Back to the old(er) school aikido

I returned to the aikido of Kanai Sensei via Claude Berthiaume Sensei at Aikido de la Montagne this afternoon. The class I took was the beginners class and it was very full. (We need to really work on bringing up beginner attendance at Shin Budo Kai...) We did a bunch of exercises and then techniques based on them including forward rolls and break-falls, Ikkyu, and kote-kaeshi from ryote-tori. It was very interesting to feel the differences in style, derived from between the Aikikai tradition and Kanai Sensei. The end of class included a bit of jiyu-waza/randori like practice. We used one simple forward roll technique in groups of three where two people were uke and the nage was continuously attacked. having not practiced like this at Shin Budo Kai in a while (and perhaps helped by the beer and late lunch) I was totally winded and warn out after a couple of rounds. A good days aikido.