Saturday's class and such

Youth Aikido
Daughters got more bokken practice in... giggle. And the technique was a shihonage which can be bit on the complex side. But all of the students were coming along nicely. Considering that it was Marian's third class and Laura's seventh, I think they're making nice progress. Lot of mistakes but they are starting to show muscle memory and getting some of the etiquette down. Most importantly they are both still having fun.

Beginners Class
Actully did a technique my body remembers from the old days. Chest grasp second control pin... pin was a touch different. But still felt good. Straight forward class overall, nothing odd or strange from my "elderly" point of view. :-)

Annual Demo
The annual opening of the dojo was today so they had an "in house" demo...

Genbu Sotojutsu
This is a sword style passed down through the Kushida family. It consists of both iaijutsu and kenjutsu forms from my point of view. Lot of little differences from my Musoshinden point of view. Like not a lot of saya biki on the noto, They seem to lean forward a titch after the kiri oroshi. Foot is turned out slightly. But nothing major. The two person forms were interesting with a mix of iai and some fencing (as most two person forms are.)

Might see if I can watch a class as I didn't get a sense of the arts main focus (e.g. 80% iaido in practice or more kenjutsu, etc.)

Bojutsu
On wednesday nights they have a bojutsu class and so the group demoed what they do. I don't have much experience so no clue what style they are, as they didn't say. Based on 9 sets of forms, techniques come off one of the sets. The sets consist of four strike/blocks that you do before the technique. Kinda like doing kihon dosa before a technique. Again interesting and would like to hear more about them.

Aikido Instructor's Demo
Nice demo, they ran through bits of each kyu level and then did some round robin at the end. Most of the group seemed stiff but I think it was more a choreography stiffness, e.g. they had just learned some of the moves and such. Third through first kyu seem fairly complex this year, and even some of the lower kyu levels had some complex choreography. But looked good overall. Nice to see some throws show up that I normally only see in high level demos. And a good overview of what I'll have to work through if I want to test again.

Overall happy to be back in it, both Aikido and Iaido... Next up need to find time to go to a Ki Society beginners class to finally see what is different and similar.