An old friend

One of our students from a while back emailed the other day, and I thought I'd share it with you all...

Dear Mits and other Sanbukan friends,

I wanted to share with you the good news that I passed my shodan test Saturday at the annual USAF Yudansha seminar at the Midwest Aikido Center in Chicago. Yamada (head of the USAF) and Zimmerman (from Toronto) judged the tests. My 13-year old son, who watched all the tests, said, "I liked the brawls best!" He also helpfully pointed out that I will need to buy one of those "man skirts" now... I will try to figure out how to properly compress my randori (brawl) video soon so it is possible to email.

I'm terribly sorry to read that Carol just passed away. I remember clearly the day she and her daughter started aikido at the old Ogden dojo. I recall her thin, thin wrists and her powerful nikajo and sankajo cranks--wow!

Charles E. Cunningham
Professor of Physics, Grinnell College

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Here is a 40-second clip of the randori from my test--the brawl my son liked, in quicktime format (Now on the Sanbukan YouTube Channel). Thanks to Yoshinkan training with Mits, my test techniques tend to have more atemi than most. I hope Mits and the guys like it.

Charles E. Cunningham
Professor of Physics, Grinnell College