I made it to Florida!

First post since moving in and getting settled down and so far i'd have to say i'm enjoying myself. John and i haven't specifically done aiki yet, my schedule had to be ironed out and i've spent my free time just checking out some of the sites and and what not. All i have of note aikido wise is that which is pool oriented. I played around with tegatana in the pool and to a plesant discovery the falling forward method of movement (disengaging the forward foot and "falling" in that direction) works wonderfully in a pool. Something that would be a unique way of getting a new student to understand and expeiriance that concept. Another thing that came to mind was that if you use your lungs to correct your posture (ala feldenkrais) during tegatana becomes another thing that's easier to expeierence in a pool. I shared these tidbits of idea with John and he seemed to dig them. So if you want to do some rather effective tegatana just go for a swim.

Hopefully in the next few days John and i can get back in a regular training schedule for both aikido and judo. More updates later.

Winds of change.

Last post i was in the frame of mind to put together a post about perfection in aikido, trying to weigh the pros and cons which might have ended up into some sort of andy vs. self solo discussion on old school aikido vs. new aikido. I would have tried my best to get my point across on all of this, eventually saying that wether you learn aikido rigidly going through 1,000 move or the dojo you train at experiments and what-not it's still aikido. It would have been an insightful post (if anyone could keep up with my scatterbrain).

All of that will not be appearing in this post.

Woosh. (That would be the aforementioned wind of change, just go with me on this)

I'm moving to Florida. That has taken up a huge part of my mental storage space the last few weeks as the idea has taken shape from concept to actually happening next thursday (the 18th of october). Yikes would be an understatement. I'll be moving in with ol' John, my best friend and also student of Pat. We'll be getting to train practically everyday and there are several dojos (dojoes? sp?) in the area to attend as well. The downside is i feel like a heel. I like learning at my dojo. Now i'll be learning with new people and under new teachers, probably always wondering "How would Pat approach this". I'm leaving home territory to learn from them! I think the culture shock is going to get to me, plus as i progress i can't even see myself getting rank tests from anyone else? Has anyone else had to undergo sensei transplant? What is that like, learning a certain way of doing things, even inside the same organization, and then going somewhere else where everything could be (God forbid!) different?

These are the things i ponder at the moment. Well, that and all the chances i'll get to help John with his ukemi ;-)