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?

Back into the Saddle

Well in some good news I'm getting promoted at one job in May so I can support myself enough to only need one. What that means for Judo and Aikido is more time for practice. I'm going to attempt to come down in early April with Bryce during his school's spring break and hopefully things will work out where we can both go. I'd like to go to the Starkville clinic, but we'll only be in town one or two days and I don't know if we can drive up to the Sumrall/Hattiesburg/McComb area then drive 3-4 more hours out towards Starkville...we'll see. Even if we can't, hopefully we'll be able to catch Pat before or afterwards. I've been doing tegatana a lot lately and at first I was letting the weight of my hand cause me to fall in the directions of the steps but that felt too much like leaning, so I started just falling those directions then moving the hand. After working with it a while, I feel like it works best with starting to fall and moving the hand around the same time then centering the hand during the downward fall and catching myself at a point where I could change direction instantly with my hand already at my center. Thoughts?

Back again

In response to Pat's reply to my last post, of course I haven't given up. I don't think I could ever "give up" martial arts. I've just been working 18 hour days 6 days a week between 2 jobs. Andy called me the other day and I had to work in the morning and was off in the afternoon and he put it quite well when he said "so with you only working 1 job today, that's like a day off for you". I've done a lot of thinking over this the past few days. I've been avoiding this decision for a long time, but it's finally time to give in to seriously pursuing martial arts as a career. It's the one and only thing I can do day in and day out without getting tired of it or my love for it diminishing. It's a constant challenge to the senses with physical and philosophical sensations. I plan on staying in Orlando the next year and after getting a car, driving to Vero Beach when Bryce is gone. Afterwards maybe Houston or Oklahoma. The only way I can see making a career of this work, is just to study and study until I'm good enough that people come to me to learn. I've also been looking into whether it's possible teach Judo as an after school program at the boys and girls club, or (hopefully somewhere) as a class itself. It more than qualifies for a gym class. Especially if could be taught to 8th-9th graders where they're old enough to be able to perform the moves well but young enough to absorb the info. Any suggestions on how to make martial arts a feasible career are most welcome and greatly appreciated.

Quick Update

To anyone still reading my blog, just letting you know that I am still making an effort to post. I just started my new morning prep job at a brand new Outback that just opened yesterday and I work nights at Blockbuster. Combine that with Bryce's crappy class schedule this week and it's left no time for Aikido or Judo...hopefully next week.

Love and Fear

"We Contribute to Our Own Failure" was a post recently made on Pat's site and if you're reading this, please go there and click on his link to the Classic Aiki Story there. My post is in reference to that. Someone special to me once said that humans only have two emotions and all other emotions are derived from those two. Those two emotions are love, and fear. I thought about this concept and how it fit into my aiki training. It's true, I'd love to get into a classic example of a mugger taking an old lady's purse and gracefully tossing him to the earth, handing the lady back her purse and have her thank me. When I really sat down and thought about why I'd like a real life situation to occur for my Aikido though, it's not out of some need for gratitude, it's out of fear. Fear that maybe what I'm learning I won't be able to perform when I really need to. Fear that I'd let my Sensei and myself down when it really came down to it. Therefore, I want a black and white confrontation to have a definite answer. Pat's was about there not usually being a black and white circumstance. Mine's about this desire to test my skills being misled. I keep doing Aikido because I love Aikido. I get immense joy out of blending with someone and moving with them. I get just as much out of being Uke and letting Tori toss me and improving someone else's Ability. While I was down at the Mokuren dojo for my Aiki weekend, Pat was telling me about how almost everyone who gets into Aikido initially gets into it because it seems magical and there seems an element of control over another person that we all want to learn. The farther we progress though we learn that the idea of controlling someone else is an illusion and we start liking it for what it really is. The higher up the chain of Aikidoka you go however, the more "magical" the abilities of people seem to be, even to those that practise Aikido already, until they get to that point, and so on, and so on. I'd just like everyone reading this to really ask themselves why they got into Aikido initially (the actual motivation), and why they're still doing it.

the Incident...

Please read the previous post for back story. I'll be the first to admit I occasionally horse around in the dojo. If waki-gatame is being demonstrated on me, after the 2nd time I might try to Gedan-ate my way out of it. I only try these things on Pat since he's 5th degree and I know that he's expecting it and I never go for anything serious. It's a bad habit I have and Pat usually makes me pay for that Gedan-ate attempt by introducing me to the floor or setting waki-gatame as an armbar. That being said, I was working with Patrick, who by the way has a really interesting feel during honasu number 5 with the turning under the arm since he doesn't counterbalance, on a chain in Nijusan. Patrick tends to get over-zealous from time to time and he made a move during the exercises to put me into tenkai-kote geishi but jumped into it. Since we were moving slow and he dove into this full force it caught me off guard and he didn't let go of my wrist so I dove backwards into the mat to save my wrist from being broken. I got up and told him to take it slow and cool off and he tried it again so I moved with him at normal speed and reversed the hold and broke away from him. He was giggling and saying "good stuff man, good stuff" and it occurred to me he didn't realize the severity of what just happened. He leaves his phone on during class, he's come before with his Gi reeking of smoke (thought not for a while) and it's never addressed. I only come down once in a while so I don't really mind anymore, but I used to when I was there. I was just wondering if anyone else has any advice on how to deal with the student that doesn't seem to listen....other than bringing it to the attention of the Sensei. Sensei Pat has the patience of a Saint, unfortunately I haven't developed that yet.