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10/15/04
Wow what a training night. We worked on Shiho Nage for the entire night form Kate Dori, Shoman Uchi, Yokaman Uchi, and Tsuki. Then we worked on reversals out of Shiho Nage, and how to counter the reversals! It was pretty intense, and opened my eyes to some of the next level beyond what it is that we do on the mat most days. The whole idea of a physical conversation that is Aikido took on another level, there can be a multitude of rebuttals and counter points. This was wonderful, even though my ability to do a reversal was very limited. Most of the time I didn't quite end up where I was supposed to.
I am continuing to work on the idea of the hop jump in Shiho Nage, and it is continuing to elude me. Most of my Ukes think that I am just doing it wrong, as they are used to the grind your partner around method of the technique. I really want to have the quick turn after you have started the grind their elbow around, I have seen the simplicity, and the compassion in it, along with the smoothness of the flow that isn't there in the grind the elbow and shoulder around version.
I was the crash test dummy for almost the entire evening. Sensei's knee is still bothering him, so Noel and I did almost all of the demonstrations. Even going slowly so that the demonstration was easily discernable by others it was a lot of work. I felt like it was the most energetic class that I had been to in a long time.
Then I was the person doing the technique, and Noel turned around under it, Sensei was talking about this, and I was to be honest concentrating doing the demo right the next time, so all I knew was that it had not worked very well in my opinion. Turns out that Sensei wanted to demonstrate the reversal! Since I really didn't understand this at some level, and being concerned about getting it as right as possible in front of the others, I did it the second time, and didn't allow Noel the room to be able to turn out of the technique. I got low, ducked, and worked on everything that I knew about Shiho Nage. Noel flowed beautifully to the mat. Then he was laughing, and sensei said, Remember you have to allow your Uke room to spin out of the technique so that you can get a feel for how this works. At that point I realized what was going on, and allowed Noel the room to get out of the technique for the rest of the demonstration.
After class worked with Melissa on KoKyu Dosa for a while and watched Victor and Noel work on the magic of doing non-feeling aikido where your partner does not feel violated. It was amazing and interesting to see Noel working to try and meet the feelings that Victor was working on him with.
Spoke with Sensei and Linda for a long time after the class. This felt wonderful too! Just being and connecting to the community that is so wonderful and present in our Dojo.
Shiho Nage was once a little frustrating to me when I was studying for me 5th Kyu test. I worked on it in the 108, and every day with Rick for quite a while. Some part of me began to truly love this technique. It was wonderful and seemingly effortless for a while. Now there are so many more parts to it lately, that again it has become frustrating beyond all belief! Egads, how in the heck can I get my body to do that wonderful little quick bit that Sensei and Noel do????? Part of it has to be practice, and patients…….Ok maybe all of it, and listening to my body more, maybe trying less?
10-16-2004 11:32 AM 