Aikido for 09/25/2010

Saturday morning I attended Garry's 10:30 Open Aikido class. We didn't do a normal warm-up; just ran around the outside of the mat for about five minutes before starting with tenkan and irimi exercises. Garry then had us practice moving to uke's omote and ura sides from shomenuchi using both the irimi and tenkan movements from the front and back of uke. We practiced shomenuchi kotegashsi ura tenkan, shomenuchi kokunage omote, and shomenuchi kotegashi omote. To finish class, we practiced a three-person randori where uke attacks with a shomen strike and uke tries to get out of the way. We switched twice with new groups and the practice was good for everyone. Good class.