Welcome to South Austin Aikido

This past weekend a number of us traveled to San Antonio for a Seminar hosted by Alamo City Aikido with Kevin Choate Sensei. This was a truly incredible experience for all of us.

Choate Sensei started with exercises that stemmed from tension prior to contact and relaxation upon initial contact to lead uke off balance. These were very subtle and definitely played with your brain. Then we worked on focusing on tension and trying to create relaxation where tension existed and tension where parts were relaxed. Just when I thought the last exercises were hard. Now this may sound crazy but what a challenge to come into contact with too many body parts in different ways. The seminar progressed from these exercises into their use in basic technique. I think we all benefited from this seminar in more ways than one.

We attended a pot luck Saturday evening and spent many hours listening and sharing jokes and stories. This was a lot of fun. Others watched Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail. There were also some scenes in Japanese where the Grail turned into the holy Sake Cup. I am not sure that this translated very well.

We all had a great time during this wonderful learning experience. As always, it was good to spend time with our friends at Alamo City Aikido. Ferdi from Chicago was also there and a pleasure to see again. Thanks to everyone at Alamo City Aikido for allowing us to attend such an awesome event! Special thanks to Emanuel, Kendra, Michael and Shawn for sharing their homes with us and for being such wonderful hosts.

• Click here for pictures of the seminar and the shodan test