Aikido for 08/17/2010

Last night Ken taught an abbreviated class. Two beginners, Mike and Tom, needed to test and Tuesday was the only time they had available; Ken, Tip, and Garry stayed on for 6th kyu testing after regular class. During the class, we started off with the following techniques:

• katatetori kokyunage tenkan-style
• katatetori kokyunage irimi style, Ken had us practice the variation where nage slides forward and rotates the grabbed hand to the side and up, forcing uke to raise an elbow and ideally turning around to take forward uke
• shomenuchi ikkyo omote and ura
• shomenuchi iriminage

We will be having a couple more people test on Thursday with the final testing day on Saturday. I won't be in Colorado Springs this weekend; I am headed to Grand Junction after a couple of meeting in Denver on Friday. It is my father's 60th birthday on Sunday so Happy Birthday Dad!