AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
This was a first for me. Tonight we did a small two person randori, with just about 20 or 30 seconds for each nage in rotation. Sensei started off by mentioning some bits about what we were doing, that any technique was okay, and some strategy. He then told us to keep it at about 3/4 speed, for us new guys, and he went up first. I thought he did quite well, I'd never even seen this done before, but I've certainly heard about it. I think he was following all the ideas and concepts that I've heard people mention, and I was pretty impressed overall. We went with a basic rotation, uke twice then nage once then sit off the mat, etc. We all went through twice, and overall I think everyone did well but me... as one of the two uke it was just plain fun, and was surprisingly hard to get close to nage. I always thought that the uke were being nice by waiting while a throw was getting worked out, but now I realise that it's usually because a good nage keeps one uke between the other while they're doing the technique. Amazing! It was fun feeling like we were really testing some things out. When my turn was up as nage, I simply didn't do well. First off, I couldn't get the techniques that I know I know out of my body. I could think, "ok I know what I'm supposed to do," but I couldn't get it working. Then, to really get my goat I just plain froze up when one of my uke grabbed my Gi at the shoulder. Arrgh. I know a few techniques out of that, but I couldn't summon them up. I had a good laugh once I sat down, and it was great fun. My second time through I did a bit better, but my techniques were all just starts without the finishes. Not too impressive. Well, at least I kindof know how the system works, and I look forward to working on getting that intuition up in regular practice. I have to just feel the technique work instead of forcing it out because I may not be able to hammer through it all the time. After that, to let us all breath a bit after the workout we nitpicked the 31 count Jo kata some more. I haven't had a chance to work on it in some time, and now I'll be able to practice it again. I have a thing against practicing with the Jo kata unless we've done it recently, I don't want to forget something and reinforce a bad habit. I usually wait untill we work on it in class and then go home and drill it. Anyway, I think my first randori was more fun than nerve-wracking, and I look forward to some more of it.
05-10-2003 06:00 PM 