inspiration

Michael Flynn Shihan, our original dojo-cho, flew in from Scotland for a great weekend seminar at Alamada Aikikai. More than most, he is able to demonstrate amazingly crisp and powerfull techniques while also maintaining that temper of compassion that makes aikido unique. Here are some pictures.

reality check

There’s an old throw in aikido, which in daito-ryu-aikijutsu was called gyaku-hijinage, and in modern aikido is known variously as udekimenage, jujinage, or simply a kokyunage variation (what isn’t?), which is often used during randori in response to yokomen or tsuki strikes. Nage moves in close to the side and slightly behind, a cross-hand grab… Continue reading

searchin’ searchin’ for ma bay bee

I was a fan of Amazon’s A9 search engine, until they silently switched from Google to Micro$oft (greased palm no doubt). Still, it’s amazing how different search tools find and present infomation (rather than searching three times in Google, try two other engines). Some engines use “clustering” or hierachical key word nodes, while others allow… Continue reading