Masters of Martial Arts Expo

Today was awesome! We took some amazing classes with some wonderful instructors for an expo that our school hosted from 11-4. The Rochester school has officially been open for 2 years and Sifu invited several practitioners to teach as a way to celebrate. We had the opportunity to study some Aikido with Sensei Aldus and observe as he and his student worked with swords and did some partner work and strikes. They rolled a number of bamboo looking mats and then soaked them in water - making them "flesh like" and then placed them on stands. Then they would do a series of strikes - slicing though the mats several times with clean swoops of the sword. Sifu said that it was pretty easy to knock the stand over- more so than actually completing the cut. It takes great skill to do what we saw today. I can't even imagine practicing with a REAL sword. Very intense focus! Then we studied some Brazillian Jujitsu, Kali Arnis - which meant working with sticks with a partner. Then in the last class of the day we learned a Karate kata. I love learning forms and we actually were shown the entire form. A lot of the hand positions were different than what we study in Kung Fu - but it was awesome to really focus and try to flow though the form. It was amazing to watch Sensei Hurtsellers do the kata. I love to watch someone who has studied the art for so long. Besides my amazement with their physical movement, I like to watch their focus. You can just tell by looking at their eyes, that they are in the deepest form of concentration and visualization. He is also a great speaker like Sifu and I find myself very inspired every time we have the honor of his presence at our school. So another inspiring day yet again!