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<blogEntry id="2687">
	<title><![CDATA[Circle of Pain]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Sensei was out of town this week, so Sempai taught. Refreshing to get a different perspective.   He reviewed some of the atemi waza, and emphasized a few new things that he'd noticed while watching tapes of visiting teachers from Japan.

There were an odd number of brown belts, so we wound up doing ma otoshi in "circle of pain" style - one person is nage and throws each of the others, then takes up a position as the tail end uke while the front end uke becomes nage. When there is an odd number of people, this is somewhat easier than having someone left out.  

Turned out to be a sub-optimal choice.  None of us knew the technique well enough, and would have benefitted from some commentary and slower practice.  This style is best for reinforcing techniques which are already well known.

Daughter and her friend were working with a visitor. Turns out she wasn't really a prospective student, but a cousin who came to see what the fuss was about, so she bowed out to watch for a while. I switched over to their group (cause that made two groups with even numbers) and worked with them.  We reviewed the assigned atemi waza with her before she bowed out, then we switched (being odd numbers again) to a circle of pain to work on the jupon waza.

One of the seniors asked us to bring her back in and work on release techniques.  Kind of an interesting challenge to make explicit all that we've learned for someone new.  The senior student in our small group was emphasizing the importance of directing force against the gap between finger & thumb as a way of breaking free.  But she was intuitively also moving off the line of attack, and using circles; the visitor (who was her cousin) wasn't spotting that.  It brought home to me how much we know that we don't know.  

Also amusing is that the senior student advised judo techniques against some of the attacks - claiming that they were easier and more intuitive.  I had to break in and point out that for those of us who haven't studied Judo, they weren't quite as easy.  Amusing to see her confusion at the notion that stuff that was second nature to her had to be learned.

One of the other students spotted my jodo book and invited me to jodo practice. Sensei promises that he'll have a new bokken & jo for daughter when he returns - around the time when daughter goes to the shore to visit grandma.  So I may test the jodo waters then.]]></body>
	<date>07-10-2006</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="2665">
	<title><![CDATA[weapons work, shodan test, one armed Aikido.]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Saturday daughter and I went to the dojo early.  We'd talked about showing up early and doing a little weapons practice, and this week we had the chance to do it.

Our school doesn't do weapons work very often - largely due to low ceilings in the dojo.  I've done some bokken suburi when I was in a Yoshinkan dojo in Michigan (Helton-Sensei), and we do a yearly jodo seminar as an excuse to ahve a cookout. So I showed the daughter what I remembered of Bokken & jo.  Then we did about 15 minutes of jo randori, which was surprisingly effective as a warm up.  When we left to go to the regular class I was slightly sweaty and definitely warmed up. (This morning I went looking for a Jo & bokken for my daughter - but I'm having trouble finding a dealer online whom I can trust.  My last martial arts purchase online was quite unsatisfying.  Might have to ask Sensei to broker the purchase, but I hate to bother him).

One of the Sempai was testing for Shodan, which was exciting. Her demonstration of the Junanahan kata was (to my eye) very good - her form is very precise, as well as being... pretty.  there is a harmony underlying her technique which I enjoy watching.  I'm not sure if her regular uke was there, or if she got the senior most student in line - she may have been joking before class.  Uke worked very hard - some hard falls there.  She is smaller and lighter than I am, and I took careful notes of differences, particularly in the floating techniques, which I'll have to master for my next test.  Her execution of sumi otoshi was quite different from what I've been taught (there are at least two and possible three variations taught in our dojo). I like the way she did it. In general her techniques emphasized a "falling back" blending technique rather than the more opposed kuzushi that has been recommended to me.  I'd like to try both before I ask our Senior.

We don't often get the chance to practice the Jupon Waza for space limitations, so it was very good for me to see them all in a row. A review for something I'll have to practice in the not too distant future.  Good review.

Her knifework looked good to me, and the fact that the Yudansha stopped it relatively early suggests that they agreed.  I was one of the uke's for group attack. I was not pleased with my performance - I felt like I called "block" too early on one pass, and not early enough on a second.  Confusion led to my third pass being just an embarassing stutter step. I should have tagged her but I didn't.  I asked one of the judges afterwards and he cleared up my confusion, but I wish I could practice that more frequently. (again, due to space, we don't get to practice group attack as often as I'd like).

In the end she was promoted. congratulations!

When we lined up, my partner was our junior student who was suffering from a bad booster shot that restricted mobility in one arm.  I tried to adapt the Tekubi waza to one handed, but it was very difficult. Obviously shihonage can be done one handed, and that's a good exercise. We repeated that, and kote gaeshi and Kote mawashi.  Then we moved to one handed randori for the rest of class.  

Next class I've got to start to work on my ikkyu test.]]></body>
	<date>06-19-2006</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="2471">
	<title><![CDATA[Out the window]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I've been deferring the first entry for some time, trying to compose it mentally. Time to act rather than to plan.

I'd been looking forward to class all last week; it was a stressful week, and I really needed the tension relief that comes from sweating.   but when I woke up, things began to go wrong. First I found otu that the dogi had been washed, but not dried.  Then breakfast rice caught on fire in the microwave and burned through the rice cooker.  THen I discovered that the dogi were not drying - two hours in the dryer and they were still soaking wet.  I called my daughter and cancelled class.

Then I remembered that I had a spare dogi.  So I called the daughter and told her that if she would be willing to wear sweats, I'd really like to go.   I put my spare dogi in the bag & grabbed her wet uniform.  Picked up the daughter and headed for class.  Then I had an idea.  I rolled down the window and hung the uniform pants out the window, and the top out another. Between the dry air and the speed of the car (bernouli effect ), the uniform dried.  My daughter thought this was the funniest thing in teh world.  She still gave me good natured grief - as did everyone when we got to class.

Sensei started work with hand grab releases - stuff I haven't worked on in close to 20 years. I found it marvelously fun, but the effort of trying to get the first one right drove all the others from my mind, and my partner had to remind me. My daughter worked in with us (we had an odd number of people in class), and then my partner had to go teach others, so daugther & I started working together.  

Now it is important to note that I'm the largest person in the class, and daughter is the smallest person in class. This causes Sensei some amusement.  In a sense we practice two very different styles of Aikido - I have to adapt all my techniques to avoid relying on my mass; she has to adapt all her techniques because her hands aren't large enough to encircle a wrist. (try doing kote hineri when you can barely span the tegatana of the hand!).  

One of the infrequently scene black belts pointed out two changes to my technique to help me do shihonage on my daughter - (in addition to being tiny, she is insanely flexible, and this guy is the first person I've ever seen control her with shihonage).  One of the two works, but I still can't get low enough to get below her center of gravity.

Then we switched to preparing her for her Ikyu test.  Heavens above, she has improved since the last time we worked together.  Remember what I said about adapting the technique for small size?  She had some variations that were scarily effective. 

Class finished and one of the other regulars pointed out that I was even more sweaty than usual - my daughter had worked me hard.

[And for teh record, I washed our uniforms that night & hung them to dry during the week.]

More on Aikido and fatherhood later.]]></body>
	<date>01-30-2006</date>
</blogEntry>


</blogEntries>