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Ooooh! I was so tired (as usual) when I got up this morning (6:45)! My stomach never feels well at this time and I'm never able to eat much breakfast (Cheerios) during the ride over to the dojo (25 minutes without traffic).
My mom and I were glad to see that Peter and Jim were there when we arrived. After I came back down from the bathroom, Mr. Larry showed up but said he couldn't teach class because he had Police stuff to do and that he wanted Peter to have us do basic 5th kyu stuff. The dojo list of techniques was gone so Peter asked me for my list. We stretched and Peter started class (Mr. Larry watched the first 10 minutes then he had to leave) and we did forward and backward rolls around the room (my un-awake body was having dizzy/balance problems) and then a little bit of bokkens.
Then we started on our basic 5th kyu techniques in order---
Shomenuchi Ikkyo (omote & ura)
Shomenuchi Iriminage (the footwork that Jim had us practice on Thursday helped with this)
Katatetori Shihonage (omote & ura)
Ryotetori Tenshinage (it's been SO LONG since we've done any of this technique we almost forgot about it!)
Tsuki Kotegaeshi
Ushiro Ryokatatori Kotegaeshi (Peter had to try it several times because he couldn't quite remember how to do it as we lately only been going into Sankyo or Shihonage from that position)
& Morotetori Kokyuho (This was really funny because Peter couldn't think of what that was and I said "it's the same Saturday morning warm-up Kokyus that we always do" but he didn't recognize it at first!!! And he's there and does it almost every Saturday!!!! He finally remembered and felt silly and we all had to laugh!)
It was a fun, good class. Saturday's are always good classes but usually I don't enjoy it very much because my body is not awake and I don't feel well. This morning, however, I was awake and enjoyed myself very much!
ALSO! At least 20 minutes into class (we were just starting Ikkyo Ura) a man came lurking in the hallway and Peter went out to him and he was interested in Aikido and wanted to watch. He stayed the whole class and afterwards we all talked with him and he even came to coffee with us.
His name is Cletas (sp?-very old fashioned Romanish name) and he's done Tae Kwon Do before and didn't like how commercialized the school he was in and all the other art school's around him were. He said he was fascinated by Aikido and asked good questions like would a small girl like me be able to defend myself against a big guy like Jim. He saw the answer for himself during class (Cletas himself, is a big guy--not overweight but big). Since Jim used to do Tae Kwon Do for many, many years, they had fun talking and Jim got him on the mat and had me slowly do a kotegaeshi on him to show "small me taking his balance". Cletas is a very nice guy and he definitly seems to have a great attitude. It really bothers me when someone will visit or join after they've had other martial experiances and they act & talk arrogant (not everybody acts like that but it's annoying when they do) but Cletas doesn't have any of that! He lives a couple hours away but if he likes our place, it's worth it to him to drive out when he can and he'd like to come out for Tuesday's class. I hope he does come because he seems like he might be a nice addition to the class!
06-26-2004 04:35 PM 
