Drawing Breath

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, [...]

At Aikiko on Thursday night, Sensei Brian brought in his antique Katana and a large stack of old newspapers. Each of us then attempted to cut sheets of newspaper, held taught by two brave volunteers, cleanly in half.

Simple though it may sound, it turned out to be extremely difficult. The best I managed was a [...]

If you use the OS X calendar application iCal, and are a member of the Phoenix Aikido Club, I have transferred the Phoenix event calendar to iCal. You can view the published calendar, or if you are on OS X you can subscribe directly.

If you subscribe to the calendar, you can set the refresh interval [...]

Glimmerscape has a nice article on Kokyu-ho (breath exercise, or breath throw) from katate-dori (one-handed wrist grab). The concept of misdirection in Aikido is one that is easy to understand, but incredibly hard to put into practice. Atemi are used a lot to distract the uke and break their posture, but the sort of subtle [...]

Tonight will be the first session of this weekends Aikido marathon at the Phoenix Aikido Club. This Sunday is the Dan (Black Belt) grading, and as always there are special classes on Friday and Saturday. This means a lot of time on the matt over 4 days, and it will be the biggest challenge to [...]

Towards the end of yesterdays (Sunday) class at Aikido, Sensei Brian asked me if I would like to have a go at a keiko (free practice)[1]. I haven’t done this since before my hip problems, around 5 years ago. I would have really liked to have had a go, especially as I have (mostly) committed [...]

Yes, that’s my toe. Yes, it hurt. Yes, I did it at Aikido (actually, at the Belfast Aikido Circle). And yes, I have really ugly feet.

Boyohazard has posted a comment about his return to Aikido after a 6 year absence, and the aches he is suffering as a result. I can sympathise completely with Marc. I was unable to train for nearly 3 years; I finally returned to the mat last summer, after 2 years of physiotherapy (which I’m still [...]