I'm not dead, I swear

Ah yes, a new year bring new goals and promises to yourself to be a better person. After taking almost all of December off from training, I have it in my mind to be more diligent this year. I have my 1st kyu test to prepare for, and then it's the long march to shodan. But more important than testing or rank is making Aikido part of my daily life again.

It's important to realize that Aikido isn't about spending x number of hours in the dojo to achieve a certain level of proficiency. Instead, to me, Aikido is more about making training a natural part of who you are, where going to the dojo and training seem as natural as a morning cup of coffee or brushing your teeth before you go to bed. Unfortunately, Aikido hasn't been coming naturally to me for the past few months.

I'd like to get back to the point where Aikido is just something I do naturally and not feel that it's a struggle to get to the dojo. Here's to making a New Year's goal a reality.

what a hiatus

It's certainly been a long time since my last post, but I thought I might mention that I have received my brown belt with a rank of 2-kyu. Having a little color around your waist feels good, and while ostensibly it shouldn't affect my Aikido, I do find that I've gained a bit of confidence on the mat.

Since the test a few weeks ago, we've been preparing for our dojo's enbu (exhibition). We have less students participating than last year, but it should still be a good presentation. With that being said, I'm looking forward to returning to regular training without a test or anything looming ahead on the calendar.

Osu!

Random thoughts

We've done a lot of sankajo (third control) this week. It's always been one of my favorites, but at the same time it can be quite frustrating if you're not getting it right. However, I noticed a minor detail in Sensei's technique, reversing the way I hold uke's elbow, and incorporated it into my technique. At that point, the take down became much easier. I suppose that's the natural progression for improvement, but it's nice to see such immediate results.

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Lately we've been doing more complicated techniques in class. I pretty sure it's because Sensei's testing for 5th-dan this weekend. It's quite nice for the students looking to work on the harder techniques, but I'm sure it's tough for a beginner. Without the foundation from simpler techniques, it's easy to get lost when things get a little more complicated.

Yoshinkan jiyuwaza video

I found great example of Yoshinkan Aikido. This was filmed at Honbu Dojo and has some of the senior instructors in it. The jiyuwaza section starts at the 2:30 mark.

Enjoy

Fourth Kyu Shinsa

The official results don't come out until tomorrow, but I'm fairly certain I passed my fourth kyu test. This is great news. It's the last white belt test, and six months from now I'll be able to test for brown belt. Righteous!

I felt this was my best test to date. I didn't train at all the day before the test, and generally just tried to not think about it. I felt confident I had trained enough and my body knew all the techniques. My only goal was to be relaxed and calm for the test and trust my training.

This seemed to serve me well. I got a little tired during kihon dosa, but that's to be expected. When we came to the techniques, I may have done them a little to fast, without enough pause between the steps, but other than that I felt great. Saori was my uke and she's really easy to work with, so that also helped a lot.

In addition, I was Allen's uke for his seventh kyu test. He worked hard to prepare for the test and did well. Truth be told, I felt all seven people testing did quite well and took their test training seriously, which was apparent in the tests themselves.

Congrats everyone,

Osu!

Hard work makes it easy

We spent a lot of time yesterday and today on kihon dosa and my muscles can really feel it. The good thing is that I'm mostly feeling it in my hips and lower back, meaning these are the areas I'm using the most. While working on hiriki no yosei ichi and ni this morning, Sensei's instructions really started to click and I figured out a subtle change in the position of my hips to make my hiriki no yosei stance better.

For me, kihon dosa training is really frustrating, but the understanding you gain pays dividends when doing the techniques. The correct movements become more natural and instead of wondering why the uke isn't moving, you're left wondering why the uke went down so easily.

4th-kyu Test Training

Test training has started in earnest. This time around I'll be going for 4th kyu, the last white belt ranking. This'll put me six months away from my brown belt test. That will be a nice day.

One thing I'd like to work on during training and be evident on my test is greater balance and sense of uke's balance. I often lose my balance after a throw or when bringing uke down for a pin. This is obviously a lack of balance, and needs to be rectified sooner rather than later.