Welcome to South Austin Aikido

This past weekend Tommy, Todd, Leslie Sensei and I traveled to Aiki Zenshin Dojo in Fremont, CA for a seminar with Ikeda Sensei.  What a humbling and awesome experience to watch and attempt to perform the principles demonstrated by such an accomplished aikidoka, Ikeda Sensei.  My eyes are still spinning from this awesome seminar.  We have much to practice in the near future, especially in understanding how to incorporate the mental aspect into our training.  Each technique has both a physical and mental connection.  This is important to understand and incorporate into our regular practice.

It is clear to see the influence of Ushiro Sensei on our training in the mental aspects of connection.  It is very challenging to actually accomplish this, since it takes confidence and understanding to make it work.  Ikeda Sensei worked constantly on connection by entering your partner both physically and mentally.  We went through many exercises from tsuki, katatedori, shomenuchi, kosa dori and kata dori rote mochi.  All were very challenging to accomplish, especially with many different ukes.  We will work to add this to our training in the near future. 

This was an absolutely great weekend and awesome seminar!

Click here to see the seminar pictures