So much for regular updates before the grading... Unfortunately, that annoying work thing got in the way, so apologies to all one of me who's reading this.

So how did the grading go? Overall, I thought the standard was excellent from start to finish. I took ukemi for Sankyu (Ben), Nikyu (David) and Sandan (Gert) and all three performed excellently, although I have to say that Gert's grading was a revelation for me. Being a big guy and reasonably competent, I'm used to having a degree of control as to where and how I'm being thrown, but I had no say whatsoever during that grading. Gert's Aikido was very smooth, relaxed and incredibly powerful.

As for my own grading... it was exhausting. I have to thank my ukes, Shane, James and Justin, who probably made me look a bit better than I am (or less worse, perhaps!!) After training so hard for 7 months, to be brutally honest, I felt I could have done better and it all came crashing down on me on sunday night. I focused on the negatives and it wasn't until I got back to training on Monday evening, that I realised it wasn't actually that bad.

I do believe that after your grading, you should objectively analyse your Aikido and try to spot your weaknesses and improve on them. After all, if you don't know where you're going wrong, you can't fix the problems.

There's an old arab proverb I read a while ago that applies here:

He who knows, and knows he knows,
He is a wise man, learn from him.
He who knows, and knows not he knows,
He is sleeping, wake him.
He who knows not, and knows he knows not,
He is a child, teach him.
He who knows not, and knows now he knows not,
He is a fool, shun him.

Without getting too "movie of the week" on it, view mistakes as opportunities for improvement. If your Shihonage is awesome, you will really only make incremental improvements to it, but if your Kaitennage Ura sucks, there's probably a fundamental problem that will give you a massive advance when fixed.

But equally, it's not good to dwell on mistakes you've made. In my humble opinion, everyone did a good grading for their level. Enjoy that, and keep training.