Welcome to South Austin Aikido

Last weekend several of us including members of the Kammerer family (Todd, Barbara, Tommy, Brenda and Gabby), Darrell White, Charles Pummill, Tim Schmelter, Violina Rindova and myself travelled to Fremont, California for a seminar with Ikeda Shihan from Boulder Colorado. The seminar was held at the Aiki Zenshin Dojo, run by our good friend Sunny Skys Sensei. This was simply an incredible seminar weekend!

The weekend was a culmination of a lot of hard training and preparation for the Dan tests. Todd and Tommy Kammerer tested for nidan, while Tim Schmelter tested for shodan. This is quite a milestone in our dojo, with the first nidan tests representing our dojo. The seminar was a great success with Ikeda Sensei showing how to add aiki to your training by using many exercises and it was also a great accomplishment by each of our Dan test candidates.

There is a lot of stress that naturally occurs with the Dan test process when you consider the pressure of any Dan test, plus the pressure of traveling to an another dojo while testing with ukes that you are unfamiliar with and testing in front of Ikeda Shihan. Everyone strives to do well on their test, always looking to make their Sensei, their dojo and their family/friends proud. This typically results in a lot of nervousness and tension. OK, so I was pretty nervous as well. Just pushing oneself through this effort creates a new focus that carries forward in their future training.

Each one of the candidates demonstrated poise and confidence in their movement, resorting to how they train each and every day. With so much on your mind the body simply goes into autopilot. This in of itself is very good to experience in your training. It helps us to realize that under pressure we will react appropriately and our Aikido will come out. It also exemplifies the importance of good focus and training everyday. I am very proud of each test candidate, as each of you represented yourselves and our dojo very well. Way to go Todd, Tommy and Tim. Congratulations to each of you on a promotion that is well deserved!!

As always, it was great to see Sunny Skys Sensei and all of our extended family at Aiki Zenshin Dojo. Thanks to everyone in Fremont for being so supportive of our test candidates and making us feel so welcome during this incredible weekend. Special thanks to Darrell, Charles, Brenda and Violina for coming to support the test effort as well.

Click here to see pictures of the seminar.

Click here to see pictures of the Dan tests.