Aikido progress

I started back at Aikido with commitment as of September 2005, after a 2 year hiatus.

I’m now 15kg lighter and can handle the ukemi’s, they aren’t pretty but I’m not dazed as a result

Saturday just gone was my fourth grading, I graded for 5th Kyu, although I know I didn’t do everything right, I’m confident that I was within the acceptable band.

My Suwari-waza Shoman-uchi Ikkajo-osae Ichi was a little weak in the first step out after the atemi.
I didn’t do a very good Shomen-uchi Shomen Irimi-nage Ichi, a big thing for me to work on.
And I didn’t do the Shumatsu-Dosa Sotaidosa ichi/ni very well, I didn’t account for my uke’s height.

My uke was a tall brown belt and was very gracious and commented my Yokomen-uchi Kote-gaeshi Renzoku had a strong Kote-gaeshi.

This all ratifies my belief that this grading was my “slow down and think” grading, I have 4th and Jun-3rd kyus ahead of me before grading for brown belt, so I need to start to revisit what I have learnt in previous grading training weeks and normal classes.

Reading this all back sounds like I didn’t do too good, but I think I did well enough to pass as I tried to ensure I had as much spirit in my grading that I could muster, ensuring I got off the mat faster than I have ever done before, and ensuring I used strong kiai and loud osu.

I’ll do up a glossary to explain the terms I use here as well as put up more links for Aikido.

Cheers,

Mark