If It's Tuesday. . .

. . . we must be at the dojo. Yeah, well that was yesterday. Class meets from 7:30 to 8:30, so it's way too late for me to write when I get home.

Last night's class was really great. My body seemed to work really well, too. Our chief instructor was there, and I always seem to do well when he is there. I have no idea why.

It was also a very crowded mat. I think we had 13 students plus sensei. At one point I was uke and was thrown into a back fall with shihonage omote. I went down as usual, then hit the back of my head on another student's leg. I wound up biting the sides of my tongue. Ouch.

My toe is still recovering. I saw Mark for the first time since he stepped on me. He was glad to hear that he hadn't broken it.

After we bowed out, I stayed after to work on my test techniques. I worked on ushiro ryokatatori sankyo. I have trouble with the second step back and getting into the "safe place" just before I grab uke's hand for the sankyo. I practiced both omote and ura. I was getting pretty good at it.

I worked on my tsuki kaitennage. I need to increase my initial slide in order to make the technique work. I felt good about this, too

Finally, we worked on hamni handachi katatetori kaitennage. I practiced soto mawari, both omote and ura. I've been back on the mat for about 13 months, and for the life of me I don't remember working on this technique more than one time - and that was a long time ago. I know this is how we play Aikido, but it does not do much for testing confidence. At least I made all three techniques work pretty well for me last night.

Funny, there are so many times I leave the mat feeling frustrated. It happens more often than not. I don't care, though. I know my techniques work some days, and don't work others. It just feels good to have one really good practice day once in a while.

Today is my birthday. I received a special blessing at the Episcopal church we attend. The priest said that I was still young enough not to mind telling everyone how old I was. When I said I was 51, I swear I heard a gasp go up through the congregation. I guess I look pretty okay for my age.