Last month I took my 2nd dan shinsa. This was a very difficult test particularly because I had to defend against weapons and multiple attackers, which is not often practiced in our regular keiko. Although my senpai were very kind and helped me prepare for the test, I don’t think that I did very well on the day. Some people say that if you have mastered the fundamental movements of Aikido it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with weapons, so perhaps I need to work harder on the basics. Through this test I gained a lot of useful experiences to reflect on and I look forward to practicing more with everyone at Doyukai to improve my technique.
