Like every year, the Hombu Dojo was closed for a week over the summer. Hombu students usually take advantage of this free time to gather in order to train informally, even though the heat of Japanese summers can be pretty exhausting. On one of these days, I met with at the Shinjuku Sports Center my friend Nicola Rossi, a 4th Dan student of the Hombu Dojo, and we proceeded to throw each other while taking a few videos. This video is pretty interesting for me since it was the first time that I made use of a Glidecam to film some Aikido practice. I wish we could have included all of these shots in this video but both both our lack of experience (leading to some jerky footage) and the fact that the Glidecam is not necessarily the most appropriate tool on subjects that turn and rotate quickly (as opposed to those that move on more or less linear patterns), we had to include some larger static angles in order to stabilize the overall feeling and help the viewers get a sense of where in space we were. Still, the result is pretty promising and I look forward to using the Glidecam again for Aikido videos!
Practice in Shinjuku Gyoen. Tori: Guillaume Erard, Uke: Nicola Rossi
Nicola Rossi is a very talented Italian Aikidoka who also cross-trains in Ju-jutsu and Judo. It was the first time that we trained together out of the Hombu Dojo and our differences in size and style were a challenge at first, especially since we really wanted to demonstrate in this video the harmonious side of Aikido. Overall, I am pretty happy with these videos even though I am pretty sure that with some more practice, we can improve a bit on the blending.
Tori: Nicola Rossi, Uke: Guillaume Erard
