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I've been going "aha" about a few things lately that is not only making improvements on my nage waza, (for lack of a better term) but also my ukemi. Sensei has tuned up my nikkyo by showing me that when I'm applying it my fingers aren't pointing downwards and toward my center. I was more rolling my hand over the wrist so I was trying to apply the nikkyo with the weight underside my little pinky. That subtle change in finger direction made all the difference. Now I have to get out of the bad habit and into the good habit of finger placement so the ki is flowing through the technique properly. Practice, practice, practice.
When applying (or in my case trying to apply) three palms up pin, follow ukes energy to the ground during the throw as not to lock out uke's arm. Even though I can get him into a sankyo pin from there I should be able to perform the technique into the three palms up without uke blocking that pin. By following his energy to the ground ukes arm stays slightly bent thus being in good position for the TPU pin. Also I need to make a more cutting motion with my forearm at uke's elbow to initiate the bend in the arm. Practice, practice, practice.
With sankyo the stupid thing is I know what it is I'm doing wrong, and I know what it is I need to do to do it right, I just don't seem to do it. For some reason during sankyo I come up with uke into more of a version of a hammerlock. I rely too much on the wrist and upward movement rather than applying the sankyo at the fingers and opening the door. I don't know if this is still my fear of harming uke with sankyo or if it's just a case of poor shin shin toitsu. My guess is probably a lot of both. Oh well, practice, practice, practice.
Last but definitely not least I need to work on my ukemi. In this case I don't mean my falling technique (although I have lots of room to improve on that) I mean my attack as uke. Again this is my bad because I have been call on this by not only sensei before. I have been called on it by sensei's sensei, and the Aikikai sensei from next door. The problem is that I am tracking nage with my attack. Now why would that be bad? More energy for nage to work with after all! Well the problem is, and I know it, that it's not a realistic attack. In a real fight situation there is now way I would commit myself in an attack like that. Why do I do it then? I think it's a classic case of the mind leading the body. In practice I know ahead of time what technique we're working on, thus I tend to track nage because I know that is where the target will be. The only thing I have to say about that is practice, practice, practice.
04-02-2004 05:56 PM 
