Yudansha night

Sensei had all the yudansha teach, tonight. It's fun to see the different takes on things. We get a taste of the differences (and similarities) when we work with each of them on one or two techniques a night. When they get to teach the whole class, however, we get a more comprehensive view. T.G. sensei started us off with the shomenuchi taisabaki series. K.M. sensei showed us some blending kokyunage things (I still shy away from the koshinage, though, and I was pooped about then). Sensei lead us through jo tsuki suburi (T. loved that! She really likes the weapons.) and ended with munetsuki jodori.

Fancy Footwork

T. and I arrived late for warm-ups. After just a little time we were doing suwariwaza (techniques done when both uke and nage start from seiza) shomenuchi ikkyo. Next, we worked on some swoopy (technical term) ryotetori and munetsuki attacks. Proper footwork was very important for these techniques to work. We ended with more suwariwaza and kokyudosa. I only ran out of steam once or twice.

Three New Rokkyus

Sensei awarded all three of Tuesday's testers the rank of rokkyu! He complimented each one on doing a good job.

Then he turned the class over to K.W. sensei for the evening. He emphasized the circle in two very different ways. First, nage encloses uke in a circle and, second, nage attaches uke to the peripheral of a circle. In both cases nage is in control of the circle.

Woo Hoo!

T. tested tonight along with her cadre, L.U. and K.R.. The rest of our family came to watch the test and meet all the neat people T. and I get to play with every week.

We started the evening with techniques starting from ushirodori: kokyunage, shihonage, and others. Then we did the testing. L.U. went first then T. then K.R. Sensei had to laugh when T. charged up to be uke for L.U. though she really should have waited to be called. I got to be T.'s first uke and she had a lot of fun slamming me down with kotegaeshi, kokyunage and iriminage. On the last throw she knocked my glasses off! All three of them did very well. All that pretest work really paid off.

Afterward, a lot of us went to sushi to celebrate.

Mini Test Prep

T. and I got together with the rest of T.'s "test-sisters", T.M. sensei and M.K. at T.D.'s house. T.M. sensei ran them through the test process like we did last weekend. They did well.

Swinging the Bokken

T. and I got up in time (almost!) to get to the rec. center this morning to practice with the bokken. Our friend, E.P. came to watch. A.O. sensei warmed us up with lots of suburi then we worked on a paired bokken kata. The sun was warm for December and there wasn't much breeze so we got a little warm. Nevertheless, fun was had by all.

Munetsuki Variations

We ran through a bunch of techniques from munetsuki (pronounced "mu-net-ski"), some of them pretty tricky. No pre-test, tonight. We did have two guests with us. Both T. and I felt pretty good afterward.

Pretesting Begins!

We're definitely getting into gear for the three upcoming tests. We did a lot of work on katatori nikkyo, tonight, including some oyo waza (applied/advanced technique) variations that took some puzzling out for those of us still in the kihon waza (basic technique) end of things. One had us shifting from the entrance of nikkyo by slipping under uke's arm directly into an ikkyo nage. The other started the same but, with a slight but careful switch of the hands, shifted into sumi otoshi. It is very interesting to not only be exposed to but practice some of these advanced variations. Being able to practice them engages my mind, surprises my body with unexpected variations of the familiar moves, and hints at the depth of the art involved. Good stuff!

Monday class

T. and I went to T.M.'s Monday class tonight. It was small. We had a visitor from NC and he brought a new perspective. That's always fun. We did some kokyudosa, sudori and randori practice.

Afternoon brush-up

T. and I took our nearly-new-and-unused mat over to T.D.'s house this afternoon. B.N. helped those who are about to test (T., L.U., K.R.) work on the basics of the test as well as the techniques. M.L. and B.A. ran interference with T.D.'s delightful son. It went very well.