en Sun, 18 May 2008 13:03:05 GMT Fri, 16 May 2008 16:48:53 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss vBlogetin aw_forums@aikiweb.com aw_forums@aikiweb.com Fri, 16 May 2008 16:48:53 GMT Had another randori session. I have this love-hate relationship with randori. I think it looks incredibly beautiful and it really displays aikido at its best sometimes. But it's always not that easy being uke for me as my ukemi skills at high breakfalls still leave much to be desired.

Nevertheless, being nage, gives me a lot of practice and last Wednesday was no exception. I don't think I did as well as I did the last time but I figure it's one of those things, the more I practice, the better I will get at it.

This time I had two very good guys be my ukes and one very good woman...all senior to me and I think they did pace it a bit to suit my ability. Ended up doing a lot of turning on the spot repeatedly cos I always seemed to have two ukes about to attack so I was thinking in retrospect, I'm pretty sure I made some mistakes there and should have tried moving away a bit! Would have made it harder for me to get so surrounded.]]> CatSienna Wed, 14 May 2008 05:34:21 GMT First time in a dojo in many years, and I have to say, it felt real good!

I'm back at home now, enjoying a beer and applying ice to both wrists... and grinning like a maniac. BTW, wine bottle chillers are great for wrists.

It's interesting; I'm having trouble with ikiyo (we were practicing katatatori ikiyo), but nikiyo seemed to come back to me much more clearly. I really need to focus on ki direction and capturing uke's center; I focus too much on the externals. Intellectually, I know better; on the mat, I forget.

Kinetic memory is odd,eh?

Forward rolls were not too lumpy, but my back rolls were pathetic. Guess I need to move the furniture in my living room and spend some time rolling around .

I can't wait to get back on the mat. I wonder if I'll have time to go Thursday after my daughter's end of the year band concert...

PS. day after analysis: clearly I need to spend more attention conditioning my getting off the mat muscle groups...]]> Diane Stevenson Sat, 10 May 2008 17:38:13 GMT So I had my students work on balance last night. We did a few rooting exercises and then spent the remainder of the night studying how a person can be made to lose their balance. I just had one of a pair stand, feet square, knees slightly bent and working in place to keep balanced. The other of the pair could do anything they liked to make their partner lose balance - but only with a single point of contact and with no abrupt force. We moved on to balance-taking with two points of contact and then three. Finally, I allowed the one being unbalanced to step about to maintain balance. We worked slowly, studying how to find that off-balancing angle or action that prevented any corrective steps or body shifts or that used these corrective steps or shifts to further bind the person and take their balance.

This practice was totally principle-oriented. I showed my students no particular technique whereby they could take their partner's balance and urged them to resist using actual aikido technique to do so. I asked them to be very creative about how they applied the principles of balance-taking. I think my students were both fascinated and frustrated by this challenge. Often, they would be moving along the right line, but at not quite the right angle. If their initial effort didn't induce their partner to lose balance, though, they would simply stop the action entirely and start again. I had to encourage them to feel out their action thoroughly and see if small shifts in its direction could change the outcome. To their surprise, they found that fundamentally their choice of tactic was usually sound -- it just needed a little fine-tuning.

I think some of my students would prefer to have the answers handed to them, neatly packaged in a technique. But a technique can be practiced and appear to be "working" even if the underlying principles aren't understood. This kind of technical training creates illusions about martial effectiveness, however, which I am eager to prevent in my students.]]> Jonathan Thu, 08 May 2008 02:12:34 GMT OK, now I think I'm on to something....

Do you want to be the best student, then just be a person that really wants to learn....

Do you want to be the best instructor, then just be a person that really wants to learn....

Good luck.

Erik Calderon
aikido shinkikan
www.shinkikan.com]]> Erik Calderon Thu, 08 May 2008 00:29:21 GMT I've noticed an interesting effect of spending 45 min practicing suburi and kengi /bo gi. I feel as if my center has a direct connection to the earth, like I have a gyroscope embedded in me. It fades after an hour or two, but for a while I feel as if no-one could catch me off-center, even while I'm making toast in the kitchen.

Also, I've been doing some reading. I know enough not to study "how-to" manuels -- like i need to teach myself more bad habits. I'll learn techniques from sensei at the dojo. But I do hang out at the used bookstore, and check all my favorite spots regularly -- cooking, SF, martial arts, camping... Found a copy of Aikido for Life, by Gaku Homma and have been thourougly enjoying it. Lots to think about.]]> Diane Stevenson Wed, 07 May 2008 21:14:42 GMT Everyday I think about going to Aikido but I dont go. What the heck is going on? I guess I should be the one to know. Part of me wants to train everyday, and then I just make a bunch of exuses why I cant train this day or that. I dont really plan on training I just think that I will because whenever I do go I feel great. I sometimes wonder why I even train at all. I think that I was lookning for change. I have changed but now that I am not trying to change so much maybe I am getting bored. i dont know but I would really like to get out ther and just do it. So today I will train, because I am tired of thinking about it.]]> Elijah211Barr Tue, 06 May 2008 14:04:41 GMT Class last night was incredible. A handful of people got hit with swords, one person on multiple occasions (that was me). At the end of class sensei made the point that it is important to fail. I think that statement is often undervalued. He underlined that point by saying there is value in not focusing only on getting things right. It seems like what he was trying to convey is how much can be learned by not letting yourself stop when you get something wrong. When you move the wrong way, keep going. Commitment to the path will eventually show you the right way.

Do the technique wrong. Get up and do it again. Do the technique right. Get up and do it again.

It's difficult to let go of the desire to be right. Children could teach us a lot in that regard. Fearlessly, children do things not yet knowing what is right, but rather out of curiousity to find out what is right. They are "beginner humans" and effortlessly maintain the beginner's mind that is so often coveted. Last night's class is over but the learning hasn't stopped yet.]]> scarey