Time for Training

I will be focusing on preparing for my last aikido test, sandan,  which will be in May.There have been a lot of delays in my being able to perform it due to work and injury.  The test will be in Montreal at the USAF Spring Camp at Aikido de la Montagne.  There are no more tests in aikido after sandan. I believe this will take time from my writing as I will be training during my normal writing time.  I am up and reading/writing at 0300 and that is the optimal time for me to get my road work and weight training in.  I will be doing a lot of sword work , too.  The sword leads the way for aikido techniques.

I have been practicing aikido since 1987 and Iaido since 1997.  They are both very interesting and challenging disciplines.  After a long time training the saying that “Aikdio is a feeling” makes sense.  As my sensei says, aikido is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.  The magic wand to higher levels of control and performance is everyday training.  That is a fantasy kill to a lot of would be practitioners.  Seen in movement aikido looks almost choreographed.  But that is because the attacker and the defender are connecting with each others centers and flowing with each other.  Also,there can be in some techniques an unseen drama being played as first the attacker becomes the defender as the defender becomes then the attacker, continued till one takes control.  Like a series of muscle cells firing from positive to negative and back again…and again.  And this daily practice enhances that “feeling” of connectivity.

There are millions of words written by many people in regard aikido.  It is something that must be done to understand, though.  The simple becomes the complex and the complex becomes the simple in aikido.  Moving your foot from point A to point B while moving through a technique and keeping ones structure intact is a challenge that takes a long time to conquer, simple as it is.  Intricate, flowing technique become simple when seen a series of basic movements where one moves from point A to point B while keeping ones structure intact…

Physics rule in aikido yet personalities manifest through it as well.  The living aspect of it allow one to have their technique be representative of ones self.  Big and open, sweeping and flowing or small and closed and short and direct. It can be  done with compassion and control or with bad intentions and no sense of ones self.  The latter do not last long in aikido I have found.  There is a saying in aikido, “now its my turn.”

So, I will be focusing on a lot of things in regard my training for the next five months and hopefully I will be able to still provide some input here as well for those of you that honor me with your presence.

The picture above is the technique Sankyo.  That basically means Third Technique, though waza is the word for technique.  I found the picture at Stefan Stenudd Sensei’s web page Aikido: The Peaceful Art.

Here is a nice clip of the man that I will be testing under, Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei, the head of the USAF East.  His uke, or attacker is Donovan Waite Sensei, 7th Dan.

So, I hope my journey from now till my test is not too boring, but I will be writing about some of it as well as my social commentary.

Pax y amor a todos.