Monday, December 21, 2009

Aikido

My aikido club held a black-belt grading last weekend. There were some excellent demonstrations of technique, including one standout first degree test and at least one top notch second degree test.

Since I wasn't up for grading, I had to take ukemi (i.e., act as a crash test dummy for the deshi who were grading). Somehow, every time I was called up the technique was something like shiho nage, which is one of the scariest throws to take. I was more than a little chuffed to find I'm finally relaxed enough to take these big throws without having to worry - if anything, I was having fun.

Th day after, however, I felt as though I'd been through the spin cycle in a washing machine. Ouch.