Category: aikido

Aikido demonstration

Yesterday our dojo (Aikido of Plano) and Aikido of Dallas did an Aikido demonstration at the annual  Japanese Fall Festival (Aki Matsuri).  We started by showing the way a typical class is run, which allowed me and some of the other newer students to participate. We ran through 3 techniques. I was happy to find that I didn’t completely screw up. The mats were a little hard to move on, as they’d been heating up in the sun and were kind of sticky. But I think we did a good job.

After the “class” demonstration, some of the senior students had the chance to demonstrate some more advanced techniques. It is always great to see the really good Aikidoists practicing. Very smooth and powerful with dynamic throws. I shot a few pics for the bibliosk8.net gallery — click the image below of this very dynamic hip-throw to go to the gallery.

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Fitness level

After moving into our house, I have spent a couple of weeks just doing odds and ends after work, trying to get everything settled. So I missed about two weeks of Aikido practice. I went back to practice Monday night, and was very pissed that my fitness level had just crumbled after two weeks of inactivity. My Aikido wasn’t really any worse, but the first two techniques just wore my ass out. So I resolved to really start working on my cardio. Aikido is an amazing workout, and skateboarding is good for balance, but neither is good for cardio.

 So I’ve got my bike out and been riding. I have a 1995 Giant ATX 750 mountain bike. Got some “city” tires put on it last year. The bike still works like a charm. Went out to the bike path that goes down to White Rock Lake. Didn’t ride the the loop around the lake, but the path down there is about 6 or 7 miles long. Went yesterday too. So that’s two 13 mile rides. Not bad. Gonna keep working on that on non-Aikido days.

Another good thing about Aikido

This week I went and practiced some flatland freestyle skateboarding for the first time in about 6 months. I skated great. Hadn’t lost anything. In fact, I skated better, and required practically no warm-up.

I credit 6 months of Aikido practice. The art has made me stronger, more agile, more flexible, and just improved my condition in general.

I’ve not been able to practice as much due to a sore knee, but that seems to be getting better. Last Saturday we did practice with the wooden sword. It was fun and fascinating, and started to reveal just how much of Aikido is based on swordsmanship. Very cool.

Aikido in Monterrey, Mexico

Next time we’re in Monterrey for a few days this might be a nice place to get in a training session for Aikido — http://www.aikidomty.com

There’s a video from this dojo in my VodPod links — down in the right-hand sidebar.

Looks like they are part of the Mexican Aikido organization, which is a member of the International Aikido Federation, with which we are affiliated via the United States Aikido Federation. So it looks like we are all part of the same overall organization.

Balance and Flow

Just a note on Aikido. I need to pay a lot more attention to my balance and posture. When I try to execute a technique fast, I often feel off balance — exactly the opposite of what should be happening. I think I need to practice the moves a little bit slower, but try to keep my flow and balance. Kind of like good skateboarding — flow and balance. Smooth. But when I do hit an Aikido technique pretty good, man, it feels good. Amazing actually.

At this point, I think it is hard to keep good posture because I’m thinking about so many other aspects of the techniques. But as I get better with the basic movements — the footwork, direction, grips, etc. — I think I’ll be able to fine tune my posture, and move more powerfully from my center.