Welcome to South Austin Aikido

It wasn't that it was so incredibly hot, however, I don't remember sweating so much ever in my aikido training.  The humidity in the gym was unbelievable.  Absolutely nothing would evaporate.  That said it was an incredible experience.

The training was outstanding.  We covered every conceivable type of weapons training from two sword forms to iaido forms to tachi dori and open hand training.  We also did lots of paired kumi tachi and kumi jo exercises.  This year guest instructors included Patty Saotome Sensei, Tres Hoffmeister Sensei, George Ledyard Sensei, Chuck Webber Sensei, and Kevin Choate Sensei, who also taught during the early morning class.  This added a lot of variety to the camp from previous years and a lot more exercises to remember. 

After 30 hours of weapons training last week it was really strange to train today without some kind of stick in my hand.  My mind is still spinning from the training.  I hope to include many of these exercises in our weapons training over the next year.  DC is an expensive town but a great experience.  Between training, Brian and I went to a lot of the area sites including the Smithsonian, natural history museums and monuments including the Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and FDR.  We also toured the National Cathedral, which is a pretty incredible place on its own.  It was a fun place to visit with lots of outstanding training.

Click here to see the pictures