Aikido was good the other night. Got to work with the tanto (wooden knife). It’s always interesting to work with these techniques. Bare-handed there is room for mistakes, but when dealing with a weapon you must control the weapon or get stabbed (in real life, not at pratice). After practice I watched some clips of Tomiki Aikido tournemnts where they use a padded tanto and try to do techniques at full speed. Much harder. Of course, I think the missing element is atemi. During the contest, the guy with the knife can slash and stab, but the other guy doesn’t get to really use atemi. Things might look different if Nage slid in, avoiding the strike, and punched the attacher in the ribs real hard before doing the technique.
But I guess the point is this — in the street things are different.
Been cycling as much as possible. Have a nice 17-mile evening route that I do.
That is all.
