One more thing...

I forgot to add in the last post that me and Bryce also spent around 2 hours (after physical practice) talking about mai and it's relationship to everyone in Aikido and how it changes in Judo. Apparently there are 2 mai distances. There is the Aikido mai where your opponent would have to commit to stepping (or leaping) forward to get you, and there's a passive mai where someone gets about the distance and arm would be before it could hit your face, not your other arm. We played around how differently people react to those two instances. We did a little Judo randori and I've decided that every time I go back home now I'm going to take the video camera to Pat's with me, especially for me and Andy's randori sessions before class so when I get back home I can analyze what I need to work on a bit more objectively. Not so much point out "I should've done this here or that there", but more "Ok I'm leaning in when I'm closing mai, or my posture is horrible as I attempt hip throws". Any other suggestions on improving one's self when not in class (other than the standard repetition of tegatana would be most appreciated.

Long night

First off let me apologize for not posting more often but I haven't done anything other than tegatana for a couple of weeks until last night. Me and Bryce worked for 2 hours straight on the difference between getting real tension to move with, and giving what feels like real tension to GET uke to move with. Basically committed attacks and attacks that look and at first feel real but without any substance. We also went over some ground work and how we use leverage by not collapsing our circular and triangular shapes, but by rotating them but keeping the same shape. All of this came together with a very good speech on staying inside "the box" when facing an opponent. The only exception being in Judo where you can leave the box but only if you take your opponent outside his as well and you can get back to yours first. I unfortunately won't be able to go to the Aiki-Buddies gathering in June but I've gotten a week in July off to head back. My girlfriend wants to know what all this Aikido stuff is so she'll be coming with me so it should be a pretty good couple of classes. I still want to work on multiple attackers when I'm there and movement from the kneeling position.

June Aiki Buddy Gathering

I got the go ahead from work that I'll have the time off to go to the Aiki Buddy weekend in Magnolia in the middle of June. I was looking at Pat's post with the randori videos on it and I realized I've never done any exercises with multiple attackers. Usually (almost always) it's because we just don't have enough bodies in class for this. Hopefully this can be addressed in June. For anyone who has done exercises concerning multiple assailants, how big is the gap between handing one uke and handling 3 or 4?