Welcome to South Austin Aikido

Several of us just returned from a wonderful experience at the ASU weapons intensive in Washington DC, with seven Aikidoka from our community attending this intensive. 

Though several of us had a rough start leaving Austin, with flight cancellations due to weather, all of us were able to make it to DC and begin our training by the second day of the camp.  Each day we had the opportunity to work with various weapons, including Bokken, Jo, Shinai, Two Sword (Bokken & Shoto), Bokken vs Jo, Bokken vs Shoto.   It was simply awesome!

We will be posting more info about this wonderful camp on our website soon.

On Sunday we had four kyu tests with Tal Boyd testing for Rokyu, Gilbert Ryan Hughes and Brian Canham testing for Gokyu, and Tim Schmelter testing for Ikkyu.

All of the candidates did an awesome job on their kyu tests!  It was an exciting day watching the many aikido techniques being performed with such focus.   Great job everyone on making this kyu test Sunday such a positive experience.

Ukemi was provided by Chad Leath, Brian Kammerer, Todd Kammerer, Jesse Spears, Denne Read, and Darrell White.   Thanks to all of the senior students who assisted these candidates with their test preparation and taking ukemi during the kyu tests.

Following the tests we went to Baja Fresh for good food, good fun and plenty of enjoyable discussions on aikido.  It was a good day, one that I will remember for some time.

Pictures of the kyu tests

Two members of our Aikido Community, Brenda Kammerer and Mark Salinas, were blessed with the birth of a beautiful baby girl. Gabrielle Alexia Salinas was born on Thursday, June 21st at 5:25PM.

Gabrielle decided to join the world seven weeks early as well as add a few grey hairs to her new parents and grandparents. Both mother and baby are doing exceptionally well and Gabrielle is expected to be released from the Neonatal Unit very soon.

Click here to see pictures.

For any of our members that may be interested in purchasing a gift for the new family, Brenda and Mark are registered at Babies R Us, Target and Wal-Mart.

Congratulations Brenda and Mark on your beautiful baby girl!

This weekend we will have open mat for kyu test preparation on Saturday followed by kyu testing on Sunday.  See schedule below.

• Saturday, June 23rd - 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.

• Sunday, June 24th - Kyu Testing 2:45PM to 3:45PM:   We will have kyu testing during the second class.  We plan on going out for dinner immediately following and all are welcome to join.

Craig Slack Sensei of Alamo City Aikido visited our Aikido Community this past Sunday. It was an awesome training day, filled with plenty energy from the 18 aikidoka on the mat. It was a great experience for all and one that left me completely exhausted, which is always a desired result of training.

Craig Sensei focused on the use of movement originating from our bodies, rather than from our arms, while maintaining focus on uke’s centerline. We applied these concepts while performing kokyunage, ikkyo and kotegaishi from a variety of attacks, including katate dori, kosa dori, munetsuki and shomenuchi. Craig Sensei shared several wonderful ways to think about our connection and movement, providing us all much to think about in our daily training.

Special thanks to Craig Sensei and Sylvia for visiting our dojo and sharing their aikido with us. We look forward to doing this again in the near future. Thanks to our Aikido Community for supporting this special event and making it a great success!

Click here for pictures.

A few of our members traveled to California to visit friends and family.  These members included Barbara Kammerer (our Aiki Mom), Tommy Kammerer, Brian Kammerer and Pamela Tovar.  During their trip they stop by and visited Sunny Skys Sensei and the rest of our friends at Aiki Zenshin Dojo. Tommy and Brian brought along their training gear and enjoyed a wonderful class taught by Sunny Skys Sensei.

Pictures of the visit.