ASU students practicing Kokikai Aikido, a modern Japanese martial art, had the chance to train with its creator over the weekend.
People traveled from as far away as Washington and New York to attend the three-day event, which began Friday and continued through Sunday at the Student Recreation Complex.
Master Sensei Shuji Maruyama, who developed Aikido, travels to the United States only three times a year for annual events. The Fall Camp, a training event, is held alternate years at ASU. This was the fifth time the University has hosted the event.
The camp gave students the chance to exchange ideas and train with the Aikido founder.
"We always practice the same techniques, but Maruyama Sensei always shows us small tricks I never realized," said Firat Testik, an aerospace engineering graduate student who has been studying the art for more than three years.
Veronica Burrows, Aikido instructor and adviser of the ASU club, said the Fall Camp gave students an opportunity to get exposure to senior-level instructors.
"The art is noncompetitive," she said. "We meet, we learn and train from each other."
Aikido is different than other marital arts because it is purely defensive, Burrows said, and it can be executed using full contact without injury.
Rebecca Webb, a religious studies and English senior and the ASU club's president, has been practicing Aikido for three years. She said she was drawn to it because of its unique style and moral undertones.
"Aikido is a nonviolent martial art," she said. "In other martial arts they'll block and counterattack. In Aikido you use the attackers' energy against them instead of trying to combat it."
Webb added that the lessons learned in the martial art could be carried over into other aspects of life.
"Any forces working against you, you can work with," she said. "Instead of trying to fight the bad things in your life, you can transform them into something good."
The ASU Kokikai Aikido Club meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the SRC.
Reach the reporter at katherine.j.krzys@asu.edu.
