July 2010
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“When we live in our bodies we understand that it’s more satisfying to be than to have. When we’re embodied, love becomes more important than being right.
… To live in the body is to live truly in the condition of being human—what we know is that we’re helpless and vulnerable. We’re going to die. That frightens us. It also gives us choice. If we are...
May 2010
6 posts
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A Tree in a Hurricane
I’ve had a bit of a scare recently. I will not be fine (who among us will be, really?), but I’m a lot better off than I feared.
The past week was difficult. I had just started outlining a twenty-year plan for my life and career from 47 to 67. I’d ordered a stack of interesting books, and made a list of mentors to talk to. There were things to learn, possibilities to...
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Like Bread Dough
I’ve really been enjoying training lately, even though I have been at the dojo somewhat less to make time to work with Rainy, my horse. I look forward to classes like a kid on Christmas morning. I’m having fun with Rainy, and we’re progressing well, but I miss Aikido on the days I don’t go.
The connections and similarities between Aikido and horsemanship go much...
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Milestone: One Year in Aikido
I am celebrating the completion of my first year in Aikido by staying home and fighting off a cold. I really wanted to be on the mat tonight. Instead I have the opportunity to practice writing with only half my brain engaged. My apologies if I ramble.
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year, but it also seems like a lifetime. In some ways, it has been a lifetime. I am not the...
April 2010
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WatchA slideshow with a couple-hundred of the photos I took this weekend during the seminar with Robert Nadeau Shihan, at Aikido of San Diego. (Better yet, watch it full-screen on Flickr.)
A great time, lots of fun people to train with, beautiful weather, and of course fantastic teaching. Many thanks to everyone who made it possible.
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March 2010
6 posts
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Body, Border Collies, & Beer
Every month or two Sensei offers an Aikido In Focus workshop at the dojo. This time the subject was jiyuwaza, or freestyle. One-on-one practice, using whatever techniques are appropriate to the circumstances. Jiyuwaza is great fun. It’s also a source of endless frustration because I get in my head and freeze up trying to think of what I should do next, instead of going with the energy given...
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Questions for My Teacher's Teacher
My teacher’s teacher is coming to our dojo in April. My teacher, Dave Goldberg Sensei, is a student of Robert Nadeau Shihan. Nadeau Shihan will be leading a seminar at Aikido of San Diego, April 9-11, 2010.
Nadeau Shihan, 7th Dan, trained in Japan with O Sensei in the 1960s. He has been teaching Aikido since 1965. He runs two dojo: Aikido of Mountain View, and City Aikido in San Francisco....
Elevator Speech: What is Aikido?
Every so often someone will ask me “So, what’s this Aikido thing that you do?” They may have some idea that’s it’s “kind of like karate,” but they rarely know anything more. I usually end up stammering something about it being “a martial art, sort of like Tai Chi, but Japanese, and not really like Tai Chi, but there’s no punching and kicking....
February 2010
13 posts
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*sigh*
Sunday at midnight… Aikido not ‘til Tuesday. Forty-two long hours.
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I'm Destroying Aikido.
The comments on YouTube, about my 5th kyu exam, got off to a predictable start with “good luck in a street fight no offense” [sic].
From looking at the person’s recent comments on other people’s videos, this is one of the nicest things they’ve said to anyone. Most of their other comments are downright vulgar.
My reply: “None taken. In my 47 years I’ve...
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- Tech Note: Improved Format -
Hi Loyal Readers (all 8-10 of you)!
Some of you have pointed out that the style sheet (CSS) for my blog was pushing the left navigation area off the screen in Firefox and Safari. I have finally gotten around to fixing it (I hope). I also expanded the content area of each post so the photos appear full size (500 pixels wide). I’ve tried it in IE8, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari on my iPhone,...
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What I meant to do
If you read my post about my 5th Kyu test you may recall that when I sat down at the end of it I thought “Darn it. That wasn’t how I meant to do that!” It felt mechanical, uncommitted. Sensei’s feedback was that it looked like I was “being careful.” That wasn’t how I meant to do my test, and yet… That’s exactly what I did. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking...
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“Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Just another way in which horsemanship and Aikido are similar.
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5th Kyu test & beyond
First, I passed. For those into belt colors, that means I’m still a white belt. I’ll be posting the video (which I have not seen yet) later today.
I wasn’t worried about passing, though. I was more interested in doing well. Or at least doing my best.
I did OK. Only one or two brain cramps on techniques, and I didn’t shut down during jiyuwaza. A few minor...
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Downs & Ups of Exam Prep
My exam for 5th kyu is Saturday morning - tomorrow. When I first started working with my mentor a month ago we began with a sort of diagnostic run-through of the exam. I knew all the technique names, and basically what they were. There was plenty of room for correction and refinement, but I wasn’t completely lost. I felt like I was on a pretty good trajectory for being ready by exam day.
...
January 2010
12 posts
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Great Trip, Happy to be Home
Long time, no blog post! After the recent seminar, circumstances promptly dumped me back into my normal life. Work was busy. The weather was insane, with the most dramatic storms we’ve seen in years. The power was unreliable for days. Rainy the horse, and the donkeys, have needed extra tending with all the rain and muck. And after one 6-hour power failure our refrigerator broke for good,...
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Aikido Bridge - Saturday
Another amazing day. I’m learning a lot about attending seminars. Sit in the middle, so you can hear. Drink more water than you think you need to. Eat something at each break. And now I know that if you throw the morning’s sweaty gi in your car at lunch, all the windows will be fogged up when you go to leave in the evening.
There are a lot of levels of understanding at work. There are...
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WatchWhat a long day! I’m exhausted. A hot bath and a good night sleep (and some ice packs on my knee) are at the top of the priority list, so just a quick post tonight. I need to sit down with my notebook and try to remember what we did today. It’s all in there somewhere, but describing much of it is beyond me at this point.
The guest instructor this evening was Wilco Vriesman Sensei from...
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It's Seminar Time!
Starting this evening I’m off to the Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar (14-18 January, 2010, at Jiai Aikido, in San Diego). For anyone who’s curious, here are some videos (by others, from other events) of the three featured instructors:
Christian Tissier Shihan
“Christian Tissier 7th dan Aikikai Shihan, Austria, Vienna, Matsumae Budocenter, 19-20. 12. 2009 “
Hirsohi...
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The Near Future
This weekend, Thursday through Monday, 14-18 January, 2010, I will be participating in my first big seminar at another dojo. It’s the Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar, at Jiai Aikido in San Diego. The featured instructors are Frank Doran Shihan, Hiroshi Ikeda Shihan, and Christian Tissier Shihan. What a privilege! Several other students from Aikido of San Diego will be attending, too....
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Being Inspired
Our dojo lost a good friend this past week, Keo Power. Sensei shared a lovely tribute on his blog, and I urge you to read it. I had never met the man. From everything I’ve heard about him, and the few photos I’ve seen, I wish I’d had the opportunity.
Some months ago a friend advised me to feel and be inspired by the love and sweat of all those who’d gone before me on the...
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How to go to your first big seminar
I have been around music and horses for many years. In both of cases there are festivals, seminars, workshops, and clinics. I’ve been to many local one-day workshops with touring guitarists and fiddlers, weekend-long annual festivals with hundreds of music workshops going on all day, 4-day riding clinics with world-famous horse trainers, and even one week-long live-in camp in West Virginia...
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Aikido smiled...
In 2009 I came to the dojo. I intended to be serious about Aikido, but could only spare one night a week. I was busy, you see. I was just there to learn some skills I could use.
Aikido smiled, offered a wrist, and I grabbed.
And now, here at the beginning of 2010, without having felt any force to struggle against, and without quite knowing how I got Over Here, I am facing a new direction,...
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December 2009
16 posts
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"The Kihon Waza of Horse Training" by Cherie...
This post is a “reprint” of a Facebook Note written by Cherie Cornmesser. Cherie and I seem to operate on the same wavelength about a lot of things. We are both long-time horsepeople (although she is much more experienced than I am). We are both new to Aikido, starting in spring of 2009, and are both 6th kyu now. We are fans of horseman & aikidoka Mark Rashid. We both like playing...
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Rainy, and Real-life Ukemi
You might recall that the person who introduced me to Aikido is Mark Rashid, a teacher of horsemanship, author, and Nidan in Yoshinkan Aikido. I had participated in one of his horsemanship clinics in February of 2009, after my large, young horse, Rainy, got scared at the beginning of a ride in the mountains, gave a few good bucks, and I came off.
I’ve not ridden Rainy except maybe once or...
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Iriminage - A Duh Moment
In a recent post (December 18th - the one with the video of Christian Tissier Shinan doing iriminage something like 46 times) I mentioned that we had done iriminage in class that day, and it was the “first time I’d seen it live.”
If you read my blog here at grabmywrist.com (as opposed to on AikiWeb) you may have see this mention in the left-hand column: “Any inept or...
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When Goals Go Bad
A couple of months ago, roughly, I set a goal for myself of training as if I were going to be testing for 5th kyu on February 6th, the next day tests are held at our dojo. As I said in a post about it then, my goal was not to test that day, or even to be ready to test that day, just to train so that I could be as prepared as possible.
What I was hoping to avoid was what I did before my 6th kyu...
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An Aikido Dream
I usually don’t dream weird dreams. I usually dream about work, or about something I have to do the next day. Boring. But last night I had a really strange dream. I’ll tell you about it first, and then what I think it represented.
The dream started with me arriving, as if by transporter, or warp in the space-time continuum, in a room. It was obvious there was no way of going back...