Starting at the beginning
Many, many years ago (13 to be honest) I gained my shodan in Tomiki (Shodokan) Aikido. Because of moving around, college and working, I have been unable to train seriously for along time. Now I have found an excellent Iwama ryu dojo, with an excellent 5th dan (trained under Morihiro Saito sensei at Iwama - heck, I sold my Traditional Aikido books on eBay to be able to afford the classes!). The sensei is looking for me testing through the first few kyu levels relatively quickly (up to 3rd kyu if I'm not mistaken), but I was wondering if it would be better to begin at the beginning and progress at a more sedate pace? The dojo holds testing every month, so I wouldn't have to wait long to test when I was ready. Anyone got thoughts on this matter?
Also, the testing syllabus mentions shomenuchi ikkyo undo as part of the 5th kyu testing requirements. Does anyone have the address of a website that has descriptions of aiki taiso (I think that is what the set of exercises are called)?
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