I attended the National Aikido Seminar of the Slovak Aikido Federation (SAA) over the weekend (26&27.1.2019) in Ostrava, CZ. The stage was also a celebration of 30 years of Aikido at the Aikido SKP Dojo in Ostrava, and a celebration of Quaranta Sensei (technical director of SAA) receiving the Seventh Dan. As a result, there were more than 250 Aikidoka on the tatami during our trainings. I started out in Graz at 4 in the morning, driving with two colleagues from Aikidoschule Graz, in order to get to the Dojo for the first training at 10. Even though I was tired from the trip, the moment the training started, all the energy was back. The stage was organized in three sessions, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday morning. On the tatami Quaranta Sensei opened the stage and started the new year with one of the basics: Ikkyo. This also set in place a central theme of the stage: focusing on techniques on the vertical axis and on spiral movement, both for Tori and Uke. I found it par