Saturday morning was my first grading in aikido. I was almost nervous all week leading up to it, definitely nervous when I walked in to the dojo for the training session preceding the grading and really nervous waiting in the eternal moment before our names were called ( Read more... )

Sharply sparkling,
The spirit/mind of the person of the Way (do-jin)
Penetrates through to reveal
The evil devil that lurks inside the self.

- Morihei Ueshiba

your non-aikidoka partner offering to attack you so you can practice for your grading :)

Last night's training had ups and downs for me. As I'm grading soon Sensei asked me what techniques I wanted to practice. Good thing we did ( Read more... )

Last night was a great session of training for me. It turned into what we consider a large class. We had 12 aikidoka on the mats, four of whom are shodan. Often we only have six people on the mats due to family and work commitments. There were some brand new faces on the mat and a middle aged couple who sat and watched the session from start to ( Read more... )

The gentle way ( Read more... )

Saturday was my first training camp (gasshuku) experience. The camp was held from midday Friday to Sunday evening at the Erindale PCYC. There were 8 people being graded for 2nd and 3rd dan ranks which was exciting. Because Aikikai is an international group run from headquarters in Japan, it used to be that black belt (dan) grading could only be ( Read more... )

Rip away from your soul
The shabby rags it wears.
Open the way to Heaven's destiny.
So let it shine!

- Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido, not just throwing people around for fun.

Apparently the best thing for my sore neck is to be thrown across a room and repeatedly spun around to land face first into matting. The short massage given by a fellow aikidoka who just happens to be a professional masseuse didn't hinder it either ( Read more... )

Last night's training session was at the new location at the AIS. Gods how I miss the room we trained in there for the last two weeks! The new room is a hall intended for basketball and has a couple of drawbacks. One is the walk through the horribly humid and overwhelmingly chlorinated swimming pool area to get to it. The other is the amazing web ( Read more... )