So what happened at class today?

So what happened at class today?

With only 90 minutes available what experiences can one person have?

Working with a “new” yet very experienced senior student (nidan or above), I got some great personal and detailed explanation on Katatetori Shiho nage. Which is something you learn early in practice and is one of those things that at the beginning you tend to think you “understand”

Anyway, today I saw that most of the time Nage and Uke work a little bit too much together and this sempai reminded me of things I had heard of before but had forgotten.

I seems I was still (after 3 years) trying to raise uke's arm with my shoulder muscles but should have been using my whole body, turning with my shoulders hand and center all connected. And then shift forward with my body and center and only then raising my arms AFTER uke was unbalanced.

The we worked on Kotegaishi which I also thought I knew about but when I was trying to explain it to a new student I totally missed that if you try to apply to apply kotegaishi with the arms too high the effectiveness is much deprived. Fortunately Sensi was there clarify.

At one point for a specific demonstration of how to approach Katatetori ikkyo Sensi used me as uke for the simple example of drawing in of uke from Katatetori where instead of going to ikkyo nage simply shifts even farther back and uke flys by and goes to a roll. The cool thing for me was thay even though I didn't know what he was intending (I may be a little slow some times) I manage to realize he just wanted me to go with the flow and finish with a forward roll.


By the end of class Sensi felt we all needed to concentrate on maintaining balance. So we spent the last few minutes trying to stand on one leg and place the other foot on opposite knee. And then lean forward and extend the free leg back, lean forward and still maintain balance.

But what a full 90 minutes. Where else can you find such variety?

Swordplay

My heel felt OK yesterday so I went to Aikido class, which was a weapons class so I felt it was less of a worry.

I finally got to try out my Bokken at practice and it turns out it is just the right size. FYI if you hold the bokken where a tsuba (guard) would be if it had one, then drop your arm to your side, the tip of the sword should just graze the floor. And for me it was perfect.

I could not find exactly what we worked on in a YouTube clip but the above video approximates what we did.

A Time Out

Last Saturday was a fine Aikido class, except for Sensei prodding me to take the 3rd kyu test the following Saturday. BUT on Sunday night my left foot hurt a bit and by Monday afternoon I decided I should skip class as I had developed a pronounced limp.

When I painfully took my shoe off I discovered a bump just off center on the back of my heel. It hurt to the touch and was about the size of a large olive. On Tuesday the earliest doctor's appointment I could get was the following day.

Anyway the suspicion is it is an inflamed tendon. So I'm to not stress it until it is all better. Therefor I have missed a week's of practice AND definitely missed taking the 3rd kyu test. MAYBE I can make Wednesday's class.

I don't remember anything causing it and it just seem to slowly grow painful. I'm still hoping anything bad will simply go away, which is pretty much my life philosophy.

Relax don't do it...

Frankie Goes to Hollywood Relax (Body Double) - More amazing video clips are a click away

Today one of the things we worked on was shomenuchi kaiten nage. I worked with an aikidota who was some sort of upper rank (shodan or above) but stopped practicing for many, many years. Anyway from the start of his practice last week his abdomen muscles hurt enough that he could not take any rolls.

But, DANG he felt like he knew what he was doing. His center was always right, his motions was right. Anyway, he pointed out the thing I've heard and mentioned many time, I “need to relax”, but think is, it is WAY easier to relax as Uke when Nage knows what he is doing and also performing the technique will some commitment.

So I could then take his comment to heart and I really did relax my shoulder and go with the flow and I always ended up with a small break fall. The break fall just felt right, and that helped even more because I knew I could relax since he would guide me in the correct direction.

Admittedly the burden is on my shoulders (sometimes literally) to relax but have the right nage REALLY makes “letting go” much easier.

Even though the real message of the video “Relax” don't apply, I just had to put it up there.

Below is a video of some of what we worked on.

Story Time

OK I'm changing the the blog plan again. I started with Animation, Aikido and Spanish. Then I changed animation to video and now although I haven't worked on Spanish for many months I STILL PLAN to get back to sometime, BUT I am now changing video to to visual art with an emphasis on comics, or more specifically “autobiography comic”. I'm taking my cue from such works as Persepolis, Jeffery Brown, Chester Brown and others.

I'm using Manga Studio Debut 3.0 and although I've had it a while I was uncertain whether it would do what I needed. It doesn't have the precision of pen and paper but the joy of just being able to copy and paste parts at will. It uses layers in the same way may other graphic application do, so that is also pretty convenient.

At this point in my life I just not willing to spend th time to lovingly draw panel after panel. Anyway the rough drawing was easy with the Wacom tablet but I didn't know if it would look OK once I “inked” it. YES it is crude, but that is my frame of mind now, that is me and I just don't have the wherewithal to craft it into something beautiful,

Anyway, above is one page of inked results, and I'm pretty pleased. I still need to put the classic comic panels in to clearly divide the flow. But my whole effort is to be simplistic in the story and the presentation.

I'm starting with a Zen retreat I once when to during my “Zen Years” that tells a bit of what it is like to practice Zen but admit idly just from my unique perspective.

Below is the example of what the rough work looks like.

Welcome Back Koshi-Nage

I suppose it is not surprising what I eventually found, but it took much searching but I discovered an example of the koshi nage we did tonight in a clip from Christian Tissier (Our Sensei's Shihan). Christian Tissier must have a strong influence over the dojos in France where Sidney first practiced Aikido. We did the first Koshi version demonstrated.

Anyway, it has be quite a while since we last worked on this technique, but it was great to get into it. I felt good about it tonight, I don't think I hurt my back at all which was a worry before.

We also worked on a type of Henka Waza where you attack, but before Nage gets you you try to take control of the situation. We started with ShomenUchi and Nage went for nikkyo but we allowed Uke to regain balance, stand up and try to apply ikkyo to Nage. BUT then Nage starts to fall back and then twists around to apply a throw. It was pretty cool an it took us out of our comfort zone as we had to work on letting go and in a sense control by NOT controlling everything. Simple to watch, hard to explain and very hard to perform.

It doesn't really apply but during the falling practice the old Joni Mitchell song "Help Me" kept running through my head. So here it is...

It's 2009 and “I Feel Free”

Tonight before class started I was testing my Ai-Hamni Nikkyo on somebody and Sensei came by to correct my technique. It is amazing how there was something I thought I knew but was somehow so wrong.

Anyway, I think that helped guide the night since Sensei saw we had a number of very new students plus we had limited space tonight. We work entirely from katate-tori with only backrolls. Front rolls were prohibitive because of so little space.

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It has been a few weeks since I last got to the Dojo, and I was a bit trepidatious about going back tonight. It was a good work out but not too bad and by the time I left felt pretty frickin' great. Maybe
I exerted enough energy that some endorphins kicked in, but I felt like some upbeat song ought to be posted on the blog.

I had the feeling but I just didn't know what the song was. I first went with “Good Day Sunshine” but after searching on YouTube I figured “Sunshine of your Love” felt more appropriate. But then I saw “I Feel Free” by Cream and THAT felt right.

The last part of 2008 was a bit rough and the release of energy tonight was somehow cathartic and it finally felt like a new year was starting. I want to be optimistic about the future but even now I fear the Bell Jar is descending on 2009.

We will see.