tyrone.id.au
The dojo birthday demonstrations were great.
I enjoyed the self-defence class and I think it's a shame that we don't do more of it.

We covered a version of shiho-nage and nikajo which were very practical and very effective. My wrists can vouch for that, nikajo is a killer any way you do it !!!
Another technique we did was almost like kotegaeshi but instead of turning the wrist over you just hold the wrist in place and drive down. That probably isn't a very good explanation, but it definately works. A very simple move that I will always remember. We also did a choke hold which was like a version of the classic sleeper hold but done from the side of uke instead of directly behind. Very, very effective. There were many red faces in the dojo after that session.

It's good to see aikido put in a practical light. I love doing kata but it's important to know how to adapt those techniques to the real, modern world.

Grading training has started for the Sogo Shinsa on 20 December 2003. I had some good instruction from a 3rd Dan on the Ushiro techniques. He showed me the footwork all broken down into steps which has helped me a lot. It's all in the footwork, isn't it?

I have always found with my training that if I have a problem, just forget about my hands and think about the footwork and my hip movement. Once that part clicks the handwork comes naturally. It's so easy to forget about my feet and when that happens, the technique falls apart.

I have plenty of training ahead for the next two weeks as I prepare for 3rd Kyu.
My first level of brown belt. OSU.