Monday, July 31, 2006

Jo Kata #2

After warming up with some suburi we worked on the Lucas Kata.

The Lucas Kata:
Start in gyakutsuki, pull the jo back with the left hand sliding the right hand toward (but not all the way to) the front end of the jo then, while stepping back with the right foot the left had pushes the back end of the jo around in front to parry an incoming shomen strike and the jo flips up into hasso no kamai. We did this individually and in pairs then we did it in a circle where the one in the middle moves between the surrounding people. Fun!

We worked on Jo Kata #2 for the rest of the class. I remembered it pretty well once we got started but I don't think I would have been able to lead it.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

More Basics and Three Pretests

We had a full mat, tonight, with two new people and several returning people show up, tonight. We started with some paired stretching (like two-person yoga, almost) then went through the aikitaiso. We worked with blending tonight by doing the katatetori without grabbing - only resting our palms together softly with weight underside. It brings your attention to being too quick (forcing, not blending) or needing to be in control (grabbing) and not being relaxed. Using this non-dori dori, we went through ikkyo, kokyunage, iriminage, even shihonage.

At the end we had three pretests: L.U. and Z. for gokyu and D. for rokkyu.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

More Basics

 We went for more basics, tonight. Two-step kokyunage, iriminage, and ikkyo.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Tenchinage - Basic

We had a long-time-ago student return tonight and two brand-new people try us out. T. M. sensei taught tonight. We started out with ki exercises. We broke tenchinage into the ten-part and the chi-part - one hand at a time. We ended with "go", an awareness game.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Pooped!

I think I pooped out tonight because I didn't eat anything after lunch (well... anything good for me, anyway). I was light-headed and a bit shaky several times and had to sit out way more than I like to. K. M. sensei taught tonight. We got her take on that whole weight-underside-down-the-back kokyunage that we worked on last week and the variation that leads into iriminage (Hombu-style - behind uke).

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Katatekosadori Ikkyo Variations

What's really amazing about aikido is how many variations you can manage from a simple technique. Tonight, from katatekosadori with an ikkyo opening we did ikkyo (omote and ura), ikkyo nage (omote and ura), iriminage, kokyunage (several), sumi otoshi and others I cannot remember. Lots of fun!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Munetsuki Variations

After warming up, we worked with a munetsuki attack this evening. We started with an inside tenkan so nage's forearms ended up resting on uke's shoulders and, using weight underside, dropped uke into ushiro ukemi (backward roll/fall). After that, we did an outside tenkan catching the underside of uke's arm and, with a sidestep, spun uke into position for irimi-nage (it sounds more complicated than it is). This same entry served us for kaitenage and sankyo, too. We ended up with a little one-armed kokyudosa to see what kind of differences that makes. I received my yonkyu certificate, tonight.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Flake Out!

I flaked completely, tonight. No aikido.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Jo Kata 1 With Context

T. felt like swinging some sticks so she came to class tonight. T. G. sensei warmed us up then we practiced some suburi. We went through Jo Kata #1 several times then started working in threes to show the attacks that the kata is defending against. That helps give the kata some context which can help us focus on what the various motions are intended to accomplish. We also played with the tempo. Some of the combinations of movements should happen much quicker than others. Fun! It was warm but not too bad.