Lifestyle Expo '92
Feb. 17 and March 8, 1992
As one of the instructors at The Thoreau Club (a health club in Concord, MA), I was recently invited to participate
in Lifestyle Expo '92. This event is essentially an open house for the club to promote
membership. To attract a larger audience, the club has invited various health related businesses to come and display their services. The Expo is three hours long on
March 8, 1992, attendance is free.
It was my intention to give a short demonstraton of Aikido using Steve Koon as Uke and perhaps
some of the students in the class. I was given a set of flyers, a poster, and coupons
to try out the health club. Unfortunately, I am listed on all these materials as
Mark Norton, Marshall (sic) Arts Instructor. Arrgh! At least they spelled Aikido right.
On the day of the expo, I arrived with my daughte, Cassie. A number of mats had been borrowed
from a local school which were laid on a concrete floor and covered with a rug.
Steve Koon arrived soon after and we tested out the mats together. We agreed that
it was a hard surface and that we would go easy on each other during the demonstration. Steve is also recovering
from an injury and has not practiced much lately.
I hadn't asked for a table for me, but one was provided, so I quickly created a small
display out of practice weapons and some photographs (Shodan test) that I carry around
with me. I handed out flyers for Northeast Aikikai to adults, and Thoreau Club flyers (which still say Karate on them) to people interested in classes for their children.
In all, I probably talked to 30 or 40 people. I met someone who had studied in
Cambridge many years ago, but gave it up due to lack of time. Gerry Rogoff stopped
by after the first demo, and left before the second. No one else came from our
dojo.
I presented a set of body techniques in the first demonstration. With the aid of
Steve Koon, I showed most of the basic Aikido forms against grabs, punches, and overhand
blows. Two of my students (Cassie Norton and Mark Fidelman) gave a short demostration of what the kids were learning in my Saturday class. This was well received.
As a grand finale, Steve and I showed some advanced Aikido techniques which included
some Henkuwaza, counter-techniques, and flashy falls (shihonage breakfalls, koshinage,
etc.). A PA system was available, but the accoustics were quite poor, so I gave no
verbal explanations of the art.
Steve had to leave after the first demo, which left me to do the second one alone.
The demo focused on weapon techniques. I demonstrated all jo suburi, the 21 and
31 step jo katas, and some basic jo transition moves. With the boken, I showed the
basic sword suburi, happo-giri, basic sword draws (Batto), and a freestyle sword demonstration
against multiple imaginary opponents. Background noise was much lower for this demo,
so I explained some of the techniques verbally (no PA). I then invited a member of the audience to come up and strike at me with a knive. I showed several ways
of avoiding a knife strike and potential disarms. The crowd liked this as well.
In general, the Expo was about what I expected it to be. I would estimate attendance
at around 500 people during the course of the day. Several people encouraged me
to open a studio in the Concord area, since they had little interest in driving to
Chelmsford to practice. There is a good deal of interest in an older children's class.
I had a reasonably good time since I didn't feel like I had to excel, perform,
or recoup an investment. The event was clearly good exposure for the Thoreau Club
and will probably be repeated next year. I had an opportunity to meet the owner of the Club
(who's name escapes me). I mentioned that lack of space and times to expand the
program to him.