SKH at the BQC

What a pleasure it was once again to take a martial arts seminar from Stephen K. Hayes yesterday here in Boulder! The one-day seminar, hosted by the Boulder Quest Center, was a pleasing mix of several different interesting facets of ninja training. I promise I won't blog about the meditation and make it sound ridiculous (those at the seminar will remember his story about that). :) What I will do is give you lovely lurkers the highlights:

• Multiple-people scenarios. So many times in the dojo one works with just one partner. These scenarios (two attackers, one defender; two friends, one bad guy) helped to envision how these effective techniques can work when there's more than two to tango.
• Kevin-san demonstrates his bojutsu prowess (pictured) and is rewarded with promotion to shoden level weapons proficiency.
• Meditation on saying the right words, also changing the ending of a memory in a powerful way. Don't worry, An-shu, that's all I'm saying about it!
• Bonzuko's own Jenn gets to uke for Mr. Hayes himself! It's an honor to be tossed to the floor by a master such as him.
  
• But what stuck out most of all to me was the swordplay. Especially because the theme of using a lethal weapon non-lethally is just what has been recently on the mind and blog-posts of Daily-Cross-Swords. See here. Can you use a sword in defense, without cutting or killing? We learned a couple ways to do so. What timing, as Mr. Hayes said!

All in all, it was a great experience and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Thanks again, Mr. Hayes, for coming out to Boulder! Stay tuned, lovely lurkers, for more pictures as they come in. ~Jenn