Originally uploaded by markdeso Attendance is up at the Dojo! We have 3 new students, two of which are brand new on the mat, and the other a Nidan. It’s always good to get fresh blood in the Dojo. I love the people I train with but we start to get used to each other,…
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Road to 1st Kyu – Week 2 Day 2
Drivin home from the dojo. Originally uploaded by markdeso Today was a fun day at the Dojo. Charlie taught and we worked techniques from yokomen uchi. The techniques we worked were irimi nage, kote gaeshi, Kaiten nage, gokyo and shiho nage. Each attack lends to a different flavor of a technique. The yokomen uchi strike…
Road to 1st Kyu – Week 2 Day 1 – Aiki field trip
Gengo Sensei and meOriginally uploaded by markdeso Today I took my son to San Francisco to train with Stevan Gengo Sensei at Aikido of Noe Valley. Before my incredibly long period off the mat this was my home dojo. I love training with Steve as he is always offering an interesting perspective on Aikido. He…
Road to 1st Kyu – Week 1 Day 5
Originally uploaded by markdeso I was reading more from the book “A Life in Aikido” this morning. Early on in the book, O’ Sensei’s son Kisshomaru Ueshiba writes about O’ Sensei having a bit of a selfish and childish streak in him. I scratched my head about reading this and wondered for a bit why…
Road to 1st Kyu – Week 1 Day 4
Originally uploaded by markdeso We’ve been working on a few interesting themes lately at our Aikido school. Sensei has been working with the state of “la la land”, “neutral zone” and “embodiment”. I’m working on a more thorough post of these states that I will publish later but as a part of my process towards…
Week 1 day 3 – Process vs Program
Week 1 day 3 Originally uploaded by markdeso I was thinking about this as I left the gym today. There is a difference between a process and program. I define them for me as: Process: a series of things that you can do internally and externally to accomplish tasks and goals, get to the next…
Does output always have to equal input?
At that moment I was enlightened: the source of budo is God’s love – the spirit of loving protection for all beings… Budo is not the felling of an opponent by force; nor is it a tool to lead the world to destruction with arms. – Morihei Ueshiba I’ve been thinking a bit about the…
On Gratitude – 2009
I have had much to be grateful for this year. I am blessed with good friends, a smart, healthy son, some great guidance by an amazing teacher, and I was able to buy my condo this year. I am grateful for the gifts that I receive in the form of family, friendships, advice, all the…
Week 7 day 1 – back to the regularly scheduled program
I’m at week 7 of my routine. Circuit exercises for 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week at the local gym. I’ve seen a slow but steady increase in strength and endurance. Around week 3 I started going back to Aikido again, 3 days a week. I used some social networking tools like twitter…
Week 6 is done
I’m trying to catch my breath. I’ve been quite busy, but did want to jot down a quick post to note that I’ve finished Week 6. I didn’t post on Wednesday or Friday. However, I think it’s more important to actually do the task at hand rather than lament over why I didn’t blog it….
Mark's Meanderings 