Welcome to South Austin Aikido

On Sunday October 23rd, 2005 we had two Kyu tests, with Alina Bushong testing for Sankyu and Charles Pummill testing for Rokyu. 

Charles did a great job, showing a good understanding of aikido in the short time he has been training.  He easily went through the required techniques for Rokyu and a few additional ones including a jiyuwasa from katate dori rote mochi.  Great job Charles!

Alina looked like she has been studying aikido all her life, with outstanding posture and soft arm connection.  Her randori was absolutely beautiful, utilizing every element we have been practicing.  After my jaw quit hanging, I remembered to tell her what a great job she had done.  Awesome job Alina (aka Aiki Princess)!

Shawn and Michael Young from San Antonio dropped in to support the test effort as well.  It is always great to train with our friends from San Antonio.  Thank you for coming and we look forward to seeing you guys again soon.  Thanks to everyone who provided ukemi for the kyu tests, including Chad, Luar, Ryan, Michael, Shawn, Tommy and Todd.

Click here to see the kyu test pictures

On Friday night we made a return visit to the Austin Recreation Center to train with our Karate friends.  We covered some of the same techniques in review and then moved on to ikkyo, jujinage and a reversal from ikkyo which looks a lot like a backwards shihonage (although I do not know the name of this technique). 

Once again it was a valuable experience to work with the karate group and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Thanks to Brenda, Brian, Barbara, Tommy, Todd, Alina, Luar, Jesse, Ryan, Tim, Pamela and Chad for coming to assist with the teaching.  This was an enjoyable experience for all!

Click here to see the pictures 

All-American Society of Karate

We will be meeting at the Austin Recreation Center this Friday 10/21/05 at 7:00PM.  The Aikido demo for the Karate School (All-American Society of Karate) starts at 7:30PM.  Hope to see you there...

This past weekend a number of us traveled to San Antonio for a seminar with George Ledyard Sensei.  The seminar focused on "aiki" found in all techniques and how to manifest this feeling in basic techniques.  We got a little insight into what "aiki" should be and how it changes the feeling of the technique.  The training was a lot of fun and extremely insightful.  Thank you Ledyard Sensei for an incredible Aikido weekend!

On Friday we went to the Austin Recreation Center, where we shared our Aikido with the Karate School (All-American Society of Karate) that trains on Friday evenings in ARC.  As with last June, everyone was open to the principles and techniques that where shown, providing an enjoyable experience for all who participated.  The class was well attended, with about 25 Karate and 10 Aikido students.  Our dojo members included Todd, Tommy, Alina, Chad, Jesse, Luar, Hiroaki, Leslie Sensei, Barbara (Dojo mom), Brenda and Jay Sensei. 

Once again, this reinforced the importance of hamni (proper stance) and how one's stance, as well as foot movement, influences hip rotation.  It also reinforced the limits of resistance and arm strength with absorbing energy and protecting one's joints during ukemi. 

These classes are extremely beneficial for us as part of our training.  It is a real challenge to adjust one's response of strength and aggression to one of relaxed and accepting.  We applaud the Karate students for approaching this experience with an open mind and for being so receptive to Aikido techniques that were shown.

Thanks to all our students who came to assist in the instruction as well as the Karate students that attended this wonderful event.  We look forward to doing this again!

Click here to see the pictures 

All-American Society of Karate

After six years we have replaced all of the non-sticky type mats with sticky mats from Zebra.  The new flooring should help keep the mats from shifting so much during training.  So far (2 training days) this has been pretty awesome.  I look forward to many years of wear from the new mats.  It is much easier to setup the mat space since all the mats are now the same.