What was the most important thing in Aikido?" He answered that it was musubi or connection. A couple of years later, I asked him the same question, not wishing to catch him out, but genuinely interested if he had changed his mind or not. When this was pointed out to him at the time, he saw the funny side, and this year saved me the trouble of asking it again by saying that he still thought musubi the most important thing!

I realised that he had demonstrated the importance of "connections" off the mat as well - it is one of the qualities that make him the very impressive man that he is. You don't build an organisation of 100 or so dojos over 30 years if you can't establish and more importantly maintain good connections with people. There are lots of aikido teachers who are technically very capable, but very few who have the personal qualities and lack of ego of Suganuma sensei. I am sure that his many years of study of zen alongside his aikido has had a large influence.

The dancing afterwards was ably lead as ever by Bjorn Eirik and Birger Sorenson! Having been kicked out at 1am those of us who were left walked through the centre of a still buzzing Tromso, and while the main diehards went to the "Fun Pub", a smaller group of us enjoyed a beer at a slightly quieter local. The morning did however roll around rather early!

Touristy Things

The hosts had arranged a visit on Sunday morning for the Japanese, and Jessica and I tagged along. We took the cable car up the mountain on the mainland (to 420m), and were met by a couple of Sami (Lapp) hosts who gave us a reindeer sleigh ride and some coffee in a "lava" or tepee like tent. It seemed rather touristy and kitsch at first, but thanks to the really friendly and genuine guides turned out to be a lot of fun. The reindeer sleigh rides were only a quick circuit of perhaps 200m, but my ride became a touch more interesting when in response to my question "do you ever race?", much encouragement was given to the reindeer who promptly got over excited and veered off course heading for his mates down the hill. It turns out that reindeer don't like to be touched, and aren't terribly easy to control - starting out consisted of pulling the reindeer forward with them initially resisting, and then turned into a quick sprint and a leap on to the sledge as the reindeer suddenly bounded off!

Our hosts were young guys whose family apparently has some thousands of reindeer in their herd who spend the summer around Tromso (from April onwards), but they winter about 100km further south and inland where the climate is drier and the snow easier to dig for lichen/moss in. They were very friendly and enthusiastic with their explanations on details of dress and life, and it was very enjoyable. The only problem was that our time was a little limited and it would have been great to have a walk after lunch given the great weather up there.

Conclusion

A great course, leaving me feeling rather well exercised, and with some more happy memories to add to the store associated with Norway. Thanks to Bjorn Eirik and all the other members of Reimeikan.