Nottingham 2025

For Christmas I returned to Nottingham for work and also took the opportunity to train with Narita Sensei and my old training partners. Narita Sensei booked the dojo for two 4 hour sessions over the weekend with some very early starts! It is cold and dark in the UK so I really appreciate all the people who dragged themselves out of bed early to get to the dojo, set out the mats and work with me to up skill towards my next grading.

Narita Sensei covered a lot in the short space of time we had, he was refreshing all the techniques we know and also introducing many new ones. We covered Kihon Dosa with a partner in great detail all the way to Suwari Waza Ryoute Mochi Kyokuho 1-4. What the training made me realise is how much work it is going to be to get to the level where I can test. The jump from Shodan to Nidan is quite significant as not only d your techniques need to be executed far better but there is also a lot more you need to know.

Right now, I think my main goal is to get my students to a level where I can train with them as my Uke at the level I need to be training myself. This is only the first year of my club, but luckily for me my students have been very dedicated and adopted Aikido into their lives really quickly. I hope I can live up to their needs.