5 - 12 October 2014

Leave your everyday concerns behind and train aikido full-time for seven days
Enjoy the uchi-deshi experience of 100% concentration on your practice
Reap the rewards of sustained study
Share a unique experience with a small group of dedicated students
Auckland Seishinkan offers New Zealand’s only residential intensive programme modeled on the Japanese uchi-deshi system. Students live and train in the dojo full-time for seven days with a minimum of five hours of structured classes each day.
This has proven to be a very powerful format for accelerating student’s growth in the art and as people. See what it can do for you!

Previous participants say;

The Intensive was, for me, a paradigm shift. Everything is now outside in (and down), and upside down, literally.
I have met Alan Roberts Sensei, on several occasions, over the last several years, and each time he has made a huge impact on me. This week long Intensive, however, was on another level.
It’s only been a few weeks since the Intensive ended. However, the break from before, to now, is already beginning to show. I now walk differently. My map for navigating my training is different.. And I dust everything more often.
Not 40 hours of training progress, but more progress than in the last 8 years of training.
I have a visceral and physical vocabulary to work with now. Working on what my other teachers had imparted, and I had been playing with only intellectually.
Initially, I was concerned about the weekend would be a constant reminder of my lack of Aiki weapons training.
It was. But, apparently, it was so for everyone.
I went in not knowing the choreography of the Iwama Aiki Ken sword kata. I came away with the beginning of an understanding of how to approach the kata and make them come alive.
The Aikido training came with the added benefit of 2 Evenings of Cheng Hsin… another different way of practicing what we had been talking about in the Aikido environment of the day’s training. In a more relaxed and playful setup, with a different practice, different set of tools, and perspective. This shift of environment allowed the lessons to be heard in another voice.
Our small, 5 person group, created an intimate and intense environment. This allowed almost one-on-one access to begin modelling Sensei’s process. To ask the questions and feel the answers. We each had the sense that everything that was said was for meant for us, individually.
The respect and esteem that the students hold for Roberts Sensei and the dojo is palpable. The dojo is light, beautiful, massive and inviting, including a well-appointed kitchen, showers, and comfortable sleeping arrangements for on the mat. Not at all the Spartan arrangement I had imagined.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. And I intend to do.
What would I do differently? I would make sure at least one more of my training buddies came along. A lot happens and I would want someone else to share the experience with and reference on returning.
The Intensive week showed me another level of depth to our art. Not another ten years of practice. An exponentially more complex opening up …. Just keep practicing!! But Who? Practicing What?
I can’t recommend this experience highly enough. It’s confronting, and illuminating, and over all too quickly.
~ Ben Ellis, Christchurch

The Intensive was an opportunity to seriously reassess my aikido and figure out what I need to develop to the next level. I found Roberts Sensei’s tutelage engaging, perceptive and accessible. He provided a coherent framework for approaching aikido that will enable me to make substantial improvement. ~ Adam D, Wellington

Being immersed in a 24 hour aikido environment allowed me to not only develop my technique dramatically, but also some of the discoveries I made forced me to rethink my whole approach to aikido. It isn’t that my goals have changed, but that there may be a better path to achieving them.
~ Ben Gill, Christchurch

I highly recommend the Intensive and feel it is a potentially life changing experience. The experience of being immersed completely in Aikido, the monastic approach to living in the Dojo without the distraction of everyday life, is an experience that is hard to put into words. The effect however, is to have been given direction and focus in my approach to my Aikido training and to my life. ~ Tony Laidler, Wellington