Welcome to South Austin Aikido

WOW.  This is the week for birthday rolls!  First with Chadwick and Tim on Tuesday, followed by Jay sensei and Laurie on Thursday.  All did very well with the high energy nage's who were all happy to help with this Hill Country Aikido tradition.  Congratulations and Happy Birthday to all on their birthday rolls!

Tuesday 5/31/05:  Chadwick did 150 birthday rolls and Tim did 75 birthday rolls.

Thursday 6/2/05:  Jay sensei did 98 birthday rolls and Laurie did 36 birthday rolls.

Several of us spent the Memorial Day Weekend at a seminar hosted by Alamo City Aikido in San Antonio.  Once again Shawn and Michael Young went out of their way to put up with seven demanding aikidoka from Austin.  It was like a homecoming of the Waltons as we all crashed at their home taking up most of the available floor space.  But it was worth the trip just to hang out with everyone and share our aikido stories. 

In addition, we got to train a lot as well.  George Meyer Sensei was kind enough to share his aikido with us as we got pretty rambunctious finding out that having a middle aged fat guy roll up your back may not be the most intelligent way to practice aikido.  We did get the aikido seminar training strategy going by always sandwiching the training sessions between meals.  We ate a lot of Mexican and Chinese food. Then went to Shawn and Michaels and pretty much ate all they had in the house as well.  What a blast! 

Thanks to San Antonio Aikido for sharing their training with us.  Special thanks to Shawn and Michael for welcoming us into their home once again.  Thanks to Todd, Barbara, Brenda, Brian, Tommy, Alina, Pamela, and Chad for supporting our friends in San Antonio over the holiday weekend.

Click here to see the seminar pictures 

Alamo City Aikido in San Antonio will be hosting a seminar with Kevin Choate Sensei - Friday, January 6th through Sunday, January 8th, 2006

Kevin Choate Sensei is Chief Instructor at Chicago Aikikai. Choate Sensei began studying Aikido in Chicago in 1976 with Shigeru Suzuki Sensei, a student of Mitsugi Saotome Sensei.  When Suzuki Sensei returned to Japan in 1980, Choate Sensei took over responsibility for Chicago Aikikai and continued to train under Saotome Sensei and Hiroshi Ikeda Sensei. 

All Aikido Dojos and Affiliations are invited.  See Alamo City Aikido's website for more information.

Right on the heels of Alamo City Aikido's seminar with Meyer Sensei, Alamo City Aikido and Hill Country Aikido will be holding a one day Aikido Intensive on Saturday, June 18th.  There will be no cost for the intensive, which will start at 11:30am at ACA's dojo and continue into the afternoon until about 5:30pm.  There be an hour and half break for lunch, as well as short breaks in between each hour. 

This will be the second intensive put on by ACA/HCA, and like the last one where we focused on ukeme, some weapons, and randori; we will again pick a few specific things to work on.  As the date gets closer we'll decide on and announce what the theme will be.  It would be best if you can make the entire day as we will most likely be building on the theme throughout the day.  However, if your schedule does not allow for this, feel free to make what you classes you can. 

Feel free to call or e-mail with any questions.

As is our tradition at Hill Country Aikido, we celebrated Luar's birthday with rolling practice this past Tuesday.  This was Luar's first experience with birthday rolls, performing 75 rolls with several energetic nage's.  Great job and happy birthday Luar!

Tim Schmelter tested on Sunday for Yonkyu.  What a great test!  Tim had great posture and a great sense of connection through all of his techniques.  The randori was especially nice with an awesome opening that scattered the 5 attackers across the mat.  He moved very well and did a really nice job overall.  Way to go Tim! Thanks to Jesse, Hiroaki, Chad, Tommy, and Brian for providing ukemi for the test.

Following the test, several of us went to Buffet Palace to celebrate and overeat.  Ok, so I was the one who was eating too much.  Food is good, especially following a test. At least that is our tradition.  Train, eat, train, eat, train, eat!!