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Seeking Zanshin: Blood, Sweat, Tears & Aikikai Blog Tools Rating: Rate This Blog
Creation Date: 02-24-2005 10:53 PM
jducusin
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One small gal + a dojo full of big guys = tons o' fun
Blog Info
Status: Public
Entries: 270 (Private: 12)
Comments: 195
Views: 864,014

In General A Mini-Milestone...of Sorts Entry Tools Rate This Entry
  #90 New 01-10-2004 01:06 AM
Well, a year ago yesterday marked my first day with this dojo, and tonight I had my first in-house run through of the Gokkyu test requirements.

Since it was just me, Sensei, and Sempai Tim (who was my uke) we ran through the whole thing semi-formally and for some reason I was actually a little nervous at first. I guess it was enough to throw me off initially, because I flubbed up on the very first technique by letting Tim smack me in the head --- I was expecting him to come at me Shomenuchi with his other hand! Sigh...I think it must be Karma catching up with me [see entry: "Oh the Violence of it All :-D" 11-20-2003].

Thankfully the rest wasn't all that bad, and Sensei said that my test would be considered a pass ("not a spectacular pass, mind you, but a pass"). Despite this, one thing that I can be somewhat happy about is that he thought that I had a speed and flow beyond Gokkyu that he says Kawahara shihan will appreciate. Okay, yay for me. Now that that's said and done...

There were a couple of things that we hadn't done in awhile that obviously needed more work. I need to improve my:
Katatedori Koshinage (no big surprise there)
- I'm stepping in too deeply --- my foot should be no further than the inside of his lead foot
- my hips should be in right against uke's
- I should constantly be looking at my lead hand prior to the throw, which should be up and parallel with my body (not at an angle from it in front)

and

Ushiro Ryotekubidori Ikkyo,
- I need to bring my hands right into my centre at the start
- I still need to be able to differentiate which side to move to when I bring uke's arm over me...is it the inside or the outside? Help! I don't know! Aaaargh!

as well as the Sankyo hand-exchange in general (also need to remember that in the ura versions of this, the hand controlling the elbow is in a "thumb-on-the-outside" position). :-P

I was also mixing up the ura and omote versions of Yokomenuchi Shihonage. It's a little counterintuitive actually, in terms of how they start, since I need to remember that:
- the omote version starts out by blending/"catching" the strike further along (and of course ends with taking it straight in front of uke), and
- the ura version starts by meeting the strike directly (and then of course taking it around to the rear)

On top of all this, I'm apparently allowed to pick my uke and I'm having a bit of a time trying to decide. It's kind of like being caught between Scylla and Charibdis, actually. Or maybe a tasteful (and only somewhat tactful) egg analogy would be better. There's:

1) Well-Done But Slightly Cracked Uke
2) Scrambled Uke, and
3) Over-Easy Uke

Tough choice. What I wouldn't give for a nice Soft-Boiled Uke right about now...
Views: 727



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