Welcome to South Austin Aikido

Tommy, Todd and I traveled to Boulder Aikikai in Boulder, Colorado for the Halloween Seminar with Saotome Sensei.  I actually went up on Wednesday to train a couple of days with some of my friends from the Boulder dojo.  It is always a humbling experience to train with so many good aikidoka.  It was also very apparent that I am in no condition to train at altitude.  I was huffing from the start and had to just hold on during each class.

On Friday the seminar started and moved very quickly.  Sensei went into a discussion about "aiki" and how it exists in all martial arts, but especially must be present in aikido.  Without aiki you are just performing techniques.  We went through many non-standard exercises attempting to utilize "aiki" connection instead of focusing on making our partners fall.

On Saturday we did two hours of kicking techniques to make our feet more like hands.  This made my leg muscles incredibly sore.  It is challenging for an old guy to do unfamiliar exercises, but it was a lot of fun to practice.  We will work to incorporate this into our normal practice. 

On Sunday the training focused on aiki utilizing jiyuwasa from many attacks.  This was pretty aerobic training and I was pretty much spent after the first hour.  I was sure the training would slow down for the second hour, but instead we went into koshinage.  I somehow survived the seminar, although now it is pretty much a blur.

The annual Halloween seminar at Boulder Aikikai is one that should not be missed.  It was so amazing to see Saotome Sensei demonstrate the "aiki" principles throughout the seminar as well participate in the awesome training with so many wonderful aikidoka.  Special thanks to Ron Santichen for being such a gracious host and putting up with us over the seminar weekend.