Summer has arrived

I started attending the early morning class last week and this combined with the rising temperature and accompanying humidity had me pretty wiped out by the end of the week. However, I did make it to all but the Friday morning class, making a total of 9 hours of training last week. Not bad.

The Friday and Saturday night classes were really enjoyable. In spite of being incredibly hot and humid in the dojo, both classes were fast paced and with more focus on fluidity and speed, obviously an essential element in Aikido. Friday night we worked on yokomen jiyuwaza techniques, shihonage, ikkajo, katatemochi and udegarami. In Saturday's class, we worked on katatemochi techniques, the first being a kokyu-ho, followed by strange, shihonage-based technique.

I really need to work on my flips, if only to use less energy when taking uke repeatedly. I'm so jealous when watching someone talented flipping and getting back to their feet. It looks like it takes no effort at all.