last morning class of the year

My first year of Aikido is winding down, with today being the last morning class of the year, and tomorrow evening's class being the last class of the year.

This morning I was the senior student, a rarity that I kind of enjoy. We did some ukemi (break falls) and then worked on katatemochi nikajo osae II. My partner was pretty green, so we went through the technique slowly. R Sensei pointed out that working with a fresh student gives us a chance to see a natural, untrained reaction to the techniques. If I were to do nikajo, or any other technique, to a random person, they wouldn't react like a trained uke would. It's good to keep that in mind in case Aikido is used in an off-the-mat situation. The important things seems to be to observe the uke, watch and feel how they're moving, and allow their reaction to dictate the direction of your technique.