Aikido for 12/13/2008

Yesterday, my brother Jarrett came with me to the Gunnison Community Center where we met Jake. At about ten minutes before two, we began class with a longer warm-up. This was Jarrett's first Aikido class and so we spent more time on learning ukemi. I knew he would be a fast learner and very quickly he was able to do a passable forward and backward ukemi. Just to increase Jarrett's exposure to ukemi, Jake and I introduced him to break-falls. I have seen Jarrett take some serious falls when skate-boarding so I knew he can take falls.

Here are the techniques we practiced for the rest of the class:

• Katate-dori irminage
• Katate-dori kokyu-nage
• Katate-dori shiho-nage (gyaku-hanmi) (omote)

After class, Jarrett and I returned to my cabin where we prepared a Turkey dinner. Today I sent Jarrett away with a lot of turkey. I had a great visit and I'll have turkey sandwiches for lunch for the rest of the week.