Stick with Whit

Last night I practiced jodo with Whit. I practiced honteuchi and gyakuteuchi and hikiotoshi solo forms and then got Whit to hold a sword so I could practice kuritsuke and makiotoshi. I had to coach Whit a good bit not to flinch away from the jo, but that is understandable. A jo is a scary thing to have flinging around your head. We emphasized stretching your arms out and keeping the sword between us. At the end I took the sword and Whit spontaneously translated the jodo kuritsuke into a quarterstave technique and did a really good job of it. At the end we worked aikido releases #1-4.

I’m so proud of Whit’s progress. Last night he asked me, “How long ago did I learn this stuff?” It’s only been a few months but he’s doing it as if he was born to it.