Friday Seminar Review

It's been a crazy February and March, but things are finally settling down; I hope to stay out of airports for at least the next few weeks.

Last weekend in MN was a blast as always and I'm still recovering from the cumulative lack of sleep. Mark Larson sensei taught 8 hours of aikido from Saturday morning to noon on Sunday. He focused on "muna-dori" (front collar grab) techniques on Saturday and ken awase variations. Sunday we did some ken-tai-jo and shou-men-uchi irimi-nage.

I had a great time practicing with everyone and visiting with people I only see once a year. If you can get the chance, definitely put the MN Spring seminar on your schedule for next year.

This coming Friday (4/4) I will be reviewing techniques from the seminar and the weapons for the week coincidentally happens to be ken-tai-jo which we did last Sunday with Larson-sensei.

After practice we will head next door to Colorado+ for some food and brews if you're into that sort of thing.

See you on the mat!

ASL Feb 2014

Greetings!

In case you haven't been following along at home, Tyffany and I just returned from a week at Aikido of San Leandro as uchideshi with Hendricks-sensei, and attended our first CAA (California Aikido Association) Division 1 training.

After Hendricks-sensei's weapons seminar on Saturday, we got to view two san-dan tests and Jerome Buenviaje Sensei's (from Takemusu Aikido New Mexico) dynamic go-dan demo.

We also went to the all CAA training and meeting on Sunday where Pat-sensei introduced us as a new dojo under her in Division 1. At the meeting we met our CAA neighbors from Denver Aikikai, Edgar-sensei and Don, who are in Division 2 under Frank Doran sensei.

Check out the meeting minutes here for all the details (PDF):
http://ai-ki-do.org/MeetingFeb2014.pdf

It is a great honor to be a part of the CAA and benefit from the technical lineage of Pat Hendricks sensei who started training at the Iwama dojo about the time I was born (!). As a CAA dojo we are also able to register our dan (black belt) ranks with Hombu dojo in Tokyo, Japan.

Hope to see you on the mat soon!

Charles

President's Day Week 2014

Charles-sensei will be at Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa for some beer thing Monday, then with Tyffany at Aikido of San Leandro Tuesday through Sunday.

Tyffany is teaching class Monday night (2/17), 7:30-8:30 so come on out! JM-sempai will be teaching during the week. Check the calendar for training days and cancellations!

Weapons next week is 31 jo kata. Getting ready for 2nd kyu? Need to work on your 31. Gambatte!

New Monday Night Classes

We're adding to the schedule!

Monday night classes will start next week and go from 7:30 to 8:30. That will give us a total of 5 and a half hours of training time each week.

See you on the mat!

Evan's 6th Kyu

My son Evan just took his 6th kyu test Friday and received his certificate. He's the first student to test with us and holder of certificate #1.

Evan started training with us at Kiryu Aikido down in Lone Tree before we started Kinjo Dojo and got a great start on his aikido path with Andrew Blevins Sensei.

I'm looking forward to more tests and demos in the future as our dojo continues to grow. As I said after Evan's test, the hard part is preparing for the test and showing what you know to sensei. The test or demo is about showing the rest of the dojo what you have learned.

Great job, Evan!

2nd Kyu: Halfway to Shodan

I sent out an e-mail yesterday to our incoming kyu ranks that will be testing for 2nd kyu. These are students that, for one reason or another, had to take a break from their training at other schools and are now interested in joining us on the mat at Kinjo.

This morning I did some math on the day requirements for all of the kyu ranks up to shodan (1st degree black belt). Ni-kyu (2nd kyu) is right in the middle. The time spent on the mat up to ni-kyu is equal to the typical remaining time needed to reach shodan. That makes it a major milestone.

Aikido should be enjoyable first, and also provide an opportunity for you to push yourself to get better than you were yesterday. The test requirements set up by Hendricks Sensei follow a natural progression of aikido understanding. Whenever I put you up there to do your test/demo, you've already passed. Now it's time to show everyone what you've learned.

がんばって! (gambatte: "do your best")

Keiko Osame 2013

We will have our last official practice of the year on Thursday, December 19th, so come on out.

This will be a short practice where we will reflect on our brief time as a dojo in 2013 and look forward to a great year ahead in 2014.

Afterwards we will head over to Namiko's for delicious Japanese food.

Facebook event links are below. Hope to see you there!

Event: Keiko Osame

Event: Dinner at Namiko's