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Go Back   AikiWeb Aikido Forums > AikiWeb AikiBlogs > Seeking Zanshin: Blood, Sweat, Tears & Aikikai

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Seeking Zanshin: Blood, Sweat, Tears & Aikikai Blog Tools Rating: Rate This Blog
Creation Date: 02-24-2005 10:53 PM
jducusin
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One small gal + a dojo full of big guys = tons o' fun
Blog Info
Status: Public
Entries: 270 (Private: 12)
Comments: 195
Views: 826,850

In Testing A Prediction of Things to Come Entry Tools Rate This Entry
  #254 New 03-03-2010 11:58 AM
Now, I don't claim to be anything even close to clairvoyant. If I were, I might have avoided Jim's elbow in randori last night and saved myself from getting clocked in the temple. But I think after five kyu tests I would have some small notion of how these things will go. I'd imagine it will be something like this:

- During the drive out to Saskatoon on Friday, I'll fall asleep in the car while mentally going through the test list trying to visualize each of the techniques.

- We will not be billeting on Friday night, for the sake of needing to get a good night's sleep.

- Saturday morning, I will get up and do the customary "lucky braid" in my hair (this time, one braid for shodan - just like it was five for gokyu, four for yonkyu and so on.)

- Little Miss Overachiever will very nearly exhaust herself during the seminar practice sessions even though she really should pace herself to conserve energy for the test. Aside from this one sentence, she will refrain from referring to herself in the third person.

- Lunch will consist of primarily low-gi carbs.

- Pre-test, I will consume Honey Stinger Organic Energy Chews and a Gatorade.

- 10 to 15 minutes prior to the test, I will get an adrenaline surge and lose all fine motor control. (Solution: I have completed and signed the rank application form ahead of time to prevent the form from looking as nasty as it did for my 5th and 4th kyu tests when I could barely sign my name. This means that there will also be no more of the usual humming and hawing over that same place in the form: "Number of days of practice since last test? I dunno...sensei? Do you know?")

- I will also be doing a lot of deep breathing in the women's change room.

- At the start of the test, my movements will be stiff and ill-timed as my body works out the nerves and my brain and my body have the following internal conversation:

Jamie's brain: (trying to futilely process as much information as possible while working through abject panic)
Jamie's body: What are you still doing? Can't you see I'm trying to work here?
Jamie's brain: Must...help...somehow...
Jamie's body: Well, you're getting in the bloody way! Leave me alone!
Jamie's brain: (whimpering, pushes a big red button labeled "Auto-Pilot" and slumps off into a dark corner to sulk)

- By around the third or fourth repetition, this internal conflict will have resolved itself for the most part and my body will act automatically and of its own accord. Outside observers have called this phenomenon "Jamie in The Zone".

- Later, I will have no recollection of the specifics surrounding my movements. It'll be like those sudden yet inevitable (and numerous) moments in the anime classic, "Neon Genesis Evangelion", where a seemingly-unconscious Eva comes to life and moves on its own. Only with slightly less carnage left behind and none of the angsty anti-hero whining.

One last practice to go before the test...my brain is obviously trying to work out all of its nervous energy.
Views: 2512 | Comments: 9


RSS Feed 9 Responses to "A Prediction of Things to Come"
#9 03-05-2010 03:15 PM
I guess making Shinji more of a man is a good point... He really irritated me in the old one... I kept saying to myself: "what the hell are you doing kid?!"
#8 03-05-2010 07:45 AM
jducusin Says:
Of course (on the non-graphics related side) at the very least you have to appreciate in Rebuild that they edited it to make Shinji come off as less of a wuss - er, with more internal fortitude - than he had in the original series. :-)
#7 03-05-2010 07:44 AM
jducusin Says:
Personally, I thought they did a good job of the details: like cleaning up the line work & making it closer in quality to what you'd see made today; they also added some extra parts that helped give the scenes more technological depth & enhanced the futuristic setting (ie. the mechanisms behind the above-ground conversion of Tokyo-3, plus more dimensional sophistication to the EVA monitoring panels in NERV headquarters) - stuff they didn't have the means to accomplish as well back in the 90's.
#6 03-04-2010 02:22 PM
I watched it yes, but didn't think it was that much different :/
#5 03-04-2010 02:03 PM
jducusin Says:
Have you seen the new "Rebuild of Evangelion"? They totally spiffed up the graphics. And I second the reviewing of the test tape afterwards - good to know what to work on for future!
#4 03-03-2010 05:53 PM
Nice Evangelion reference... Here's my day: -get up, eat a bunch of food -get dressed, go to the dojo -change into my gi -practice as usual during the seminar -sweat a little bit during the test -later, review the test on camera
#3 03-03-2010 03:56 PM
ninjaqutie Says:
Best of luck!
#2 03-03-2010 02:54 PM
jducusin Says:
Thanks! I've tried the french braid thing as well (with little long-term success); I think my hair is definitely too thick. So instead of one long braid, I'm just adding a little side braid in there and sticking everything else back the way I normally do - to heck with it all! ;-)
#1 03-03-2010 02:42 PM
Daisy Luu Says:
I find the braiding tradition to be very interesting, and a nice feminine touch. At our dojo, there's a girl who always does her hair in a French braid on her test, or when she's uke for someone else on theirs. I am a bit envious because my slick hair does NOT stay well in a braid. The mind-body convo is amusing (and happens to most of us, I'm sure). Good luck on your test!
 




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