2nd Anniversary Demo

At the end of last month we held our second anniversary demonstration at the club. We spend months preparing for it, it was a huge event for the club especially as the club has grown significantly since last year. The kids worked really hard to prepare for the event and I was thoroughly impressed with how seriously they took it. I used the format from last year and built upon it to add to what we would do.

Unfortunately the week before I twisted my ankle at rugby training which made practice incredibly difficult. Luckily I had some students step up to help out with the kids practice and the adults practice. On the day I strapped my foot up and took some painkillers. I am not sure if it was the right decision as my foot is still in pain even now about a month later.

There was so much to do for the event, but I really feel it came together thanks to the effort of all the students. The Kihon Dosa Renzoku went off without a problem and all the kids got into their positions just like we practiced. The table tennis group was there again but I think we did really well despite the background noise.

The kids ukemi was superb, I had some advanced students do the ukemi really quickly and included the Zenpo Hiyaku Ukemi, they had only just started learning it, but the kids who took part in the demo did amazing.

For the adults we did a lot of what we covered last year, as there was not really enough practice time to do anythign new, but I really feel they benefited from doing Kanren Waza again. What we did do it take it up a notch and add in some parts that were missing from last year.

A highlight for this year was the tanto demonstration. I held a tanto training over the summer holidays, two of the students turned up three early morning practicies in a row and even though they were both new at Aikido, they picked up the skills very quickly.

We had nearly three times as many children take part this year compared to last year. The adults were the same as last year, but I had other students promise to take part next year, so I hope we will see more people on the mat for our thrid year anniversary.