Slow-motion video of the randori portion of Johnathon Purcell’s sho-dan exam. Apologies for the strobing from the fluorescent lights.
Uncategorized
One of my favorite sempai, Johnathon Purcell, tested for shodan yesterday. Here is slo-mo video of his first throw in his new hakama.
He started at Aikido of San Diego when he was 11 years old. He’s off to college at UC Berkeley on Wednesday. He’s a perceptive and thoughtful student and teacher, kind and highly competent. I’ve been very fortunate to train with him since I started practicing Aikido in May. I and our whole dojo are going to miss him something awful. If you’re up that way, perhaps he’ll turn up at your dojo.
A Whole Lot of Things
I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to put together a coherent set of ideas for a post. So once again, here are … Read more …
Tripping Over My Own Brain
First, the seminar with Nadeau Sensei was great. Enlightening, engaging, educational, and very entertaining. More on that another time. Right now tonight’s class (training day … Read more …
Getting To the Nadeau Seminar
I will be participating in a seminar this weekend – “Aikido as an Art of Harmony” with Robert Nadeau Shihan, at Aikido of San Diego. … Read more …
Getting Fit for Aikido
I am going for my first consultation with a personal trainer tomorrow. www.fitnesswithoutwalls.com She’s going to help me come up with a “real world” workout … Read more …
Triumph Over the Brain
Classes 9 & 10, Tuesday and tonight (Thursday). Boy, what a contrast… If you’ve been keeping up (not that I would expect anyone to), you … Read more …
Darned Brain…
Class 8, I believe, was last Tuesday evening. I’ve been a bit slow putting together enough connected thoughts about it to make a proper blog … Read more …
Back on the Mat!
This was class #7, I believe. I had been figuring (based on what my PT had said a couple of weeks ago) that I’d be … Read more …
Poem: More Than Technique
A few days ago I was reading some of the past newsletter articles on the Aikido of San Diego website, and was in a writing … Read more …