There's no real diary of summer school going on here, mainly because I'm sleeping in any spare time I get. Classes have all been great so far - early morning sword work with Ken Marsden, Kanetsuka has been magical as ever, Kobayashi is fantastic, and Matthew Holland (who I seem to be spending most of the week with) has been great.

Had the gradings yesterday, and it was a mixed bag: Steve and John got 5th and 6th kyu respectively, Dan was asked to try again next time around, and whilst I got 3rd kyu I really wasn't happy with my performance during the grading. I've yet to bore Tom or whoever graded me by discussing it with them, but I felt that I was too easily intimidated early on by a large uke (which is my fault, not his - I should be used to that) and was a bit ragged from then on... so there's plenty to work on before next time around.

Comments

[Mark Walsh]

Well done to all.

Open invite to all Aikidoka out there:
I wil be having people round my place (Barton Hall Activity Centre Devon) for jelly ice creanm, beer and violence 25-27th August, to celebarte a quarter century of Mark.

Traing on Wed and Thur night, invites have gone out to various dojos; probables so far are:

Tom Hume, Boz, Smiley Steve and Big Jon from Leeds.

Centre activities will be available to use during the days,

Cheers,
Mark
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[Mark]

Hi all,

Brithday Bash training will be led by Mario Falaschi, 5th dan so hombu, a senior instructor from Renshinkan/ the UKA.

:)

Mark
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[Mark]

Thanks for the beer :)

Mark
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