Thursday, April 27, 2006

Nidan week (plus a surprise!)

T. and I got there a little late. While we were tying our obi in the hallway V. K. sensei from Utah walked up. T. M. sensei asked him to come and help teach tonight and he agreed so he shared the class with T. M. sensei and K. M. sensei. Fun stuff but I was drenched. Missing a full class every week is taking it's toll.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Jo Waza

T. really likes working with the weapons. Now that the sun goes down late enough we can practice with weapons outdoors. We started with practicing the strikes then went into jo kata number 1. I remembered it (mostly) from last year. Fun!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Ikkyo

After warming up we worked on several styles of katatori ikkyo - some emphasizing an upward arc and some a horizontal arc. Then we tried a new (or, rather, old) style of shomenuchi ikkyo emphasizing catching and guiding the striking arm on the outside of the arm rather than stopping the strike under uke's elbow. T. got to play with sensei practicing the unbendable arm used in the shomenuchi arm-catch. We ended with some randori.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Tenchinage

T. was too tired to come to Aikido, tonight. I almost didn't go, either, but I'm glad I did (as usual). After warming up we first worked on katatetori sokomen iriminage with a tenkan entrance. Next, we worked on ryokatatetori tenchinage by breaking it down. We started with the lower hand breaking balance behind the uke, then with the upper hand snaking over uke's shoulder. The trickiest part of these techniques are the ease with which they turn into contests of strength. Because I'm a big, tall guy I have to really work hard to overcome my tendency to muscle on through techniques like this. A constant challenge!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Arrrgh!

T. had too much school work to do so I went to Aikido alone this evening. We started with warmups then went into yokomenuchi taisabaki. We quickly worked through many variations on yokomenuchi; sumi otoshi, iriminage, kokyunage, shihonage, and sokomen iriminage. We ended up concentrating on sudori, the disappearing throw. Unfortunately, when I was taking falls near the end of class a strong - but not too rough - sumi otoshi-like throw reinjured my right shoulder. My nage and I both felt it give with a mild pop and I sat out the rest of class. It doesn't hurt that bad but [sigh] I'm probably going to have to sit out a couple sessions.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Monday Evening

P. Sensei taught, this evening. We set up in the smaller front room. With only M., T. and me, the size wasn't a problem. We worked on ryotetori - grabbing both wrists - with several kokyunage variations, nikkyo, and sankyo. We also did a kind of a quick-entry shomenuchi nikkyo and sankyo that were interesting.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

S.'s Nikkyu Test

We got together this morning for S.'s nikkyu test. We had nineteen people on the mat which is pretty big for a Saturday morning class. This is the fourth time I've practiced on the mat this week and my legs were squealing! We worked from taisabaki stretches right into kokyunage rolls. Fun class, good test.

...

Okay, so it was April Fools Day, too. Most people on the mat had a rubber chicken tucked into their dogis. Mine fell out in front of Sensei but he didn't say anything. It wasn't until during the test when T.M.'s chicken fell out that he said that he knew something was up when he saw mine. At the end of the test after clapping for S. we all threw the multicolored rubber chickens at her.

In our closing circle, S. presented Sensei with her April Fools joke. It was a small cake with some japanese writing on it. M. translated it as Nan de kore!" - "What's this!"