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Keiko on saturday was f-ing rad. I was so tired from being up all night with baby and 2-y/o but once we started warming up before bowing in, I perked up. I got to see one of my sempai who doesn't usually come to the thursday classes I've been attending lately. I'm a little bummed I didn't get a chance to train with him, but it was good to say hi in person and see him in action.
I first became interested in Aikido in high school after reading up on some martial arts. A friend of mine knew this and when he was asked if he wanted to check out an Aikido dojo, he asked me if I wanted to come along. This was some time in the mid 90's. I remember the visit vaguely, but I clearly remember watching this sempai training and being told he was about to take his gokyu test. When I began training in 1998 he was training as hard as ever. Now, in 2012, he's still training hard and is one of the senior deshi who often travels with sensei. After class we talked a little about some of the folks we remember training with. Right now I'm a little fixated on how much time has gone by, and while part of me certainly feels a degree of loss for how much I've let slip by, it's even more interesting just to sit back and observe the people who have kept at it with impressive dedication. It's also interesting to see the students who started after me and see a bit of how they've progressed.
As for keiko itself, in taijutsu we worked primarily on ai hanmi katate tori irimi ura kokyu nage, starting with a quick refresher on the katate tori approach (which is a little different than a decade ago). We did a couple different drills means to highlight things like connecting our center line to uke's rear shikaku. Of course I still feel very sloppy and I have the "great" habit of leaning forward while flexing every muscle in my body...ok not exactly, but with the reminders throughout practice it seemed that way sometimes. Good stuff!
03-04-2012 05:29 PM 