Got home early today....

Today was the end of Bryce's days off from school so I left work a little early and got some Aikido time in. We briefly ran through Nijusan and concentrated on kote-geshi. Now that I have a DVD of Pat doing Nijusan thanks to my last trip down :) I was able to have a visual on some differences of Bryce's kote-geshi and Pat's Kote-geshi. The most notable difference is that in Pat's version, when Uke reaches the end of the line, Pat doesn't set kote-geshi, but has it in place and holds it while Uke walks into it while keeping the other hand up for shomenate. This technique makes Uke feel like he's walking into a brick wall, he tries to move forward but as he sets kote-geshi on himself he can't keep moving forward. In Bryce's version, Bryce will set kote-geshi at the end of the line and keep moving around the point of contact giving Uke that feeling of having his legs whip out from under him. While this requires more room, it's more fun to do (if not quite as foolproof as Pat's). Then we went into close kote-geshi and far kote-geshi. We finished up with playing around with how often kote-geshi and waki-gatame actually come up in "real life" situations and what to do if for some reason or another the movement from Uke and tori stops (from Tori losing his balance and regaining it or Uke just standing up because Tori wasn't in total control with tension).

New Promotion

I'm getting a promotion at my job which means I can keep that one and lose the other. That translates to more sleep and more Judo/Aikido time. I was hoping to go to the Henry clinic this weekend but alas, plans fell through. The picture of Andy is finished. The hands look slightly different than the picture on his blog (the hands are improved) but I'm not posting a new picture cause it's not that big a change, just slightly sharper. So if anyone's interested I know the artist and she'd be happy to be commissioned for another (I'm thinking of getting one myself lol). I've been doing tegatana and working on the rising and falling of the center. I've been reading this book lately called "Conversations with God Vol I" (there are 3) it's where I got the love vs fear idea from and there's another I'd like to discuss. There's a part that talks about people's passions. It says a person who's passionate about something may initially undertake a task/hobby/whatever for the end result but learns that the end result isn't as important as the experience or feeling you get from doing the activity. I thought about this and realized that when I first saw Ueshiba, and yes even Steven Seagal on one of his 80's movies, I believe it was "Hard to Kill" when he disarms a guy with a knife using knee walking and kote-geashi in a convenience store, I wanted to be able to do that one day. Lately I don't look so far ahead. I just wait for the next class or practise session with Bryce period. I'm finally enjoying the ride so to speak. Just wondering if anyone else had any stories to relate to this. Pat, I recall one you told me about stopping at a Krystal's in Alabama as to why you started, are you still looking for an ending or just enjoying class as it comes?