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In General
Getting tired of the details...
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#57
 11-04-2003 12:08 AM |
...but for now, it can't be helped, and here is yet another dry entry on the mechanics of technique. 
We started things out with Bokken practice as usual, and spent a fair amount of time on the Eight Directions kata in particular. This was especially helpful to me, as I still haven't quite got the hang of a couple of parts of it. Sensei went into a great deal of detail, particularly of the footwork aspect of it, which always had me muddled (not to mention tripping over my own feet during the wider turns).  What really drew my attention was how learning that one's footwork (that is, in how one turns their feet into the next strike) made a rather big difference. So no more tripping over my own feet --- yay! Or at least a reduced number of incidents of it... 
Later, we worked on Shomenuchi Ikkyo (Suwari Waza) to start off the "regular" portion of the class. I'm still working on getting the timing of the opening down pat, essentially becoming a "mirror" of uke, as well as synchronizing this initial block with my first, deep stride and extending myself fully and at a 45 degree angle to uke to really take his balance.
We went on to practice some Katatedori Kokyuho, where, after some initial confusion on my part, I finally got it into my thick skull not to tenkan. After this, I got to realizing how much the power of this particular technique really comes from the hips in lieu of there not being a tenkan.
While my Sempais practiced Tsuki Kaitenage and the new student practiced something else as well, I got to work on Shomenuchi Shihonage for the majority of the rest of the class. One point I missed (which Sensei pointed out to me) was that I need to absorb/draw uke's strike down into my centre (stepping back and out at 45 degrees to him) initially. Sempai Jeremy had advised me earlier that it's the downward swing of uke's hand towards my centre that takes his balance, and we practiced this a couple of times with a fair amount of success. I just need to smoothly incorporate this theory with Sensei's advice and it'll be smooth Shihonage sailing.
Sigh...I can't wait until that glorious day when I no longer have to concentrate so much on the simple mechanics of movement! In the meantime, it can't hurt to get a head start on learning more about developing my own Ki/Chi. I'm trying to find more books on Qi Gong/Chi Kung, and wanting to make a point of meditating more these days as well.
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