After a hiatus of a few weeks, I'm back to my martial arts practices. The break was enjoyable in some ways, but it's good to see everyone and catch up, to move that way again, and to experience (and contribute to) the energizing effects of the space and practice.

This entry was originally posted at http://ironphoenix.dreamwidth.org/267938.html. ( Read more... )

I passed my shodan (first-degree black belt) test in aikido yesterday, after about 15 years of practice! I'm still in Montreal for day 2 of the seminar where the tests are held, feeling a bit stiff and sore from the 5 hours of practice yesterday; it'll ease up once I get back on the mats and moving, and I have tomorrow to recover.

I'm back from Aikido Summer Camp! I made it thorough uninjured, although pretty much everything is sore, stiff, abraded, and/or bruised. Over the 6 days I was there, I attended 28 classes, taught by senior instructors from Canada, the US, France, and Argentina; my body surprised me by being up for more classes than I expected. A quarter of those ( Read more... )

Off to aikido summer camp... see y'all in a week!

I've just registered for the US Aikido Federation Summer Camp: a week of pretty much flat-out aikido, at the end of July. It promises to be intense!

My ikkyu (what would be brown belt in most arts that use colors for ranks) test in aikido is scheduled... Wednesday the 28th. This is the last one I'll do here; black belt tests are done out of town, at seminars.

It has been a long time coming, in large part because I've put it off.

I think my test time at aikido is coming soon... I should skip Wednesday evening games at Carleton more to practice up. My "grid", as it's called, is pretty much settled, and now I'm just trying to drill the specific techniques into my hindbrain. The grid is a matrix of five basic throws by a dozen basic attacks; one constructs a set of ( Read more... )

It's simultaneously flattering and humbling to have so many folks at the dojo willing, nay eager, to help me with preparations for my first kyu test, which I expect to take sometime around March.

I'm working on getting ready for my ikkyu test in aikido; this is the last test before shodan (first degree black belt), and the last one I will take at my home dojo. It's a technically demanding test, and a psychologically tough one too: there have been a lot of hard acts to follow at this level. My "grid" of techniques for each possible attack ( Read more... )

I must really like aikido ( Read more... )