One of my first sessions back saw a guy came across from Australia to train with us on Saturday. All but one of us was there so the atmosphere was great. Plenty of people to train with. However, being away from the dojo took its toll. I certainly felt my legs after training the next day. The body conditioning exercises are merciless if you don't keep up the practise. We did some balance-breaking stuff, taijutsu and tanto work. All stuff I had done before so it was a good opportunity to refine and correct my technique.
Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the extended training session but I hear that our visitor enjoyed himself.I was back at the aikido dojo for the first time in a while on Tuesday. My sensei wasn't there so as 2IC it falls to me to run the class. A regular visiting black belt from another club also arrived so I asked him to take fifteen minutes of the lesson as well. He is from a different style of aikido and I always enjoy his perspective on things. He has finished his contract here in the North Island so we won't be seeing him for a long while now, unless we venture to Christchurch. He will be missed at the dojo, he bought a great energy and experience to the place.
I decided to centre the lesson around entering the attacker's space. So we did techniques that required nage to 'steal' space from uke and get close. The visiting black belt followed this theme with the techniques he showed. This article relates nicely to the idea of 'closeness'. Irimi in aikido
Now that I'm back into practice again, I should have more to write about.
