Welcome to South Austin Aikido

This past Sunday we had two tests with Chris Weber testing for Gokyu and Gilbert Hughes testing for Nikyu.

Chris got to go first and did a fabulous job of moving and bending his knees. His posture was good and he easily handled all of the required techniques, plus plenty of extra ones. His randori was off of the charts as he used the entire mat and kept all of his ukes spread throughout the exercise. Great job Chris on a great test!!

Then Gilbert came next, moving very well through the kyu test. Though he did get a little tired, his energy and pace of the test was very good. Gilbert did such a good job with all of the techniques that we added tanto dori for good measure and he did very well with the take-aways. Great job Gilbert and keep up the good work!!

Following the kyu tests we went over to PeiWei for dinner and celebration where we all enjoyed plenty of good food and conversation. Thanks to everyone for a successful kyu test Sunday and special thanks to the many ukes during the kyu tests.

We will have open mat for kyu test preparation and kyu testing this weekend (see schedule below).

Saturday, February 27th:  Open Mat 10:00AM to 11:30AM: We will have open mat time available for reviewing the upcoming kyu tests as well as general open mat time. All are welcome to participate in this 90 minute training session.

Please note that we share the parking lot with several businesses that operate on Saturday morning so our members/guests will need to park in the Broken Spoke's parking lot (next door to our dojo) for the Saturday morning class.

Sunday, February 28th:  Kyu Testing 2:15PM to 3:15PM: We will have kyu testing during the second class. We plan on going out for dinner immediately following and all are welcome to join.

On Sunday we celebrated Todd Kammerer’s birthday by providing birthday rolls from everyone in attendance.  No one is completely sure how old Todd is (I think he is 29 for the 17th time) but he rolled 52 times in just about 5 minutes.  Not bad for a middle aged guy.  Todd hung in pretty well and although sucking a lot of air, he completed his rolls without too much difficulty. He did count very strictly as no one was allowed any do overs.  Way to go Toddsan and Happy Birthday!!

Wow what a weekend! I do not remember having so much fun and so much to think about in quite a while. The seminar was packed full of useful information about technique, the proper feeling of a technique and the spiritual aspects of making a connection.

Mary Heiny Sensei started off at the beginning of how to put your energy on your partner’s center line then how to establish a center to center connection. We worked on a simple kokyunage for two hours but where did the time go and how did we find so much to investigate in just one technique? From there we went on to the second hardest technique in all of aikido (iriminage) and worked on that for two hours exploring different exercises associated with the connection and how to get your arm out of the way at the end. We went into groups since the mat was crowded and got to go pretty fast. By the end of the morning session I was plenty spanked.

On Sunday morning, Mary Heiny Sensei started off the training with something to think about. And that was for each of us to focus on how to be a benefit to everyone in the dojo. With the proper mindset each of us can achieve aiki in our technique but without the proper thoughts and focused attention to accepting our partners we can not achieve aiki. We may move through the movements but will not find aiki.

The pot luck on Saturday night was a lot of fun with an awesome turn out, plenty of food and great conversation.

The seminar was a great success. I hope everyone who attended had as much fun as I did and will return next year. Thanks to everyone who came and supported Mary Heiny Sensei and our dojo. Thank you to Mary Heiny Sensei for sharing your experience and wisdom with us over the seminar weekend!

We are very excited about Mary Heiny Sensei's upcoming visit to our Aikido Community. This will truly be an awesome event and Aikidoka of all levels are encouraged to attend both the weekend seminar and pot luck Saturday night.

Seminar Schedule

• Friday 1/22 -- 6:00PM to 7:30PM
• Saturday 1/23 -- 10:00AM to 12:00PM and 2:30PM to 4:30PM followed by a pot luck at 7:00PM hosted by Darrell White
• Sunday 1/24 -- 10:00AM to 12:00PM

Seminar Flyer

Info on Mary Heiny Sensei

Please note that we share the parking lot with several businesses in our building.  Typically this is not an issue since our class schedule is after they close (evenings and Sundays). These business do operate on Saturday morning so our members and guests will need to park in the Broken Spoke's parking lot (next door to our dojo) for the Saturday morning portion of the seminar.

We look forward to seeing y'all on the mat!