Shadowfax

Try not to focus on working out techniques at home. You really need another person for practice since every persons body moves differently and so there is no real one right way t do a technique every time.

I have found it useful to simply pay close attention to my natural movements. How I am standing, where my weight is, where my balance is. Finding ways to move better. When I started aikido worked as a cook and part of my day every morning was to hand chop about 70 heads of lettuce. I spent the time paying attention to how I was holding the knife.How I was standing, what muscles I was using, where was I too tense etc.

Now I do another job that has a lot of physical work and I pay close attention to how a moving and what I might do differently. Sensei also has had us play with some tai chi type movement where we can really study how we move as we walks by taking a step at a time very slowly and paying attention to how balance shifts as we move weight from one foot to the other. It can be really interesting and a good way to use the time spent waiting for elevators or buses.

Explore movement in every day life and find ways to apply principles you learned in the dojo.At least for me this has been the most useful practice for off the mat.