4th Kyu at 50

I was waiting for the videos from last Saturday's test before posting, but it isn't ready yet. So....yes I am now ranked at 4th Kyu. The historic part is that this testing was the first since Plano Aikido (formerly Aikido of Plano) became independent of Aikido of Dallas. Which means that Sidney Sensei (again.. is that Shiba Sensei?) was the judge.

Previously you trained under one Sensei (Sidney) but tested under another, as was the case for my 5th kyu test. So I suppose there was a little less stress this time, but you still worry. I also suppose that in this type of situation the Sensei would simply say you were not ready to test if there was a chance of not passing.

The parting from Aikido of Dallas was amicable and there was no scandal.

One one of Sensei's “things” (I think) is that exposure to different schools helps you in your training. Previously he asked Alberto who originally trained in Mexico, to teach the Saturday class and now that he is gone Charlie who trained in Tomiki Aikido to teaches Wednesday's class. So tonight we work on what Charlie calls “Dai Nikkyo” which I think just means “The number two” in Japanese. But his nikkyo is slightly different from what Plano Aikido or Aikido of Dallas teaches.

I couldn't find a video of the difference but I think all of us thought it was damn painful. So I only used a drawing of a hand which shows part of the muscles and joints we use to apply the technique (and also for Yonkyo).

As an aside, I will probably drop the animation part of the blog statement and insert video.