On Friday 4th April Joseph Kennedy and Kieran Nipress gave a Demo of Takemusu Aikido and Katori Shinto Ryu to the Windgap Youth Club. There where about 40 kids present and several adults. When we arrived the kids where running all over the place and yelling. Just generally being kids. They did however in all fairness sit down and stay more or less quiet while we showed them what we do. I gave a brief talk about Aikido and why I do it, and the kids listened responsively. They where especially attentive when I took out my Iaito and showed the Iaijutsu of Katori Shinto Ryu. The demo concluded and we invited the children up two at a time to have a go at the shihonage throw. Me and Kieran must have taken ukemi 100 times on that cold hard floor. All part of training I supposed. We finished with everyone standing doing some Kiai’s. Hope fun was had by all and thanks to Liz Jackson for the invite.
Irish Budoka 