Welcome to South Austin Aikido

This past weekend ten of us travelled to Alamo City Aikido in San Antonio for a seminar with Bill Gleason Sensei from Boston. It was a hot time for at least for two of the three days. The weather decided to get rough and my tired old bones felt it too.

During the first two days of training, Gleason Sensei focused on the use of kokyu for technique. The three phases of kokyu included acceptance, carrying and release. Sensei showed how this applied to a variety of techniques and how all techniques really contained this element making them all very similar in nature. He also explained about the importance of the cross in Aikido which is comprised of the vertical character “unity” and the horizontal character “separation”. Sensei went on to demonstrate how these two characters actualize themselves during various techniques as well. It was a great learning experience for all of us who attended and very rewarding as a result.

On Sunday, the weather actually gave us a break as the temperatures dropped about 20 degrees and the humidity also dropped significantly, making for a very pleasant training environment for the final day of the seminar. We focused on some very interesting weapons exercises which will require a lot more practice in the coming months to better understand.

Over all it was an awesome experience which once again has left me thinking about it in total confusion. It may take some time to process the information into our Aikido but in the meantime, we will get back to practicing.

Click here to see the pictures