Aikido on the Road

Things you don't really need to practice aikido while on a business trip:

• a gi
• a dojo
• mats
  

Absolutely essential: a partner

About two or three times a year, the consortium that I work with gathers together from our individual locations across the US and Europe for some old-fashioned face-to-face time. Part of what makes traveling to locations near and far bearable is that I get to hang out with the really great people that I usually interact with only through email or phone.

What makes the trips truly awesome is that I don't have to put my exercise schedule on hold because I can run and do aikido with one of these friends. He's the one that got me back into exercise mode. Every meeting, we'd talk a little bit about martial arts - me with my karate and arnis background, and he with his aikido. In April of last year, after dinner one night, he said, "Go give aikido a try. There's a class right by your work." I came back from that meeting, went to my first aikido class the next day, and haven't looked back since.

We've packed our gis to meetings in Palo Alto, Seattle, Cambridge (UK!), and, now, Princeton. This last trip, we managed to squeeze in two training sessions, about an hour and a half to two hours each. My classes are only an hour long so having a longer time period was a real treat. Though we did have our gis, there was no time to get to a dojo, so, no mats. Hello, grass! My gi has never been so dirty nor have I ever had so much close contact with a lawn. It was so much fun. The look of glee on his face as he swung me around in irimi nage will stay with me for a long time.

Later this month, he comes to CA for yet another meeting. We're trying to see if we can squeeze in a class at the main dojo. My next kyu test falls a few days later, on his birthday.

I will practice and I will be ready. Here's what I need to know:

• shomen uchi - ikkyo - omote and ura
• shomen uchi - nikyo - omote and ura
• shomen uchi - irimi nage
• kata dori - nikyo - omote and ura
• ryote dori - tenchi nage
• tsuki - kote gaeshi
• katate dori - shihonage - omote and ura
• yokomen uchi - shihonage - omote and ura