Ramblings (Mostly Aikido)

Running through the CAA's curriculum starting with 1st kyu, they call out the attack and request several techniques. Some might find the...

A lot is written about spirituality and aikido, more so than most martial forms I suspect, but it is not inherently more spiritual than an...

Use the elbow of your partner to cut his own hips, to block his own attack. Particularly with techniques like kote gaishi, shiho nage, tai n...

I met my wife's teacher this week, a monk called Swami Purananda, who speaks beautifully and intelligently about God/Truth/Brahman/Spiri...

I believe what we are missing as we stumble around the dojo is good strong, supportive, sensitive and responsive legs. Too often we forget w...

Henshin Aikido at DefendU Ireland recently hosted Patrick Cassidy Sensei (6 th Dan Aikikai) for a weekend course.  To practice aikido for a...

Having recently moved back to Ireland I am no longer training with Tom and Maria Helsby and have rejoined John Roger's dojo in Dublin, G...

A good friend of mine once pointed out that the middle of the technique is the beautiful part and what produces the quality of the outcome, ...

From Zen & Swordsmanship part 2 by D.T. Suzuki Yagyu Tajima no kami (grave pictured) listed the following as 'diseases' to be...

I have not blogged in a long while but thought that whatever I've managed to take away fom my second Sugawara Sensei seminar in Edinburg...

Excerpt from Eckhart Tolle's 'Power of Now' :  Your 'life situation' exists in time.  Your life is now.  Your 'life ...

Just back from a four day hippie festival in Somerset and the moment that stands out for me was finding Jude, my son, wandering back towards...

Ikkyo, Nikkyo, Sankyo, Yonkyo. 1st principle, 2nd principle, third principle, 4th principle. Ikkyo is the primary technique in aikido. From...

I decided over the weekend to approach aikido slightly differently. I will take one paticular aspect of aikido and focus on that for the wh...

So we've got the camping bug. After my first ever succesful (as in enjoyable and comfortable) camping trip last weekend, we are off to ...

So am recovering from misogi finally. Quite achy the last two days! Foolishly tried to do my hundred sword cuts the morning after the 2500...

So after at least a year in which I proclaimed myself free of the awful burden of needing to play music I am back on that paticular wagon. ...

Just back from Misogi . This is a ritual undertaken by aikio practitioners on the anniversary of O Sensei's ( Aikido's founder) ...

Just back from my first Microsoft exam and I passed! I was pleasantly surprised. I can now place the three letters, MCP , after my name,...

Been listening to Eckhart Tolle speaking about the inner body the last few days on my MP3 player. This is a great teaching which I've ...

Just back from the dojo - another night of the freezing toes at the wildpark. I am currently vexed by the 'new' backwards ukemi - it...

Just back from Edinburgh and a two day course with Sugawara Sensei, a Hombu Shihan. My thanks to Neil Blacknell of Azami Kai Aikido for org...

Youtube playlist containing most of the basic techniques in Aikido - demonstrated by various random Aikidoka. Enjoy.

My job can be stressful, when I take myself too seriously.  There are so many people around me taking themselves and what is done unto them ...

Although I have been meditating on and off for some years now, it's only the last 3 weeks or so that I have finally succeeded in habitua...

I awoke this morning to my daughter Anabel doing a monologue of some sort.   She's saying she's going to go round to her friend'...

This last seven days I have trained more with strangers than I have my regular aikidoka and it's been a terrific experience. I spent Sun...

Am currently reading several books and have put them aside temporarily to go through a nice, if somewhat cheesy, little book by an American ...

I am thankful and grateful for this healthy mind and body.  There are many that have not this blessing and I appreciate it on a daily basis....

So I've been kind of lazy in that I've not been meditating regularly of late. Just using it as a tool at crisis points when it all b...

Training again at the dojo last night when I had an epiphany of sorts. Taking instruction form Tom Helsby, he told us to place our bodies on...

I have been reading 'The Principles of Effortless Power' by Pater Ralston and came across a fascinating experiment yesterday. Lift y...

Just back from the dojo .  We were looking at entering into the attack but off the line of attack.  Meeting the attack with our arm as a res...

The more I worry, the less life flows, the more it all knots up until it comes to a head in thoroughly crap day or an explosive argument wit...

The practice of Ukemi is, in my limited understanding, the most important part of Aikido practice. This is where you attack your partner an...

Check these pics of my littlest sister, Laura's, baby in her belly. Has ultra sound gotten better in the last 6 years, because I don...

Reading Musashi's Book of Five Rings at the moment and I am fascinated by the statement, and I paraphrase somewhat, "When you strik...

The evolution of the species is not so much a biological thing in humans, it's faster than that. Whilst we're still passing on genes...

I have decided to start writing and recording music again. After making 'music making' the main goal in my life many years ago I pur...

Eckhart Tolle talks about the pain body as part of his teachings. A clever way of looking at the schizophrenic behaviour of humans. To par...

I find that my mind is constantly reminding me of what I need to do next. "Customer's waiting, more work incoming, get this done f...