On a Saturday morning Aikido class a few years ago, Sensei brought in the book by Gichin Funakoshi, “The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate”. He read us the first precept in full: “karate-do begins and ends with rei” “Along with judo and kendo, karate-do is a representative Japanese martial art. And with it’s fellow martial…
Tag: Testing
Training Away From Home
When I tested for 1st Kyu a couple of years ago, I was presented with an interesting problem. My friend, Mentor and uke, Sasun, that I selected to be my test partner, could not participate. His back went out. So rather than testing with him and benefiting from the familiarity I built up through the…
Road to 1st kyu is complete
Originally uploaded by markdeso And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:3 For the past 10 weeks our dojo has been helping two of us prepare for our belt tests….
Road to 1st Kyu – the final stretch
Originally uploaded by markdeso This has been a whirl wind couple of weeks. We have been really busy at work and I did not have a chance to train this weekend. I am taking advantage of the classes yesterday, tonite and thursday before my test. I had an interesting revelation last nite. I don’t really…
Road To 1st Kyu – Week 8 day 1 – With open arms
Originally uploaded by markdeso I’ve been thinking about some of our techniques that we do. They are truly unique from other arts. Most grappling arts concentrate on joint lock manipulation and pain compliance. Aikido, having transcended from Daito Ryu ju jitsu has many similar techniques. This evening, we worked on suwari waza (more knee techniques)…
Road to 1st Kyu – Week 7 Day 1 – The Dojo Hath Conspired…
Originally uploaded by markdeso Oh my my… I’ve been sick. I don’t think I’ve been this sick in a while. I had a brief reprieve last weekend, but relapsed for the next week. Aside from 2 hours at an Aikido seminar last sunday today was the first time I have trained in 2 weeks. Normally,…
Road to 1st Kyu – week 6 Day 1 – if you can still inhale….
…I will keep on practicing, not for the prowess in self-defense, not for rank or prestige, not even for the wonderful and life-changing lessons that flow from this art. I will practice Aikido for the sheer, unmitigated beauty of it. – George Leonard, Way of Aikido OK, I’m sick. My son brought home a cold…
Road to 1st Kyu – Week 5 Day 3 – all caught up
Originally uploaded by markdeso “The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit.” – Morehei Ueshiba I seem to be playing catch up this week. Last nights post was for Thursday. Today’s post is for our Saturday class. We worked katate dori shiho nage, both the omote…
Road to 1st Kyu – Week 5 Day 2
Originally uploaded by markdeso One of the things I love about Sensei is that he is an excellent story teller. He has had the opportunity to meet a lot of people in the martial arts community. His first T’ai Chi teacher was Robert W. Smith, who was a direct student of Cheng Man Ch’ing, and…
Road to 1st Kyu – Week 5 Day 1 – Harmony,Life Lessons and Mr Fogerson
Originally uploaded by markdeso Harmony is an interesting thing. Musically, there are notes that are hit that, because of the frequency of vibration, appeal to our ears. We hear a major third, a minor sixth, a perfect fifth, and those two notes, played at the same time sound right to us. So as we practice…
Mark's Meanderings 