Aikido reflections

Well everyone came back from skiing Fri in a good humor and we had a very pleasant dinner and evening.

Sat. AM the visiting daughter went off to carry out the main reason for her visit, a bridal shower in the next state. She is probably flying back by now as she was going home directly from the shower. It was very good to see her even if is was for so short a time.

Sat morning brought a pleasant surprise for me as well. I went off to Aikido class as I am likely to do on Sat morning and one of the teaching Black Belts was very complimentary about the test I had done the week before. Wow, a whole week later and he was still impressed. It was a good test. it looked especilly fine in contrast because I had been in a serious funk and being very flaky with technique for the previous weeks in classes. It seemed that the more I practiced the worse I got.

So I stopped obsessing about the test and just did it.

When it came time for the test I kept my center and simply let the techniques happen. Shodon is a matter of attutude as well as basic knowledge. I have achieved the internal qualities already in Jiujitsu. While I need to acquire much more technique knowledge and practice to be Shodon in Aikido there is much to be said for exercising the internal qualities in the performance of the Aikido techniques that I do know and can demonstrate. Tai chi practice is a help too. Tai chi concentrates so firmly on the internal aspects of the energy dynamics that underly the effective techniques of all the martial arts that it is a major aid in aikido practice. It is so easy to focuss on the external aspects of a technique, the choreography, so to speak, that you can never have time to get to the internal aspects that actually make it work. Tai chi chuan looks seriously at those internal aspects. If one is so inclined they translate beautifully to other places.