Congratulations to Joe!

Joe has completed testing and is now offically Blue Belt(2nd kyu)!

Training at basingstoke 16/09/05

To begin the lesson we practiced three different methods for taking the jo. All required not fighting and wrestling for the jo, and required using it (the jo) as a lever to unbalance uke. We then moved to using the same principles for a two hand grab, concentrating on 'elbow' power as sensei eastman put it.

Myself and another yellow belt were then taken through 3rd form, beggining with positive and negative shionage, Kotegaesh and finishing with Iriminage. As usual i was told to relax and breathe when taking a technique. I also practise taichi, and i am told the same thing.
An excellent lesson in which i learnt a lot of things which i will definately forget by next week.

Because i was trying to concentrate on what my group was doing, i dont really know what the other group was doing. this group was made up of sensei brad, sensei dave, sensei andy, and karen a green belt. I suspect the group were preparing karen for her blue belt.
I hope everyone is well and training hard. Till i write again.

Chad is getting old

Quixk ahout out to Chad finally reaching middle age Happy Birthday

Abertillery goes East

Basingstoke Dojo 09.09.05

Anyone who follows my exploits of getting lost going to Aikido events, will be quite surprised that I drove straight to Basingstoke without any problems. (For a change!) After meeting so many people on the Abbe Sensei course in May, I wanted to find out more about the direct line of Aikido. I had made arrangements through Sensei Ellis to attend Sensei Eastman's Dojo.

The Aikido we practise in Abertillery is second generation, or technically third generation from the original teachings of Abbe Sensei. My Sensei trained under Ken Williams in Ton Pentre, (South Wales) from 1967 - 1973. I knew there were great differences between the Aikido we practised, and the original form learn't directly from Abbe Sensei. So, I wanted to find out more, and simply to enjoy a practice with the new people I had met.

Sensei Ellis gave us detailed explanations of the style of Abbe Sensei's Aikido, and also demonstrated the small, close body movements which were taught in the 1950's. Sensei Eastman then continued to expand on this theme.

Ian & I really enjoyed the practise. Ian is one of my 6th Kyu's, who also travelled up with me. We would like to express our thanks to everyone who made us feel very welcome. Everyone spent a lot of their time and patients helping us. We walked away with a lot to think about! I would like to thank Sensei Ellis, and Sensei Eastman for allowing us to train, and for giving us an insight on real Traditional Aikido. I hope this will be the first of many trips, and very much look forward to the next time.

Nigel

Texas Training

Both classes on Tues and Thurs were very strong. Tues we did bokken training and open hand. Ending with tenchinage. Thursday was a good class with Nathen from Master Juans class joining us as well as Daniel Turton and our newest member Walter. we worked on a variety of Shihonage pos and neg culminating with defense against yokomen club strike.