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1/20/04
I decided to do three classes yesterday. Looking back on it, about 2.5 would have been a lot better. I was amazingly tired at the end of the day. My body could not figure out how to open the door to my house, and walk through it at the same time, so I managed to sit down on the stoop instead of coming in the door. M wife came out, looked at me, and asked if I had intended to sit there? Wow, what a workout was all that I could say in answer to her.
Doing everything wrong is strange, just about the time that I think that I have something down we change partners, and I end up with a different yudansha who explains everything in a different way, stresses a different part of the exercise, or has some slightly different hand position. Somehow I know that they are all correct, but my brain feels like it is going to explode!!!!
The most enlightening experience of the day was a long secession with Victor. He is probably the strongest person that I have ever met. Amazing. We worked on Gyakute dori Kote gaeshi. If I did something wrong in the middle of a technique, he would just stop. Bang, and then he would look at me, ask me what I was doing wrong, and wait for an answer. I worry that he may think I am severely retarded, I know I am starting to wonder myself! I think we got through maybe 3 complete repetitions of the same technique in over half an hour. We started god knows how many, and he would just stop in the middle at some point. Reasons I remember: I thought that my hand not twisting his wrist was supposed to stay with my other hand, no this way I was easily pushed over, he then had me push him over; I didn't move my feet and my hands together; I pushed on him instead of pulling him into the empty space, which I had not created between us; My hands were too high, not down at my center where they belonged; I was twisting my body instead of staying over my center; I leaned instead of being over my center; My feet were all bunched up and not under my center; and about another 30 or so that I can't remember. His technique, and balance, centeredness are amazing. All very impressive. Most impressive in the training secession was when he thought that I was going to be stepped on, as I was on the mat, when another set of people, entered our space. He picked me up, and put me on my feet, with one arm connected to my one arm. Just like I was a rag doll. To put this in perspective, I am 5' 9" tall and weigh in at 250 lbs. No one has moved me with that amount of ease since I was about 6. Even stranger was that it was so smooth, so effortless, and so flowing. No jerk, no pain, just all of a sudden I was standing up….Wow, not only can these amazing Aikidoka knock you down, they can pick you up too???? There has to be some spiritual lesson hidden in that. Everyone, especially the Yudansha, seems so graceful and easy, I feel like a bull in a china shop, without the graceful part of the bull.
I can't seem to count to 4 in the Dojo what is with that. I can't decide if I am in the moment, and therefore there is no past, and no future, so how can you count beyond one? Or if I am thinking so hard about all of the techniques all the time that I am never in the moment? (Anyone got an idea on why someone who can do Calculus on the street, can't count to four in the Dojo?)
Guys Japanese memorization project:
Gyakute dori Ikkyo Oomote (Cross wrist grab, arm as lever in front of uke)
Gykute dori Ikkyo Ura (Cross wrist grab, arm as level spiral uke into mat behind uke)
Tai no henko kihon (One of these two is in motion, the other static, which is which?) Same??? Wrist grab, two step out of way, uke maintains connection)
Tai no henko ki no nagare (Static or in Motion?) (Same??? Wrist grab, two step out of way, uke maintains connection)
Gyajute dori Kote Gaeshi (Cross wrist grab, wrist twist with hand, open space between uke and me while twisting wrist, apply other hand as assistance, Uke falls as I twist AND PULL uke into the space I have created by stepping back with inside leg.
Kokyu Dosa (Facing each other, breath exercise, I don't get it at all!)
Wow that does not seem to be a lot when I write it down, but there are about a billion refinements for each of the moves. Like when I pin the Uke in the Gykute dori Ikkyo Oomote, and Ura, my toes are supposed to be curled under my feet. ( I have to think about this every time I do it, and then I forget something else, like where I am supposed to have my inside hand on the ukes arm….)
01-21-2004 11:23 AM 