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Our dojo is very fortunate in that it receives regular visits from practitioners from all over the world, especially during the month of May, as it is particularly busy in Aikido events of all sorts. One of our recent guest instructors was Fabrice Croizé Sensei, a 6th dan instructor from Paris.

Fabrice Sensei is very well known in Europe for being one of the top three students of Christian Tissier Shihan, for whom he takes ukemi regularly during his demonstrations, including during the yearly Festival des Arts Martiaux held at Paris-Bercy. Fabrice also teaches regularly at Tissier’s dojo in Paris.

Christian Tisser Shihan demonstrating in Bercy in 2005. Fabrice is the fourth uke.

Fabrice regularly comes to Japan in order to practice at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo, as well as in Okamoto Yoko Shihan’s dojo in Kyoto. Guillaume Sensei therefore asked him if he would make time in his training schedule to come to teach a special class to the students of Yokohama AikiDojo, and Fabrice accepted wholeheartedly.

Fabrice is not only is he known for his amazing level of technical proficiency, but he is also considered as one of the most approachable and most pedagogic teachers in that particular line of Aikido. As a result, his dojo in Paris has grown quite successful, and he has trained a number of people who became instructors in their own right.

For the occasion, we extended the class to two hours instead of one, and moved it to the main gym in order to have ample space to practice. This was seemingly a good move since Fabrice Sensei focused his class on soto kaiten nage techniques, which tend to require relatively large amount of space and the performance of mae ukemi. In spite of his rather thorough and complex scaffolding of the technique, our less advanced students remarked on the way Fabrice was ale to pitch his instructions to their particular level, and helped them to follow along through the progression.

We reported previously on the Kagamibiraki promotions and as fate would have it, Fabrice Sensei has been promoted to 6th dan at the same time as our own head instructor, Guillaume Sensei. As a dojo, we hope that we can continue benefitting from the will to collaborate of this young generation of talented instructors.

After the class, we headed to a local yakiniku restaurant, before taking Fabrice for a stroll through Motomachi, as well as China Town. We would like to thank Fabrice Sensei for his kindness and for making the time to come to teach us some of his incredible skills. We hope to see him again soon during one of his future trips, and perhaps, even visit his dojo in Paris as a group one day!