Welcome to South Austin Aikido

On Monday Mark McDonald rolled 50 times to celebrate his birthday.  Mark did a wonderful job rolling for the many energetic aikidoka who helped with the special birthday rolls. Great Job Mark and Happy Birthday!

On Sunday Alina Bushong tested for ikkyu and had one of the best ikkyu tests we have had to date. We have made several attempts to get her to this point over the past two years but something (mostly college) always seemed to get in the way. However, the additional preparation paid off because she had a great test.

The test itself went very fast with ukes like Tommy and Brian Kammerer flying at her like there was no tomorrow. All of her techniques were delivered with a great commitment and fluid movement. She got pretty tired, but hung in right through the end of the test. She easily handled all of the techniques I could throw at her.

Alina’s test did show how much mental attention is required for performing the paired weapons kata. She demonstrated great focus and a beautiful entering line on all weapons movements. Then her randori really was a thing of beauty. She had such a vision of the mat and determined movement that ukes just went flying everwhere. Great job Alina. We are all very proud of you!! Thanks to everyone who provided ukeme and stayed to support the test.

After the test we all went to Freebirds for dinner. There was some rumor of a brownie in it for me. It turned out the rumor was true and the brownie was pretty good. It was a perfect end to a great test event.

We had an awesome group travel to the Rockies for summer camp this year. The group included Todd and Tommy Kammerer, Charles Pummill, Kyle Shillibeer, Stephen Hughes, David Huffaker and myself. Sunny Skys Sensei from Fremont California tagged along with us for the ride making for a most enjoyable week of training.

The training itself went by like a blink; even training 26 hours over the seven days at 7000 feet. Ok, we all came home pretty exhausted. But it was a beautiful trip and a good learning experience. I saw many friends whom I got to train with making it a pretty special week.

This years camp featured Murashige Sensei from San Diego, California as guest instructor along with the famous teaching trio of Ikeda Sensei from Boulder, Colorado, Saotome Sensei from Florida and Duran Sensei from Redwood City, California. Murashige Sensei added a lot to the camp, bringing a wonderful personality to the mat. His classes showed us we are right on track with the direction our aikido is going. He was constantly focused on accepting energy inward as you enter into your partner’s centerline. The result was a beautiful blend of softness which could not be resisted.

I hope everyone enjoyed the trip as I did. I am already looking forward to next year’s camp!

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

Saturday, August 8th:  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, August 9th:  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.

Just a reminder to our group on where we post our SAA pictures.  We have two URLs that can be used to see many photos on Phanfare (over 45G) .  The first link below provides general access to our public photos.  The second link allows members to log in using their Phanfare ID/password to see our SAA private photos and videos in addition to the public photos.

• General Access: http://southaustinaikido.phanfare.com
• Member Access: http://albums.phanfare.com/southaustinaikido

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how to log into the member's access.

Many Blessings,

It is good to be home.  ASU Summer Camp in the Rockies was a great experience!  There will be more information coming soon about the camp.

George Ledyard Sensei took some videos of each of the teachers at this year's camp and posted them in the video section of his Facebook page (Thank you Ledyard Sensei).  See link below.  Enjoy!

Click here to see the videos