I am currently in Austen Texas for the Open Repository Conference and last night I took the bus to the Jo Birdsong Sensei's Aikido of Austin dojo. After warm-ups, James the guest instructor, told the class that we would be practicing techniques from the 1st kyu and shodan USAF tests as two students are testing next month. We started off with doing shihonage, iriminage, and kokyunage from katatori attack. We then did five techniques from katatori tsuki (I was uke for the demo) followed three moritori ninage (two uke attack) techniques, one of which I had never seen before and I wasn't doing it quite right until James came and corrected me. We finished class with two randoris for the testing students and I was one of the ukes in the free-style attack.
I really enjoyed the class and everything felt familiar from my time practicing at Central Illinois Aikikai. This was the first time I visited another dojo as a full-shodan and I found that I didn't have to worry about my ego related to ranking as much although I couldn't slack off either! The practice was rigorous and did find my internal Aiki development under Ikeda Sensei really made it easier to throw and break the balance of my ukes and allowed me to be more relaxed.
After class I walked out of the dojo and I noticed that I had missed the bus I needed to take back to my hotel. Instead I walked the 3.5 miles in the 90 degree plus heat. It was a good introduction to Austin and although I am having a good time here, I don't think I would ever want to live in Austin. Maybe it is because of my Colorado bias or maybe it is because I prefer cooler summers and winters.
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