The Gorilla Woman
Our dojo has a new member from Singapore. N is a very smart and very petite lady. At first glance, I thought she was a child. I was astonished that not only was she an adult, but she was also married. She came here to accompany her husband for his postgraduate studies. Since the first time she came to try Aikido, I have never slowed down the class for N. I may give her some extra attention now and then, but I am convinced that she has the ability to chase and catch up with the rest of the class. High potential students need challenges. Her progress confirms that my assessment was correct. Before long, N was ready to test for gokyu . I had never seen anybody test for gokyu this soon. Review sessions for her test were not typical drills. Instead of doing text book versions of the techniques over and over, I used the test syllabus as the basis to show all sorts of variations for the entire class. This way, ikkyu s preparing for s...
