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Go Back   AikiWeb Aikido Forums > AikiWeb AikiBlogs > Seeking Zanshin: Blood, Sweat, Tears & Aikikai

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Seeking Zanshin: Blood, Sweat, Tears & Aikikai Blog Tools Rating: Rate This Blog
Creation Date: 02-24-2005 10:53 PM
jducusin
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One small gal + a dojo full of big guys = tons o' fun
Blog Info
Status: Public
Entries: 270 (Private: 12)
Comments: 195
Views: 827,046

In Testing Nothing Better to Do Entry Tools Rate This Entry
  #268 New 01-03-2012 11:58 AM
So, it's been almost two years now since I got to Shodan, and there's still no proverbial "bun in the oven" to speak of...

Might as well go for Nidan!

Which is great, because it dovetails with my desire to work myself back into a periodized conditioning cycle. I found it both energizing and motivating during the run-ups to both Ikkyu and Shodan. I just have to be very careful not to let that, coupled with my hectic work schedule, stress me out to the point of becoming overtrained again. And that wasn't very fun at all.

Over the last couple of years, I've some to realize that I am an intensely goal-oriented person. What really motivates me is having a tangible challenge to overcome. One that can definitely be measured. So for me, this results in the one of two major downsides to Aikido not being competitive.

The first, of course, is that it is relatively easy for many practitioners prevent their techniques from being tested. You just have to look at some of the nonsense on YouTube to see what I mean: yudansha with such poor form that -- at "best" - wouldn't move a bigger, stronger opponent and at worst, would put the defender off-balance instead of the attacker.

But I digress. Maybe I'm just a little snarky because the majority of people I've trained with for the last nine years (happy Aikido anniversary to me!) have all been bigger and stronger than me and I've had to learn the hard way.

Anyway. The second consequence is that I have to rely upon the rank promotion cycle to put the pressure on. And what did Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games say about pressure?

"Well, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls!"

The way I'm upping the ante for myself this time around is that I want to test for Nidan at B.C. Summer Camp 2013 (though this June might actually be do-able, according to Sensei, I'm not holding my breath). In front of over a hundred Aikidoka from across Canada. In front of testing panel ranked Shidoin and up. In front of Osawa Shihan, who has never met me and whose lighter style of movement is markedly different from that of the late Kawahara Shihan's (whose technique my own Sensei and by extension, my own, have been patterned after). Stare and judge, people. Stare and judge.

Let the games begin.
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