AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
Sensei talked about flow, and energy, and how one of the keys to Aikido was to make your energy bigger, and invite the Uke or attacker into your energy, and then guide them in the direction that you wanted your energy to go. I tried on the mat to get my energy bigger, can't say that I accomplished it, but it was not for lack of trying. Kate Dori Ikkyo in motion, trying to flow.
We also worked on getting rid of the piling up of the energy that happens in techniques…. Occasionally I could feel that I had less of a hump in energy, and maybe once I even got rid of the hump altogether, for one throw….Then it was back, and I could not figure out how I had managed to alleviate it.
The parts of this that are body related are the hardest part for me. I can understand what is happening on some level in my mind, but my body does not seem to have that connection (yet?). Especially flow. Occasionally I feel it, but it is rare, and the feeling is good, but wholly alien. I have spent 35 years powering through things, and not flowing with them…. (Hmmm There are some non physical manifestations to this too, sitting here, I realize that I need to take this lesson out of the purely physical, into the way that I look at and solve problems in my life.)
We did two stepping while thinking of one of our hands as Yin and the Other as Yang, feeling what that energy would be like, how it would apply to the world, and to inviting Uke into our energy. It was neat, I could feel it occ
...More
I had to miss the beginner class so dropped in for the all levels class that immediately followed it. We were working on Kate Dori Ikkyo, and Nikko. My feet were not cooperating with the techniques like I would like, and there seemed to be some issues with flow. Ok a lot of issues with flow. We did the whole night in motion, and I am not sure that I ever got rid of the little or big hump in energy on the transfer. From stepping into toward Uke to grabbing ukes hand…. I also don't think that my Ukemi is very helpful to my partner in this technique.
There were several sempeis tonight whom I had never seen before. I paired up with all of them at one point or another. One of the people had wonderful flow felt a lot like Sensei in that I thought he might have been on roller skates. We did freestyle at the end, and I was paired with Victor. He was amazing, I did manage to get him down ONCE. Sensei was helping a lot calling directions from the side, "Use the energy that is in his arm bring it down in front of him, all of a sudden it turned into Shiho Nage, just as smooth as I could have wanted. That was amazing. I tried to get out of a throw of victors, and he moved and I was looking at a breakfall. ( I have no idea how to do one right. I managed to do something that might have been like one two Sundays ago with Victor, but I am not really sure…) My eyes got really wide (I felt them) and Victor let me down gently onto the mat. Sensei had a couple of words with Victor
...More
This was an awesome class. There were 4 students at the Dojo. It was amazing. Me, Julia, Don, and Victor. One white belt, and a bunch of Sempeis! This was wonderful!
We started off with Tai no Henko Ki no nagare. I was paired with Don for the start, then Julia, while my fix worked wonderfully with Don, it failed completely with Julia, we were back to the same cave in of the arm. After that we traded partners and I worked with Don on a variety of techniques. Then we switched, and I worked with Julia again.
I asked that we start with Tai No Henko static, so that I might be able to figure it out. Sensei came by and helped out a lot, explaining that every technique is different every time that you do it, and especially when you do it with different people. So I got something that was a lot more passable but still not the solid non caving arm that I was working on with Julia. Sensei came by again and explained that sometimes for some reasons techniques don't work between some people and that when that is the case use a different one. He then tossed Julia effortlessly to the mat with Ryote Dori kokyu Ho, which is one that Julia is really working hard on. She came up all smiles, and we started working on some other stuff.
One of the things that came up tonight which I had never though of was thinking about what is next in a martial situation if you are Uke. This means that even as you are a partner for your Nage that you are putting yourself in the best poss
...More
Tonight we worked on kate Dori Ikkyo which seems to be getting better for me. A couple thousand more repetitions and I might look something like I know what I am doing with it. Less than that and I look like a dancing water buffalo.
Tonight's big things were Tai No Henko though! Sensei cam by when I was working with Bob, we were doing Tai No Kihon (static?). I was struggling with what was going wrong, as I have been doing the last week or more, trying to figure out why no matter what I do my arm seems to cave in instead of hold it's space. He stopped bob and I and had me do it with him. Then he said Yeah that is what I thought I saw, and went through the same thing that we went through on the first day that we started, the tree hugger, versus the log hauler, versus cradling something. Each has a different direction of the hands and wrist. Once I tried it out the cradling something way it was awesome! It was like my arm was a little force field. It was Magic!
Then we worked on Kate Dori Ikkyo, a bunch. At several points I or my partners got some help on it. I know that I still need a lot of help on it.
Then we did Kokyu Dosa. This was good, my new found knowledge about flow and from center helped a lot. I worked hard on it and got to practice with Don. Who is one of the Sempies that is really strong, and good at detecting where you are doing things wrong. After class I worked with him some more on it, improving it even more. It was amazing moving from th
...More
This was a better class I am still under the effects of the cold, but less so today. It was much easier to think on the mat today. Also working on the same technique again was good, as I have an idea how it works now. Sensei came over and helped me with my footwork several times, and it seems to make more sense now. I even once felt like I may have done something with flow. Only once out of however many times though.
I got to pair up with Rick and Julia several times in the class. I felt that my Tai No Henko was really bad today, could not seem to get the focus on it, nor could I make anything feel like flow on it.
When paired up with Rick at one point this morning, he told me that my connection was a method of communicating with him. This was a new thought to me. Aikido as a non-verbal communication method. Maybe the ultimate non-verbal communication. Wow a different way of thinking about it.
Rick and I played with sticks a little after the class was over. He helped me understand more of the 13 count kata, and helped me with my reverse strike, and some of the things in the all movement part of sticks (What is this called?). I worked on the figure 8 motions, long reach strike. Both of which I seemed to understand a little for the first time.
Still not 100% with the cold, but I felt a lot better getting off of the mat than I did getting onto it.
Evening Class:
This class is a little hazy. I am in the throws of a terrible cold, and I must say that a lot of it, since the move is new to me, was beyond my diminished capability. Worked on the same move more. Felt that my feet were even more firmly glued to the mat.
2/24/04
Moving from the center
Morning Class. This was a strange class for me as I am in the throws of a cold. I went to Aikido because I was still able to go. I was a bit thick though, and can't say that the body or the mind were functioning at top speed.
I think that the technique that we worked on was Kata Dori (Shoulder Grab) Ikkyo? Or Nikyo?. Oomote and ura, this was interesting. I can't say that I get the footwork at all. This is really hard to me. My feet don't seem to do anything that makes any sense at all.
For the first time, I got an idea of what Sensei means in moving from center. I am mostly off balance in Aikido, and have to consciously work on getting over my center, and operating from there. Part of me is still doing techniques TO my partner instead of doing them WITH my partner. That is one of the reasons that my timing is so far off. What Sensei did is spoke about doing Kokyu dosa from the center, not the shoulders, from flow, not power. This was new to me, and I realized that I had been powering though Kokyu Dosa. I had even in previous classes realized that I needed to take power off one I got the balance of the Uke, in order not to fling them into the mat. Now I realize that I need to flow, from the center, and take their balance and lead them gently to the mat. This is new, and I was completely in control there was no balance being off feeling when I pivoted from the hip, and brought my center into take their balance away. It was really cool!
...More
2/21/04
Elaine Yoder Sensei Visit
Waves! Look at Aikido as waves breaking on you, don't try and stop the wave, let it break. This was what she said in the first five minutes of the class. The rest of the class is kind of a blur, as my brain was reconstructing all of the aikido that I knew into wave patterns, which I am VERY familiar with. It was amazing looking at things in this way. I can see why my timing is off on some of the exercises. A lot of the spirals become more apparent when I think of them as waves.
I also thought about trying to fly fish with two people holding the rod at all times, when I was working with Don today. That seemed a good analogy too. My timing on a lot of techniques is really off, and I can't quite figure out where yet.
The class was good, but I was tired by the end and that is when we were doing some techniques that involved rolling, I didn't do so good at that. I thought that I was missing something, when Julia said, don't worry about it, you are tired. And at that moment, I realized that I was really tired and that Julia was right.
It was neat, a lot of the parts of the class tonight were on feeling where your partners is as well as where you were. We learned a new pin technique that was really neat, but hard to accomplish, and I think that I felt a little more flow at a couple of points. There was one that was Tai No Henko but then you walked your uke around. That was really cool and I felt the flow in that. I could feel stops on ot
...More
I slowed down a lot in this class. It was interesting that it did slow down some of the techniques a lot. Sensei picked my to do Tai No Henko with at the beginning of class. It amazes me how smooth he is. Even in Tai No Henko, I could feel the difference between each change of Nage Uke. The smoothness was amazing.
Sensei then talked about breathing and that you are supposed to do the throw part of a technique on an exhale. This made sense; he spoke about energy flow, and how if you were to breath in when the person made contact with you, that you were in effect drawing the energy of the person in conflict with you into your self. It is much better to keep your energy out there in front of you holding them off so to speak. I understand all of this on some level, but am lucky if I remember to breath at all when I am on the mat. I know that for me right now if I start to think about my breathing, I am going to forget to breath, forget my hands, forget my feet. Any one of which will result in me being on my back on the mat, after being run into by Uke.
I worked on some of the 5th kyu techniques tonight, and was Uke for some of the 2nd kyu techniques with Don and Rick. It was amazingly fun. Especially when I got to grab both their hands from behind! I have no idea what the technique was, but it sure was fun being Uke in it! At one point I grabbed Don, and held on. He said ready, and then I was on my back on the mat…Seemed like I should have been able to hold him
...More
2/19/04
Morning Class
I started this class realizing that it was probably going to be the only one that I made it to today due to a commitment in another area.
We did the four techniques from before. And I did quite a bit of rolling. I was working on rolling with a group of people doing one of the exercises. Sometimes things would go great, and other times my legs below the knees would seem to slam hard into the mat. (It hurt). Then they would go great again, then wham…Sensei came over and cautioned all of us that we should not be practicing advanced rolling till we were able to do it. I stared at him, and gave him the huh look as he was looking directly at me. He the told us that you have to roll with your foot and hand on the same side both forward, otherwise you smack the mat with your legs and stop rolling. And as he pointed out and I already knew this hurts! Once he explained this, it made sense and I now saw what I was doing. Before then I thought that I was messing up the rolls.
The whole class seemed off, and I didn't feel that I did anything as well as I have in the past….I think that I need to go slower! I might be the one that is going at light speed.
Bummed to have to have missed the evening classes.
Uke as helping Nage get the move right in practicing. I am sure that I can help my partner do things more correctly when they get stuck, just have no idea how yet.
03-06-2004 08:54 PM 
