Dojo Chat

@Everyone

Dear Deshi,

Firstly, congratulations to Fred and Wayne on their successful gradings last week. I hope this gives you some confidence and acknowledgement of the effort you have both made since starting your Iwama Aikido study early this year. Thank you for your commitment and positive energy, it is great to have you in the Dojo 🙇‍♂️

Also, a big thank you to Janet for being so willing to provide assistance to fellow students, and the support provided around the Dojo. A great example to us all.

Gotta Keep Moving!

Where to from here? In the spirit of being part of a Japanese Dojo, I ask all deshi (students) to please take ownership of their ongoing development and focus on the following points:

Hi Deshi,

An interesting discussion in the dojo last night regarding the use and ownership of an iaito (blunt katana) in SA. It is now illegal unless you have an exemption. Accordingly, I have emailed SAPOL to seek direction on how to obtain an exemption for myself and students of our dojo. Will keep you updated.

Also, sharing for Fred and others, here is some footage of a young Yasuhiro Saito Sensei using the katana as part of a demonstration in 2014. It is at the very end of the video, around the 2min50sec mark. Unfortunately it is only a snippet, I will see if I can find the full clip. However, you can see how agile and precise his technique is, quite inspiring 🙏🏻🙇🏻‍♂️

https://youtu.be/Wff5-Z2BdCg

@Everyone

Hi Deshi

Friendly reminder about Saturday class, outdoors weapons training, focused 1 hour of bokken or jo (sometimes both!).

We train in regular gym clothes, no need to wear your dogi.

This week will be at the Glandore Community Centre (and there’s a decent cafe right around the corner for a coffee and a friendly chat afterwards ☕️😀).

Please try to attend and get in an extra class as often as possible, every bit helps!

Ohayo gozaimasu, happy Sunday!

I have updated the video section, should be a good selection of footage now.

Eventually I will create locking and pinning videos, to reflect most current approach.

Look forward to training with you on Tuesday! 🙏🏻🙇🏻‍♂️