Thursday, September 10, 2009

It's Been Two Weeks

So as far as last week's post (I know you're on the edge of your seat), I arrived at class and there was a sign on the front door that simply said "Closed for maintenance. Will open tomorrow." Inside I could see electrical wires hanging from the ceiling...nice of them to let me know they'd be closed, yes?
This week, my one student returned and we only have 2 more classes left together. I wanted to go over a few lessons such as, notice your surroundings. We went through the first 4 wrist releases standing near a wall. It took a few minutes, but hip switches developed and number 1 and 3 worked especially well using those, and the "lost releases".
Some concerns were expressed over release number 3 and 4. She, like almost everyone, enjoys doing number 1 and 3 because they FEEL like they have an end. I explained that neither do 1 and 3, and we practiced what happens after the 3rd step of 1 and 3. In other words, what if Uke keeps going? That moved nicely into a Junana lesson, most notably oshi taoish and ude gaeshi. I was requested to go over that a few more times next class, so my lesson plan is just that....more wrist releases chaining into Junana
After 2 weeks when I move, I don't know how much Aikido I'll be doing. I hear Western Washington University has a Judo club, so I'll look into that. The interesting thing I read about their Judo club is that for randori it's open to anyone who does any wrestling, grappling, or throwing art. There's also a group that just focuses on kata and not competition Judo, and that sounds great to me.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Releases against a wall is a good exercise to do periodically. Sometimes, you're stuck in an elevator!

In addition to using your center with hip-switches, try moving up and down with your center as it rotates (using your knees). You can create some interesting off-balances vertically instead of the usual horizontal! =)