Peter’s Soapbox

What a Month!

I think I’ve had my busiest October ever. Here’s a quick summary:

• Fall gasshukku with Hiroshi Ikeda shihan at Shobu Aikido of Boston.
• Mountain biking with my new (to me) Sinister Splinter (affectionately referred to as “the Tractor”).
• Work work work work work! Audits and migrations and troubleshooting, oh my!
• Reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning by Gordon “Fyodor” Lyon

I plan on elaborating on all of these points.

Eventually.

Perhaps.

Koshinage and Sensei Flashbacks

Last night, fighting a cold, I led our weekly Wednesday night Aikido basics class at the dojo here. For the second week in a row, we covered basics of koshinage (hip throw), and did drills to help build leg strength, as well as to build the kinesthetic memory and response which enables one to perform a koshinage without having to stop and think about it. Koshinage has also always been one of my weakest techniques, as the transition to my weak knee has usually been an iffy proposition at best, so I can always use the practice. Continue reading Koshinage and Sensei Flashbacks…

Book Review: The Power of Full Enagement

I recently finished reading The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. As the subtitle indicates, “Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.” Continue reading Book Review: The Power of Full Enagement…

McConnell Taping

This weekend, after starting a new round of physical therapy for my knee, I experimented with McConnell Taping to see if it could keep my patella in place. I’d tried something like this before, and was pretty skeptical.

To my surprise, the technique not only moved my kneecap into a more proper location, the tape actually held through hours of hot, sweaty aikido practice, including kneeling and suwariwaza techniques. I definitely will be using this technique in the future.

Shobu Aikido Vermont Summer Gasshukku with William Gleason Sensei

This weekend I had the pleasure of training with William (Bill) Gleason Sensei, who taught several classes at our dojo in Woodstock, Vermont. Gleason Sensei has been incorporating more techniques to develop internal control and power into his teachings, which is still new to me, and very interesting. I am looking forward to more of this training in the near future.