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Had a fantastic Aikido session last night. I’m glad I went, seeing as I’d had a very bad day at work and was tempted to go home and curl up with a pizza.

Ran through two hands from front, but the first hour was simply positioning - taking Uke to the point of throw, but not beyond. Starting slowly, and then building up speed, but never actually throwing Uke.

Far too often, Aikidoka concentrate too much on the actual throw, seeing how far Uke will fly, or how hard they can put them in the mat, or even just how well they can pin them so they don’t get up. Sometimes, as long as Uke gets to the ground, Tori is satisfied that the technique has worked. I am guilty as charged.

In a sense, the technique has ‘worked’ - Tori has successfully disabled Uke. However, that does not mean that the technique is correct.

Yesterday’s session forced us to make sure that Uke was actually at the point of throw - to the point that if you were to simply carry on the movement, Uke would fall. In effect, to the point were the finish is effortless and Uke actually throws themselves.

Five techniques - Irminage, Kaitennage, Tenchinage, Ikkyo and Shihonage. Techniques that we’ve all been ‘doing’ since yellow belt, but with a difference: by not actually applying the finish, we were more concerned with the actual technique.

The second hour was a repeat of the first, but with the finish added, and the technique performed at the correct speed. As we had concentrated keeping our posture straight, bending our knees and not our back, everyones technique was improved. I noticed my posture a lot more, and my actual technique had improved tenfold. I was able to feel Uke’s posture go and control him better as a result.

Of course, in a street situation, I would perhaps be not so concious of it - and the aim of practice is surely that: to make the technique so natural that you don’t break your posture.

Due to work commitments, I haven’t been on the mat since Shihan’s Funeral.

Last night was my first night back, and despite the trepidation of getting back on the mat after a three week hiatus, I had a pretty good session.

We started off with an extended session of exercises, with particular focus on pusture and focus in Ikkyo Waza and Tai Sebaki. As the mat was all high grades, Sensei got us concentrating on movements from the centre. I found that I was starting technique with my hands held too high, which was leading me to use my upper body and shoulders more than I should.

By dropping my hands to level with my centre, I found I was also dropping my centre, and the exercise seemed to flow better as a result.

Also, I was turning my centre away when doing Yokomen-Uchi. Adjusting my centre so that it faces forward is a bit uncomfortable, and something I’ll have to work on. I find it hard, as I am also concious of making sure I follow through the strike (i.e. you are not striking the side the head, but rather you are striking through the side of the head) this is causing me to lose balance slightly, so I need to work on this.

The session was very useful, as usually these exercises are rushed without any focus - and as a result, our discipline goes to pot…

But aside from a bruise in the silliest place (the tip of my finger! - totally my fault, I entered with the wrong hand.) I emerged scar-free

It’s been a while since my last Blog post, and the simple reason is that things have been so hectic.

Work has gone ballistic, I’ve been working 11 hour days just to keep up. My lack of experience in ASP.NET is showing, as I’m having to refactor time and again as fixing one thing breaks another. Give me pure c# any day!

In other news, our Shihan passed away two weeks ago. An extremely sad moment. He has been ill for sometime, and the last time I saw him was when he presented me with my Black Belt and Hakama. Quite a sobering thought that we will be the last group of Dan Grades to graduate under him.

He will be missed.

My weight has seemed to have stabalised, which is annoying. I’m still eating relatively healthy (although not tracking my WW points) but I think my lack of exercise at the moment is a big factor. Hopefully in a few weeks though, I will have some running trainers and I can start training in earnest.

Also on the footwear front, after a couple of years saying I was going to do it, I finally took the plunge and bought a new pair of Dr. Martens I had a pair through the last year of school and through college, and they were the best boots I have ever owned. Extremely durable, and very comfy, especially for a wide fit like me.

Now all I need to do is to go back to uni and become the perpetual student I know I want to be!

First Aikido session of the new year, and it didn’t go particularly well…

Perhaps I just got tired early, or the stress of work at the moment was starting to take its toll, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as usual.

The fact that I was paranoid about my hakama falling down didn’t help either… I needn’t have worried, as it was so wrapped into my belt my entire gi would need to have fallen apart for me to lose it, but it was too loose at the back, which affected my concentration somewhat.

We did a lot of work on tsuki (straight punch) to the face, incorporating Yonkyo, which was good, as the three of us who turned up on time asked the instructor for some practice - although my forearms are killing me today!

A variation of Kote-Gaeshi was also demonstrated, but it involved turning your back on Uke, and letting both hands drop behind your back - something I don’t like doing. Perhaps my weakest area is “two hands from behind” and this technique effectively turned the tsuki attack into “two hands from behind”. It would possibly work at speed, and might look good on a grading, although you may lose marks for letting your hands drop behind you.

I’m trying to use as much of the japanese terminology as possible. It threw me at the christmas gradings (where I was ukeing) when the head of the grading panel shouted out “Ryote Dori!” as opposed to the system number. We were all berated for not knowing our japanese and told we would be tested on it in future gradings. In that instance, It wasn’t so much the fact that I didn’t know the attack, more so that I was unprepared for the japanese command, and that I hesitated while I had to think if a) I had heard it correctly and b) double check myself that the attack was correct.

Fortunately, I wasn’t the one grading, but my Tori was less prepared than me. However, he responded well, improvising an iriminage (possibly aikido’s ‘get out’ technique? enter and throw… you can call it iriminage :))

As a result I am starting to use flash cards to try and learn the japanese terms for the techniques.

As an aside, I picked up a book today about “how to make the most of your money”, and flicking through, the first page I saw was regarding gift aid. In the UK, money donated to charity can be donated as “gift aid”, meaning the charity can claim the tax that you’ve paid when you earnt the money back. So for every £1 you donate, you’re effectively giving £1.28. The book turns this model on the head, saying if you intend to give £20 to charity, you only need to give £15.60, as the other £4.40 can be claimed back by the charity through gift aid. It then claims that you have still acheived your moral obligations, as you have given what you intended to give. I’d disagree with this, as you haven’t given £20, you’ve given £15.60, and are effectively claiming the gift aid for yourself… but perhaps that’s why I’m not a millionaire :)? The book also advised that you consider what you buy, and whether you get value for money… so I considered it, put the book back on the shelf, and left the shop.

I finally got my hakama today Although I graded 1st Dan back in July, In our Aikido association, Dan Grades enter a probationary phase where they still wear the brown belt and collect black bars towards full Dan Grade status.

Although I only got to wear it for about half an hour, it felt fantastic, one of the best feelings I have had. It is a wonderful way to round off what, overall, has been a pretty low year for me.

I have managed to pass the first test though, I managed to climb the stairs in it… but I am reliably informed that my first ‘Hakama Nage’ (Tripping over the hem of the Hakama) will not be far away!