The adults grading will be held on Sunday 30 November - about 6 weeks away. The kids grading will be the week before the adults grading, Sunday 23 November. Mark the relevant dates in your diary. More information will be available shortly.

Adult proficiency tests will be held:

• White belts - 5th and 4th kyu - Wed 22 October Burnside Dojo, 6.00pm
• Brown belts - 3rd to 1st kyu - Sun 26 October Burnside Dojo, 5.00pm

During the seminar with Yamashima Shihan we filmed almost all the demonstrations and Logan has kindly burnt the results to a DVD. These are now available at a small charge of $5 each. You can get copies of the DVD from the Burnside Dojo.

The ASC Spring Seminar was held over three days 5 – 7 September. Each year this seminar builds in terms of enjoyment and numbers attending. This year [the 18th anniversary year] we were privileged to be hosting Yamashima Shihan from Tokyo as the guest instructor. Over the 3 days 61 students attended and were treated to Yamashima Sensei’s relaxed, smooth and powerful style. Yamashima Sensei made a point of going around all students and throwing them for virtually every technique and thus every student got to experience “hands on” aikido from him.

The Spring Seminar is over and Yamashima Sensei has left. We now need to turn our minds to the rest of the year and the grading at the end of November. We will therefore carry out a round of Proficiency Tests next week to see where people are at.

• 3rd kyu – 1st kyu – brown belts – Wed 17 September Burnside Dojo, 7.30pm
• 5th kyu – 4th kyu – white belts – Fri 19 September Burnside Dojo, 6.00pm
• Nidan & Sandan – black belts – Sun 21 September Burnside Dojo, 5.00pm

For the beginners, the Proficiency Tests are a chance to see what you know – it follows the same format as the grading at year end but it is an internal thing for ASC rather than a grade. It is well worth doing as it prepares you for the grading.

And they're fun!

Yamashina Sensei arrived in Christchurch, from Japan, on Wednesday morning. Although the seminar starts Friday evening, it didn't take long for him to ask when the aikido training could start! He took Wednesday and Thursday classes at the Burnside dojo - a real treat for the students that could make it.

He took the time to wonder around, making sure everyone had a chance to receive techniques. His movements are simple but subtle. It's odd to end up scrambling for a breakfall, often upside-down, from such small movements.

Yamashima Sensei has arrived. We have already had several great sessions. The Spring Seminar Friday 5 September to Sunday 7 September is upon us. Note training is at the Pages Road Dojo.

Yamashima Shihan [7th Dan] has his own dojo in Tokyo and travels extensively teaching Aikido. He is the past head for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Dojo and has travelled to Christchurch on two occasions previously. Yamashima Sensei’s aikido is smooth and powerful.

The provisional timetable is shown below.

Here are the official results for the recent seniors grading. It was a fun day! Make the most of the training time before the next one.

Here are the official results for the kids grading which was run last weekend. Well done to everyone that took part, it was a really good grading and everyone's behavior was very impressive.

Luciano Marcolino, one of our sandan regulars, recently competed in the New Zealand Barista Championships, and won first place. Congratulations from all of us!

We're expecting to see more of him again after he competes in the World Barista Championsihps, next month, in Copenhagen.

Congratulations to Kahu for doing 42 classes in April. An awesome effort, and one he might be repeating this month? There aren't many martial arts schools in New Zealand were this is possible, so make the most of it!