The downtown event went well, thanks to Rhiannon helping me set up.  It was quite windy, and would have been difficult on my own.  Thanks to the folks who showed up to man the booth.  There were not as many people downtown as I would have expected for Mahdi Gras, but we did chat with half a dozen prospects.

We had our usual Saturday morning class, with a new guy for the first hour.  Welcome Jeff.  He is nidan in TKD and juijutsu.  We worked on testing techniques again, for 6th, 5th, and 3rd kyu.  We finished up with randori, empty hands and then with a jo.

Then I rushed home to drop off Rhiannon and Teddy, and on to the cross training.  We started off with ukemi, as both myself (for aikido) and Ricky (for karate), were going to do some throws.  We segued into throwing with irimi nage, to practice both backward and forward rolls.  Then we did some kaiten nage, which besides being good practice for front rolls was related to what Ricky was going to teach.

Ricky did some throws and takedowns that were a lot like what we do in aikido.  Casey wore me out with a big iriminage-like throw.

Bill Wahne, who just got promoted to 4th dan in Goju Ryu, taught kubitan techniques.  They are definitely painful, and useful for control.

Finally, I taught some exercises on connecting and taking uke’s center.  This allows nage to either do aikido or karate techniques.  We started with uke not moving his feet, and then without designated ukes and nages, with either party able to do a technique if they can.  This is a lot like the tai chi pushing hands technique.  You maintain contact and jockey for advantage, then do a technique.  Usually what led to a successful technique was one partner not being flexible enough.

Overall, the cross training seminar went very well.  Lots of interesting stuff, and nobody got hurt.  I didn’t do a count, but there must have been over 20 people there.