Gokkyu Test!

T. was nervous about her gokkyu test tonight. We got to the dojo too late to do any practice before class started. After warm up stretches and aiki taiso we started with yokomenuchi taisabaki. We worked on yokomenuchi attacks all night resolved with kokyunage, iriminage, sokomen iriminage, and shihonage. After a round of soon-to-test randori, Sensei started T.'s test.

In my opinion (which is obviously not binding on anyone else!), she did the techniques better than I did on my gokkyu test a year and a half ago. She did have trouble pulling up a couple techniques and did some iriminage to keep moving. She had the weapons stances and attacks down much better than I did on that test. Sensei called me up so she and I could demonstrate the six kumi tachi and, except for T. getting a bit excited and adding another strike at the end of number four (twice!) we did really well (we forgot to ki-ai several times, too). She got very tired in her test randori (already having done one plus the whole test) but did well even when Sensei sent in a fourth uke.

In circle, after class, we sang The Ryushinkan Chicken for Sensei's birthday. He knew something was up but he even joined in singing for the last half. Afterward, we took Sensei out for sushi. K.W. and S. brought their five month old son, A., and Sensei played with him for a long time. I got to hold A., too.

All around, a good evening. Lots of fun.

Weight: 300