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God love Lan. That man can take more abuse and enjoy it than anyone else I know. (Well, I can take more abuse, but I don't enjoy it unlike him... sicko. )
Anyhow, last nights two hours was spent on... IKKYO! Woohoo! We did Katatae, Shomenuchi, Ushiro, Yokomen and Katatori attacks, Omote and Ura... all Ikkyo.
...and it was time well spent.
Last week, we made great strides into fixing problems with my footwork. This is a good thing: fixing footwork. Well, last night, Lan takes two hours of ukemi for me while I work on Ikkyo and break down the little things that will help me along the road to actually doing it COR-RECT-LY! Alas... only time will tell.
Corrections made: (In no particular order)
1) Hands - reaching over to capture the attacking hand, I found myself pulling the hand off too soon and I was loosing control of the uke when that would happen. ALSO, I was sometimes reaching OVER with that hand and not keeping a good kokyu hand position. These things are easily fixable, just take time and practice.
2) Footwork - Quit bringing that leg back! On the Ushiro attack, I would do the first blend only so much, needed to do more. Then as I turn Tenkai ( think, it was 180degree turn back to face the uke) I needed to leave that (new) inside leg forward. I kept bringing it back which would take me too far away from uke. Keep it forward, and cut! Also, as I'm cutting, bring that inside hand up to the elbow. Be sure I'm FACING the uke so I have room. If I'm not an
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Oops! I had no idea I didn't get Tuesday's class entered in here. I was there... all two hours of it. It was a really good class, but man my memory must have gotten wipped by last nights class because ...
AH! Wait, I remember now. Tuesday we tested Mr. Derren Hill! That's what it was. He passed his test from 3rd to 2nd kyu. Did a pretty good job too! On his keitin nage (sp?) he was stepping behind the Uke as opposed to drawing his leg straight back. I caught that! (No one else mentioned it, ha!) Otherwise it was an excellent test.
Lots of hip! Yonkyo was brutally fast, dropped me like a rock.
Now then... LAST nights class. Two hours of "How to move your damn feet."
*sigh*
It was amazing. Sensei asked us what we wanted to do, as it was just two of us. Lan suggested we do jiyuwaza until he spotted something that we needed correction on.
Good thing he did to, because we hit on something major last night: Moving Off Line.
My footwork got all hung up so we switched to ryorandori. My footwork was even worse, so I suggested NOT using my arms at all, just stepping off line instead... Sensei agreed that was a good idea. Well, it went from bad, to worse... to worser...
I couldn't move my feet for $#!+! Argh! Like roots, they were. And I found out why:
The Rules!
"This is the line of attack." ----------------------------------
Well, for whatever reason, everything yesterday went STRAIGHT to hell and I'm still digging my way out... but let's not dwell on that.
WENT TO CLASS LAST NIGHT!!
It was a good thing to, because I'm about as rusty as a bucket of nails sitting on the deck of the titanic! (you know, that ship at the bottom of the ocean?)
Anyhow, Ikkyo through Gokyo off of Shomen strike, lapel grab and wrist grab. Ugly! U... G.... L.... Y.... ! Two full hours of "what the hell was that?" *sigh*
Sensei, if we do nothing but "this" class for the next two weeks, it won't hurt my feelings.
I love it when people get back from seminars: the class is pumped up, energized and full of life! Last nights class was no exception.
Did a lot off of tenshin movement last night. Kokyunage, sumi otoshi, shiho, Irimi off of a shiho. Tons and tons of stuff.
Things I picked up on:
Need more hip on Shiho, but the footwork needs to be more precise. Uke was ending up beside me or sometimes behind me when I was going for the cut.
Breathing - Kato Sensei started doing a misogi breathing that he claims has helped his health a great deal. I'm looking forward t learning more about that and actuaally making time to do it.
So much more, but I'm too tired to go into it right now. Anyhow... 2 more hours!
Sensei Riggs, Couch, Lan, Derren & Mike C. all attended a seminar in Houston with Kato Sensei. Hiroshi Kato Shihan has officially announced taking Sensei Riggs as a student, and now Aikido of Midland is affiliated with the Suganami dojo's of Japan and the Aikikai Hombu. VERY exciting stuff! (I was unable to attend, but I'll catch in in Oct/Nov.)
Lan was tested for Shodan and passed the exam! YEAH! Congrats Mr. Lan Man! Lan Powers in an excellent student and aikidoka... very proud of him. (Good job, Lan!)
Sensei Riggs again took up the baton of "subtle things" that Kato does that help make a difference. Last nights class consisted of a few of these:
Ikkyo - We did this off of the lapel grab, wrist grab and shomen strike. Slight adjustments were made to our footwork, putting more emphasis on moving the hip first and following through with the hips. Also, it was important not to just "walk in" on the uke, but that after the cut down is made, to draw the uke across. It really takes the uke's balance!
Things I need to work on would be the hip movement as well as lowering my center to get more UNDER the uke. I found I was collapsing my arms to get under their arm. Big NO NO!
Shihonage - Did this off of the wrist grab and yokomenuchi strike. On the wrist grab, we started staticlly and again, worked on hip movement first.Also, bring everything UP! EVERYTHING needs to come up! The hands grasping the uke's wrist need to be in front of your forehead just as or befo
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06-29-2005 02:03 PM 
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