What a great weekend in Heidelberg - the first spring weekend of the year and the third year in a row that 62 dedicated Aikidoka came together for the 2026 International Shinki Rengo Aikido Dan course on 21/22 March! The participants came from Hattstedt (in the far north), Geretsried (in the far south), Aachen (in the far west) and Sibiu in Romania (in the far east). We also had three guests from other Aikido associations.
Nakajima Sensei, 7th Dan Shihan, led the meditation at the beginning of both training days. The members of the examination board demonstrated various Dan techniques from 1st to 4th Dan before Sensei continued with further 4th Dan techniques.
During the Saturday afternoon break, Friederike Mensch and her helpers organised the „Lunch-Lite“ event - a complete success! As always, Thorsten Gerth provided excellent coffee throughout the course.
On Sunday, Sensei taught us two hours of exciting, thought-provoking Aikido techniques.
We celebrated the successful examinations of four of our dojo members: Ulf Ritter to Shodan (1st Dan), Claus Neuwirth to Nidan (2nd Dan) and Tamás Haraszti and Alejandro Gvirtz to Yondan (4th Dan). Congratulations not only to Ulf, Claus, Tamás and Alejandro, but also to the coaches, sempai and everyone in the dojo who have made their commitment and dedication possible over the years!
Many thanks to all dojo members who made this event a complete success again!
We were all tired, but learned a lot and are really looking forward to next year - again in our dojo, this time on 15/16 March 2027!
English (UK)