My Shoulder's Improving

My shoulder felt much better this evening. It's a little frozen, still when rotating up and back or down and back. I was able to do rolls tonight - well, as well as I ever do!

We worked with yokomenuchi, an open-hand strike to the side of the head. First we moved through the tai sabaki to learn the movement. We moved under/outside of the strike, ending up beside uke behind the striking arm. This leads pretty naturally into iriminage, the entering throw. We also varied this movement to try sokumen iriminage, the upside-the-head-entering-throw™.

Next, we used the same entrance to get to ikkyo, the subject of the previous Tuesday's class. A variation on the ikkyo entry takes you into sankyo that was one of the tough parts of my gokyu test in May.

The sankyo hold on the arm really gives the shoulder a good stretch. I had several good partners this evening who carefully helped me stretch my injured shoulder. We've got good people at the dojo. Lots of good people.

T. sat out this evening's class.