Welcome to South Austin Aikido

We had a awesome week of training during Aiki Week, with lots of wonderful energy on the mat.  Thank you all for coming and enjoying the week of training together.

After the long week of training, we have decided to take a rest day on Monday.  There will be No Class on Monday, August 22nd.  All other classes/days will be the normal schedule.

See you on the mat!

Only two days left to get your sweat on during SAA's 6th annual Aiki Week!

Thursday, August 18th

• 5:00pm - 5:45pm Kid's Class
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Tachi Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Bokken

Friday, August 19th

• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Henka Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Two Sword
• 8:30pm - 9:30pm Go out for dinner after class

South Austin Aikido's 6th annual Aiki Week kicks off Saturday, August 13th. With seven days of consecutive training and a different focus for each class, providing a great opportunity to get in some extra training!

We'll celebrate the first day of Aiki Week with a Potluck at Kammerer family home.

Saturday, August 13th

• 10:00am – 11:00am Kaeshi Waza
• 11:15am – 12:00pm Spiritual Aikido
• 6:00pm – 10:00pm Potluck Party

Sunday, August 14th

• 11:00am - 12:00pm Yoga
• 1:00pm – 2:00pm All Levels Aikido
• 2:15pm – 3:00pm Jo Waza

Monday, August 15th

• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Ukemi
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Tanto Dori

Tuesday, August 16th

• 5:00pm - 5:45pm Kid's Class
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Kihon Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Jo Dori

Wednesday, August 17th

• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Rolling
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Randori

Thursday, August 18th

• 5:00pm - 5:45pm Kid's Class  
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Tachi Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Bokken

Friday, August 19th

• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Henka Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Two Sword
• 8:30pm - 9:30pm Go out for dinner after class

This will be a great week of training and we look forward to seeing y'all on the mat!

The theme of the week was “new beginnings” and if this is anything like future camps, I am all in. The camp was much smaller this year and actually, at least for me, made the camp very special. The teaching was more intimate with all of the Senseis and the senior teachers did an awesome job as well.

This year six of us ventured to the camp located near Glenwood Springs, CO. The weather was enjoyable in that it was in the mid 80s during the day and dropped into the 50s at night. A welcome relief from the Texas heat we have been experiencing. I do believe that we all got our fill of training during the week and came home tired and sore. As my friend Duane Bolt says “I can rest when I get home”. Way to go Duane.

In keeping with the theme, all of the Senseis focused on examining our training to make a new way of looking at our understanding of aikido.

Hofmeister Sensei worked on the relationship of uke and nage and how each person has a role and a project to work on during practice. It is necessary to allow each to continue their project. Many of the exercises were designed to teach nage not to think of doing anything to nage and for uke to be active during the entire technique. I know my ukemi improved during the week because of some of these exercises.

Choate Sensei worked on nage maintaining good posture and how to “drop the chain down your spine”. In addition, nage was to work on not doing anything to uke but to search for areas of tension in our bodies and attempt to remove that tension. I managed to find plenty of tension in all kinds of places. This is still a work in progress.

Finally, Doran Sensei and Saotome Sensei provided a lot of high level instruction which was in keeping with the theme as well. It is sad to realize that Doran Sensei will not be back next year; we will really miss his humor and beautiful aikido.

All things said, it was a camp to remember and all of us who went are looking forward to next year!

On Sunday we had two Ikkyu tests with Stephen Hughes and David Huffaker.  It was an exciting event with the many ukes getting plenty of work throughout the two tests.

David went first and did a great job of handling the many required and additional techniques called out during the test.  David moved well and has improved a lot as a result of very consistent training over the past year.  David did a great job in his randori, maintaining good posture even though the test was pretty tiring with the Texas summer heat.  Way to go David!

Then Stephen tested and showed us that it is good to be young and energetic.  Stephen moved well, especially in his suwari wasa. Stephen has really jumped up a level due to all of his hard work in the past year as well.  What are we doing in the Aiki kids class to give you all of that energy :-)  Way to go Stephen!

Overall the test went very well. Both test candidates utilized good connection and an understanding of aiki in their techniques.  It was an exciting day for our dojo.

Following the test we all went to Pei Wei for lunch and additional conversation.  Congratulations to Stephen and David on two great tests and thanks to everyone who supported the kyu tests.

Earlier this month Todd, Tim and myself travelled to Mission, Texas for a weekend seminar with Kevin Choate Sensei, hosted by our friends at the Rio Grande Valley Dojo.

The focus of the seminar was on how to connect and move with your partner without using force or without having to take control of the technique at any point during the connection. It was very challenging and pointed out many areas of tension in our current technique. Kevin sensei utilized a chain as an analogy to how we should allow energy to move and how to make it more efficient. We focused on maintaining posture both as uke and nage and how important posture is in transferring energy and maintaining connection. We sought to duplicate the movement of a chain falling when we lower our energy to start uke’s spiral downward. It was a very insightful weekend which may take some time to work into our Aikido.

On Saturday following training, we all went to Francisco Sensei’s house for a barbeque. Raphael was the cook and he did a great job! Rumor has it that he will open a restaurant soon... The food was delicious and we all had a great time sharing aikido stories.

It was a great weekend for training and we all had a wonderful time. Thanks to Francisco Sensei for hosting this seminar and welcoming us into your home and special thanks you Kevin Choate Sensei for sharing your Aikido with us.