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.

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!

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.

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!

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 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.

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!"

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!

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.

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.