Enter Chino Sensei

Today I had my first class with Chino Sensei, one of the top instructors currently at Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo.  Here's a video I found of him on youtube:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3E_2lGmyPE


His presence was extremely impressive, and it was quite something to watch him in action.  I can't stress enough the difference of actually seeing these people practicing in real life.  It's always very inspiring to see the beautiful technique that can be achieved with enough years of dedicated practice. 


The order of the day for this class was what I'm going to call katate ryote mochi sokumen iriminage (I think that's right.)  It's a techniqe that I've never done, but it's similar enough to one of the techniques I tested for recently that I was not completely in the dark.  Bryn and I were the only non black belts in the class, but we were there to get a feel for Chino's teaching style and to "break the ice" with him, so to speak.  He will be one of the teachers that we will be dealing with a lot when the course begins, and I look forward to learning from him very much.


Prior to this class we also attended a beginner level class which was taught by another jovial fellow who's name I didn't get, but who also had excellent technique.  In that class we worked on the six kihon dosa, or basic movements, and then went on to shomenuchi ikajo, one of the fundamental operations in Aikido.  I must say that the overwhelming response to our presence in the dojo has been extremely welcoming.