certificate

This morning in our Aikido class, my fellow Aikidoka Jeff and I were presented with our certificates for completing 5th Kyu in Aikido, from the headquaters of our small school and the Baltimore Aikido school... in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i... really, that's how they spell it. Neat. It's kinda nice to have the certificate. Even bought a frame for it. It will sit in my basement next to my framed Third Dan in Ninpo Chuan Fa and black belt.

Aikido rankings go from 6th Kyu (beginner) to 1st Kyu, with students wearing a white belt with their gi. After 1st Kyu, we'll test of 1st Dan (1st degree Black Belt), after that, it's black belts and Hakamas, which are black skirt-like pants that the samurai used to wear. My good friend Leane and I refer to them as the "fancy pants".

I'm really enjoying the class right now. Fellow student Jeff is an athletic guy in his 40's with a black belt in Kenpo. With just the two of us, it's kind of like private lessons with Jack Henry, our sensei. We've really been moving along in our studies, although Jeff and I both get tripped up in certain moves and how we try to not resort to old moves we know from the other styles we're trained in.

Lately I've taken some steps on behalf  and at the request of Jack Sensei to set up a Facebook page for our group. I've gotten some friends to "like" the page. Also put up a few flyers for the school around the area. Jack is hoping we could get at least a few more people to round out the class. He started teaching Aikido at a health club in North Conway in February this year, there have been a few headaches with the club, such as having to switch rooms and mats around every class, and some overlap of other classes there. That'll be coming to an end, as the program is being moved to Conway at a local Yoga studio next month. Maybe we'll have a few less headaches with that.