Drawing Breath

I’ve added all the currently scheduled events for 2008 at the Phoenix Aikido Club to my iCal calendar. You can view the calendar in your browser, or if you are an iCal user, you can subscribe here.

I would like to draw your attention to the events of this particular month.

I have been pondering the changes I’ve experienced in the last few years of my Aikido training. I’ve reached the rank of 1st Kyu (brown belt), and should be taking my Dan grade (black belt) in September 2008. I am now considered to be a “high grade” student, with a good knowledge of a broad [...]

Well done to everyone who passed their gradings with weekend at the Phoenix Aikido Club. The standard this time was very high; the 4th Kyu (orange belt) gradings in particular were very impressive. Not only did everyone perform the techniques to a high standard, there was also a really good, positive spirit that is really [...]

Grading weekend again at the Phoenix Aikido Club on March 11th. Good luck to everyone taking their next belt, especially my Mum’s husband John, who will be taking his 4th Kyu (Orange Belt) on Sunday.

It’s nice to be approaching a grading weekend safe in the knowledge that all I’ll be doing is watching. I won’t [...]

Well, I failed my brown belt grading yesterday in quite spectacular fashion. Frustratingly, it wasn’t my technique that let me down, it was my bloody ridiculous metabolism. It was a really long grading, and I had been sitting on the mat for almost 3 hours before my name was called. Unfortunately, this is just too [...]

After my disastrous class at Aikido on Sunday, last night’s class was much better. I didn’t have to do a Keiko, but Sensei Brian called me up twice to perform techniques in front of the class. The first time was random techniques called out by Sensei and the other Dan grades. Luckily I remembered all [...]

I’m feeling a bit depressed today after any embarrassingly bad performance in a two man Keiko at Aikido yesterday. My brown belt grading is less than two weeks away now, so I really need to pull my finger out if I’m not going to show myself up on the day.

In my defence, I’ve only done [...]

The weekend was a fascinating one at the Phoenix Aikido Club, with a course given by Sensei William Smith and other senior instructors from his Dojo.

Sensei Smith is one of the most senior Aikidoka in the UK, the Principal Instructor and Technical Director of the United Kingdom Aikikai, and it was a pleasure to watch [...]

In about September last year, I made the the decision to attempt my 1st Kyu (Brown Belt) in March. Since then, I have been wilfully ignoring the list of required techniques, working on the principle that, come 12th March, I’ll either know them or I won’t. However, 4 months have gone by, and suddenly 12th [...]

The advanced class at the Phoenix Aikido Club was a tough one last night. The training wasn’t especially physical, and the techniques where mostly things that I have done many times before. But one of the things I’m starting to realise as I advance through the grades is how much I have left to learn, [...]