Married to a 3:d dan aikidoka

Me, about to attack Yoram with a bokken

During Sukkot weekend Seki Sensei came and gave his annual seminar in Israel. I was only there the second, and the last, out of four days. Yoram was about to take his sandan, and two full seminars, as well as a sandan grade, was too expensive for us, so I stepped aside. Seki is not one of my primary teachers anyway, so I did not mind. I took on having the kids those two days instead, so that we would have more days alone after Sukkot.

We had prepared before the seminar, of course, but continued also during the seminar, especially with the weapon part. Seki does not care much about weapons, so the weapons play a minimal and formal part of the graduation. Nevertheless, we wanted a great performance, and I shared many of the tricks that I have learned during the years with Stefan Stenudd. We, as well as Yoram's teacher were under the impression that he would have to show defence against knife and sword, but the day before the test we realised that he would also do defence against stick, so we worked in some jodori techniques in the last minute. Not optimal, but what to do?

Yoram used Assi as his first uke, and me for the weapons, and then Omer joined in for the taninzugake. Yoram did an excellent test, far better than on any of his pre-tests at home. There was another guy doing his sandan test besides Yoram and someone compared the two couples like seeing two butterflies dancing beside two wrestling elephants.

As I was watching the nidan graduations, I saw once more that to keep pace with the people around here it is time for me to do a nidan test not too soon from now. However, this was not the place, nor the time. I want to do it in Sweden, under my own teachers, but those tests are different, with higher demands on the performance, longer tests, and a larger curriculum. A different approach, simply. There are pros and cons with both.

Although I once said that I will never do a test in connection to Lillsved, that is now what seems like the most reasonable option, considering the practical circumstances. I just hope that Stefan could be there too. Maybe he will. Anyway, it is time to get serious. Jan will be here in a few months and then I am up for some feedback on my preparations.