Back in action

I was able to return to the mat this weekend. :) As normally happens, this second infection hasn't been responding to antibiotics nearly as quickly the first. Two weeks ago, I was feeling fine about three days after starting the medicine. This week has been slow going.

Since Western medicine's best efforts were not really getting the job done, yesterday I went to a traditional Chinese doctor to get some herbs. I figure it couldn't hurt. We'll try acupuncture next. ;)

Rick Stickles, of Aikido Schools on New Jersey, teaches at the New York Aikikai once a month. This was his weekend.

Over the past couple of years, I've attended lots of his classes, yet I am somewhat at a loss to describe his style. I suppose changeable, is one way to express it. Some days, he'll appear very philosophic and just when I think I've gotten him all figured out, he'll switch gears, though generally he doesn't stress technique all that much. I've suspect that since he only teaches in NY once a month, he may conduct the class more like a seminar than a daily class. In other words, he tries to get a lot of ideas all crammed into one hour. I've haven't yet attended one of his classes in his own dojo yet, so that is just a guess.

So we started off with some tai no henko and then branched into some katatedori that stressed connection. One very cool thing: Rick came over to demonstrate to Jenny and I and we both took ukemi from him. I guess he liked her ukemi, because he stopped the class to demonstrate some more and he called her up to be demo uke. Haha. She did very well. After class, he even said to her, "Nice practice. How long have you been here?" She told him eight months, to which he was amazed. You go girl. She was happy about it, and I was too. :)

Sugano-sensei taught the next class, but I sat out because I was saving myself for...