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Took both kids to the dojo to train today. I think that my daughter has finally decided that martial arts in general is not for her. She likes the idea of haveing a martial skill but only wants to put half her heart into it. That's fine with me. After three trips to the dojo she now has enough information to make an informed decision.
My son on the other hand. HOLY SMOKES! He's taking to Aikido like a duck to water. He seems to be eating up every aspect of it from dojo etiquette to Ki exersizes and tests to kokyu-nage. Speaking of kokyu-nage, I showed him katate-kosa-tori kokyu-nage for the first time. I was worried that it wasn't going to be easy due to our size difference, but he picked up the basic movements so well that he's quite capable of preforming the technique with surprisingly little cooperation on my part as uke.
Another one we have been working on is mune-tsuki kote-oroshi. He is really getting the basic technique down well. He now tenkans so that we are back to back with very good foot work. he "picks up the quarter" from his knees rather that his back, so he is well balanced for the throw. last but not least, he is realizing the difference between kote-oroshi and kote-gaeshi and the difference in ukemi it produces.
Even though we worked mostly on kote-oroshi I told him to throw me kote-gaeshi a couple of times, being mindful of not "cranking" the throw, but rather guiding my momentum into the throw. I gave him an idea of what I meant by grabbing his arm and giving it a yank to move him forward calling that the feeling of "cranking". Then I grabbed his arm and gently pulled to guided him forward. This must have been a powerful analogy for him, because the next couple of kote-gaeshi's were so light and flowing I was flabbergasted, and very impressed.
The last thing we worked on was kokyu-dosa. He liked playing around with the throw itself, even though he hasn't quite got the concept of splitting the mind to take my balance. What he did get, and was quite impressed with, was the knife edge pin. I showed him the difference between being relaxed and pinning me as opposed to trying to keep me down with force. At first when he tried to hold me down with force I easily sat up from his pin. No supprise he thought. He's only 80 lbs and dad's 220 lbs. Then I told him to relax use unbendable arm (which we discussed in an earlier class) and concentrate on his one point. I was then unable to get up from his pin. Quite frankly I found that just as astounding as my son did.
I think that if and when the kids class is started at our dojo that my son will be a great example and insperation to the other kids. For now though I'm just happy to share something with my son that we both enjoy.
03-08-2004 01:02 AM 