Thursday, March 30, 2006

Jodori, Pretest for S. and My Birthday Rolls!

We warmed up this evening with jo kata number 1. I remembered a lot of it but there are some tricky transistions that I have trouble with. T. loves weapons (she prefers the bokken, though). We went from that into jodori - throws done when uke grabs the jo. These are very compelling throws because of the extra leverage the jo gives nage. I was doing pretty well in my rolls tonight.

Sensei called me up to demonstrate the advantage of leverage against a large person (that's me). He threw me a dozen or so times (*whew!*) then asked how many that was. Well, I hadn't been counting but someone had (B.?, T.?): 13. He threw me three more times and said that was the first third of my birthday rolls. After more practice he called me up again and gave me another 16 rolls - the second third of my 48. I was pretty winded but I kept getting up!. We practiced some more and he called me up again. This time, the yudansha got to throw me twice and everyone else got to throw me once except T., as the last, who, as my daughter, got to throw me as many times as she wanted. Fortunately, she only threw me twice. I'm happy that I did all my rolls in one night. Last year, Sensei spread them over three classes!

Then we went through S.'s last pretest before her Saturday test.

T. and several others took me out to sushi again for my birthday. T. said it was for my birthday rolls, this time. What a great bunch of people!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Ryokatatetori and Pretesting for S.

S. is getting ready for her nikyu test on April 1st. We worked with many variations of ryokatatetori - iriminage, kokyunage, ikkyo...
T. came tonigth because there was no rehearsal tonight (and she didn't come last night). My elbow was feeling a little better.

I'm having a weird thing with my right ear that started this morning. My unofficial diagnosis is tinnitus - ringing in the ears - but, of course, I'm worried that it might be permanent.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Randori and Pretest for S.

We had the usual cozy Monday evening class. T. didn't come tonight but said she'd go tomorrow since she doesn't have to wrangle rehearsal. We worked on randori, tonight, since S. is testing on Saturday. We had a good run and I got pretty pooped at one point. Good workout.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Birthday Rolls - Denied!

My dang elbow has cost me my birthday rolls! My right elbow has been sore since last Friday when I arm-wrestled four teenaged boys (15, 15, 16, 17) in about 5 minutes. In keeping with the old adage "Old age and trickery will always defeat youth and skill", I beat them all. Of course, I cheated: I used ki and patience. Unfortunately, I've been paying for it all week. Ah, well.

We worked on quite a few kaitenage variations this evening. We also worked with something I'd never seen before: katame nage - pinning throw. T. is rolling pretty well, these days, but she did fall and bonk her head tonight. She says she saw nothing but white for a little while. After a bit, though, she shook it off and kept going.

Several people took me out to sushi, afterward, for my birthday. Such good people!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Multi-Sensei

Since Sensei is off at March Madness each of the yudansha got to teach a portion of the class. We worked a lot with katatetori, doing kokyunage, iriminage, and ikkyo. We ended with a rousing couple rounds of aikivolleyball.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Bokken Fun

T. and I went to our new Monday-schedule class, tonight. T. sensei taught us Bokken kata number 1. Good workout for arms, shoulders, lower back and, especially, the bottom of my feet. Working barefoot on carpet teaches you to stop dragging your feet!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Alas!

T. needed me more tonight so we stayed home.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Moving to Mondays

T. and I planned to change from going to Aikido on Tuesday to going on Monday because of T.'s new schedule. I went alone tonight because she wasn't feeling well. We started with stretching then worked on some ukemi practice, which I really need. We spent the rest of the evening playing with randori skills, looking for the dynamic spaces that swirl around the ukes and nage.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Ryotetori all over the place!

Lots of ryotetori tonight. We started with kokyunage and tenchinage. Then we put a tenkan twist on the tenchinage and then sokomen iriminage. We even did a strange one where the high hand goes over uke's head and behind pulling the elbow up into a shihonage position.

We celebrated S.W.W.'s birthday with the traditional birthday throws and finished up with randori practice for those nearing testing.