Still going strong

         So my students are beginning to settle into a routine of some going only to Judo, some only to Aikido, and a select few bouncing back and forth. I am teaching 4 days a week now, plus attending BJJ here and there. I have been going back over some old Karl Geis DVDs I have and am constantly learning new things each time I watch.
         On the youtube project of doing a move each month, I have posted the first Aikido move, and the first Judo move. Making two separate channels was more complicated than it needed to be, but hopefully it will all work out. I had Judo last night and had the class do kosoto gari and then uki-goshi. After doing that for awhile we moved into some groundwork, mainly bridge and roll escape from kesa gatame and an escape from the mount. I had them do some pinning randori with each person trying to hold the other in the mount and in kesa for 15 seconds before they could win. I think we all won when the lesson that rolling around can get very tiring very quickly if you are constantly exerting force.
       Tonight is Aikido, after Tegatana I think we will do releases 4 and 8, then gyakugamae ate (I hope I spelled that right) from Junana.

Too many students

              Never a problem I thought I would have. I had this idea about what exactly I was going to show at Aikido class tonight. 5 o'clock rolled around and only me and SJ were there. By 5:05 I had six students and no where near enough mat space. One guy had never done anything before nor heard of Aikido. The other two each studied different arts. A woman who does Jiu-jitsu and her husband who practices Kempo. Everyone was really polite and I had a lot of odd footing to play with. Tomorrow's Judo class promises to have the six students from tonight plus an additional two or three from the local BJJ class. SJ took on the role tonight as my helper with the students who regularly show up. I am going to have to either figure out a way to break the class up, or do more circuits. I am also moving my classes to four days a week as per requested by my students. I have been thinking a lot on how we show different applications of different moves that emphasize different things. That combined with Pat's Aikido Renaissance posts gave me an idea. I am going to contact him and Nick about making a youtube channel that focuses on a different move each month or so and have different people in our organization post how they do it and what they emphasize. It should be an interesting tool to help spread ideas. 

Great Judo class this morning

     Yesterday was one of those days for Aikido when almost no one could show up, and this morning was one of those days for Judo when almost everyone showed up. I have actually run out of mat space so we've been doing circuit training, having one person throw everyone in class with a throw then rotate to the next person throwing everyone. Today we did Osoto gari with an emphasis on making a circle with the big toe of the sweeping leg. It makes the throw more like a smooth foot sweep than a huge reaping action. After that we worked on Ouchi gari but tried a way I saw Kyle Sloan do it starting with the normal, left-foot-moving, judo dance. You step on the same line like you are doing hiza guruma but your partner swings around and you catch their foot, again by making a circle with the big toe of your right leg, and it feels like kouchi gari done with the other foot. I really like this version and teaching it right after Osoto seems to make it click in my students' noggins. We did the deashi barai walk next, just catching our partner's foot and setting it down and I think that will be a staple part of class from now on. After the drills I had them pair up and one person pick a throw with their partner allowed to move around however they want (not just judo dancing, but side-stepping, moving in a circle, etc), to expose them to looking for timing in the chaos of normal movement.
   Then we moved to ground work. I had everyone get an exercise ball and try to move from mune to kesa and back to mune without falling off. After a few minutes I went over the bridge and roll escape and sit up escape from kesa gatame then had them drill holding someone in kesa and once the bottom person escaped, the person who lost control of kesa immediately bridge/roll their opponent back into kesa. Everyone seemed really impressed that if you lose control you can go with that momentum and use it to get back into a favorable position. I am really pleased to see people bringing their feet together and getting lighter and lighter on their feet. The class also has a feeling of no one trying to "beat" anyone else, and everyone working together towards getting better. It is just plain fun :) 

Interview with Pat Parker over at Mokurendojo

    Me: Thank you for taking the time to do this Pat. I've always found the best place to start is at the beginning. How did you get in to martial arts and what led you to Aikido, Judo, and Jodo?

    Pat: I got into martial arts when I was in high school in 1986.  I was pretty oblivious - probably the only 11th grader in the world who knew nothing about martial arts.  A buddy of mine came up to me and told me he was taking Taekwando and asked if I wanted to join and I asked, "What's Taekwando?"  He replied, "It's like Karate," and I asked, "What's karate? so he said, "It's like what Bruce Lee did," and I asked, "Who's Bruce Lee?"  So he finally explained it as, "like boxing, but you kick people in the head." That sounded interesting so I got started and have been hooked ever since.

I did that for about a year before I moved off to college, and there was no TKD on campus at that point, so I got started in a Karate class, which I did for about 4 years.

Then a girl (it always starts with a girl, right?) that was in my karate class told me she was also doing judo and I ought to come do that with her.  So I did, and it turns out that there was an instructor teaching aikido in the same club.  

I'd been hooked years earlier in high school, but when I saw aikido, that was when I fell in love with budo.  That was in 1991.

    Me: Since the early 90's and the emergence of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) there has been a strong emphasis on cross training arts, specifically Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, and Wrestling. In terms of effective self defense, what are your thoughts about training equally in multiple disciplines as opposed to focusing solely on one and specializing in it? 

    Pat: I like the idea of cross-training in more than one art for a couple of reasons.  First, every art or style is necessarily incomplete, so you will need to get some breadth to your training so that your knowledge and skills will be well-rounded.  

Secondly because the domain of each art overlaps to some degree with all other arts.  It is that area of overlap between arts that most represents Truth (with a capital T) to me.  To me, the differences between arts are not as interesting as the points on which all arts agree - that is the stuff that we should spend the most time studying.

But I also like the idea of studying one art sufficiently that you become really skilled at something instead of being a noob at everything (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing).

As a rule of thumb for my students that ask, I tell them to study one art (or maybe two highly related arts, like judo and Tomiki aikido). until they get to shodan or nidan, then start getting familiarity in other arts while continuing in their primary arts.

    Me: Speaking of Judo and Tomiki Aikido, both are relatively new arts when compared to arts hundreds of years old. Do you think Judo and/or Aikido will continue to evolve, or do you think they the ideas will cross pollinate into new arts leaving the traditional art behind? 

    Pat: I think that is the ideal of Judo to continually evolve and grow.  Kano was an eclectic sort of guy. And I think Tomiki was sufficiently influenced by Kano that his art would also evolve.  We got into a discussion a while back about who owns our aikido - whether it is the property and provence of the Ueshiba family or not.  I say I own Aikido, and judo, and you do too.

 

    Me: Great answer. I've always felt the Aikido and Judo I do are specific to me and the ideas I choose to express. Lastly, if you had a top three things for every Judoka to make sure they train as often as they can, what would they be? Same question for Aikido.

    Pat: Hmmm.... Training hints.....

Well, several of my suggestions apply to all judoka and aikidoka equally - 

Practice your basic ukemi forms in every class.  Safe, reflexive falling skills are the most valuable self-defense you'll learn, and it is good exercise.  The most important falls are probably forward roll and backward breakfall.

Also aikidoka and judoka should both practice some sort of randori during each class.  It might not be full-on sparring - it might be some sort of limited sparring or live drill where your'e not exactly sure of all the variables beforehand.   Nothing will kill the martial aspects of your aikido and judo faster than doing nothing but kata with a compliant partner all the time.

Both aikidoka and judoka, as they progress in the arts, should study the roots and other branches of their family tree.  Learn something about Daito Ryu, Kito Ryu, and Tenjin Shinyo Ryu.  Learn something about BJJ and Sombo and Systema.  Judoka, study your aikido cousins and aikidoka, study your judo cousins. Try some karate or boxing.  Check out some Baguazhang or Taiji. Believe it or not, your instructor probably does not have 100% of the answers and the other schools are probably not 100% idiots.

Judo folks, you should probably practice at least a couple of minutes of deashibarai during each tachiwaza class.  Even if it is just a couple hundred uchikomi, the footwork and understanding of timing and balance required to get deashi to work prepares you for every other throw.  In each newaza class you should practice some shrimping and bridging under lots of varying conditions - shrimp forward, backward, sideways, sitting on your butt, propped on an elbow, with and without a partner.  Shrimping and bridging are what make newaza work - and it's good exercise.

Aikido folks, don't neglect your weapons work - particularly blade work.  This is not so much to become a samurai sword master or learn how to defend against knives, but the addition of a blade to your practice will place tori (nage) at such a distinct disadvantage that it will provide incentive to improve.  Also, it will remove any tendency to slack off when working with an empty-hand attacker. Rubber knives are super-inexpensive and are invaluable training tools.  Metal trainers are even better because they look and feel more like a real knife and give better psychological training effect.

Both aikido and judo folk, because they are both 100% partner activities, can benefit from some sort of activity to do at home between classes.  Check out Tomiki sensei's "Judo Taiso" on youtube -  It is a set of activity-specific exercises that he created for judo and aikido folks.  Or get a buddy to teach you 2-3 karate kata that you can do at home.

 Me: Thank you very much Pat, I would say my reader will get a lot out of this, but you are that reader! So instead I will say I have gotten a lot out of this and appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions.

Very nice Judo class

          Today I had 4 people attending and about a dozen on-lookers. The community center has recently developed a girls volley-ball class and it has taken off like wildfire. Saturday mornings now have dozens of people milling about that are either there for volley-ball, parents of someone there for volley-ball, or boys watching girls play volley-ball. That class ends right before mine begins so I occasionally get 1 or 2 onlookers but today I had more despite an invitation for them to join in.
          In class we covered de ashi harai, then ko soto gari. I think the girls that came last night are loosening up, but I need a way of incorporating more falling into class because they are still apprehensive about it and I don't want them getting hurt. I used the advanced foot sweep as a way of also working falls by having each person throw their partner 5 times on each side. After beating that to death I looked at ko soto gari and how it is more of a prop than a sweep.
           The last half of class we spent on the ground. Last week we went over Mune gatame and the escape, and I showed kesa gatame. Today we looked at the bridge and roll from kesa then a simple escape from guard and mount. The last 5 mins of class I chained all the positions together so that someone would escape from mount into guard, then they would break guard and move to kesa. After that, whoever was in kesa would escape from kesa and move into mune where their partner would bridge out of it. It was a very fun class and everyone seemed thrilled to see how this can be chained together.
         One of the participants, Julio, is a guy from the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu place who asked me after class to help him with side control (mune gatame), and kesa gatame because mine is much tighter than his. I showed him how to transition and keep his hips down and a ball exercise Pat showed me that helped tremendously. I think Julio has a lot of potential and seems to be willing to listen to what I'm saying and try to incorporate Judo's merits into his BJJ game. All in all, a great class.

Two New Students

       Yesterday two new students came in to Judo looking for a fun self defense class. We went over some basic off-balance ideas I always like to show beginners to get them over the "but the guy is way bigger than me" stigma and after showing Osoto gari and letting them toss me once or twice they really seemed to get into class. They were two women in their mid-late 30's and enthusiastic about learning so it was a laid back but really productive class. After Osoto I spent a minute on kouchi gari then the questions about groundwork came up. The last 20 mins or so of class was spent on shrimping, showing mune gatame and our basic bridge escape from it. They both seemed really excited about learning more and promised they would be back next week. As a side note they are friends with a yoga studio that is right by my house and said since the community center is starting to charge me for rental space they might be able to swing me teaching at the yoga studio at a cheaper rate, and times that would be more conducive to getting more students. All in all, a really good Saturday :) 

Finally a class again

The BJJ instructor went out of town for 2 weeks so no BJJ class, but a couple of the students said they'd like to work on Judo while he's gone so I've been going to the Community center and each weekend something comes up where they don't show. My Aikido student has been out of town for work but today my girlfriend decided she wanted to do some Judo! So off to the community center we went and worked on some newaza, mostly Mune Gatame and Kesa Gatame with an escape or two from each. Boobs present an interesting challenge when trying to show how to keep tight elbows. Any advice from my true believers out there who've worked with women frequently on how they deal with the issue of physically not being able to keep their elbows in tight?

Stand up straight!

            A few nights ago I wasn't feeling 100% but said I would go to this night class at the BJJ academy so I decided to attend but observe. The BJJ guys were doing randori (rolling) starting from a standing position. Most of the night classes are no gi classes for the more MMA attuned guys and everyone that was there started from a low wrestler stance. I have been working with the instructor for a few classes and trying to get him to straighten his posture and even he was sinking really low. After class I spoke with him about it and got a response of "well, I judo stance is fine for gi, but for no gi you need a wrestler stance so the guy doesn't shoot in on you." I went home, starting looking up some videos, reading some forums and generally seeking popular opinion. Popular opinion is you need to stay low but I also came across one guy saying popular opinion on stances changes about every 10 years or so.
            I starting thinking about the benefits and disadvantages to both and from what I can surmise (and please leave comments if I am wrong or you have something to add as I have little experience with wrestling myself), is that in a wrestling stance your hips are low and away so it makes it hard for your opponent to shoot in on you but your torso is extended forward so you lose mobility in the process. In a Judo stance your hips are right under you so you maximize your mobility but if your opponent is lower and within reach you may get your legs picked. After asking around and giving it some thought I came up with 1 solution, Pat had another solution (or piece that could be added on), and Nick in his infinite wisdom had already posted a video on youtube with yet another way of dealing with it. My solution was to stand sugar footed (one leg closer than the other to your opponent) and keep an eye on distance while just giving him my wrists but keeping him out of reach of my legs. Pat suggested the first 4 wrist releases of honasu (which works great for when they grab your wrists), and nick suggested just bending the knees.
          The next class I was at I did all 3 and they all worked beautifully. The wrestler guys get so fixated on my legs they just leave my upper body alone and over-extend themselves. When they do grab and lean on me turning away and tossing them the direction they are leaning is really easy. The only caveat is they are good at taking small steps to attempt to close that distance to get at your legs so pay attention to that. I'll be experimenting with that more in the coming weeks. Any pointers, hints, tips, cheats, experiments, comments, questions, or suggestions would be welcome. 

All that glitters

         I apparently have a problem asking people for money when it comes to teaching. I suppose it's because I want training partners more than money, but that seems to create some sort of paradox as when you offer something for free people are skeptical but if you charge for it they think it must be worth more. When I was training I was driving almost two hours each way a few days a week to get to an hour and a half class of Judo or Aikido. My instructor cut me a break on most of my classes and I don't know how I would've afforded to train without that and it compels me to attempt to pass that on.
       Reading up on the subject of charging for classes I have come across a few people experiencing similar issues. They offer classes cheaply and people willingly go to the more expensive training areas. I am sure some of you have experienced the same thing, so what did you do? Just start charging more? If so, what about your students that you either weren't charging at first or were charging much less for?

Where to begin...again

           It's been a long time true believers. Three years in fact. I've moved from Washington to Texas to Colorado in that time. Currently I am living in Trinidad, CO (near the New Mexico border) and am teaching Judo at a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy. I have gotten WAY out of practice in Aikido and Judo, a fact which was emphasized this past weekend at Pat's Aiki Buddy Gathering.
          The ABG was great, met some new people, one of which used to follow my blog "hey, didn't you used to write that training blog, Johndo?" and if he's reading this, please comment with a link to your training blog and I'll put it up.
          Teaching at the BJJ place has been great, while having many challenges. First off, I felt like having to defend my views of Judo as a viable martial art since most Judo guys don't do enough newaza to really make progress against a martial art that specializes in it. Secondly, BJJ historically comes from Judo as Maeda taught the Gracies. Hearing things like "well Judo emphasized strength so the Gracies had to modify techniques for leverage because Helio was so frail used to get under my skin. Kano was around 5'2 and weighed 90 lbs and Mifune was around 5'2 and 100 lbs so there is little evidence they were using strength based techniques. I can not argue however that the spirit of BJJ is something to envy. These guys train 3-5 days a week, about 2 hours a class, sometimes two classes a day and have a blast. They kicked my butt the first day (although moving up to a mile high in altitude, not having done Judo in years, and being out of shape didn't help me). As I'm (slowly) getting back into my groove I am seeing how the basic ground positions we emphasize are overlooked by them and the the guard/mount relationship maybe Judo guys don't spend enough time on.
         I have also after much tossing gotten some of them to stop standing in a wrestler's stance and stand upright when throwing. That continues to be an uphill battle as the teacher keeps using that stance. When he does randori (they call it rolls) with me, he grabs a sleeve or anything he can get and throws a foot up to put on my hip and falls dragging me to the ground. I need an exercise to practice at home to counter that and get him to stop using that crutch. Well this is getting long, if you took the time to read all this, thank you. If not, I don't blame you. I will (at a few requests) start posting 3 times a week after each BJJ class. Any tips/suggestions/anecdotes/etc would be welcome.
                                                                                -John

This is WAY overdue

So the experiment failed...mostly due to lack of planning on how to actually load the videos on my part. For that, I apologize. I moved my mats over to mine and Andy's new apartment and we went over Honasu a few times. I don't know why, but this time I felt like doing Honasu over Nijusan, which almost never happens. Andy was going over the 2nd wrist release and mentioned that Pat had been showing him that you can either drop down uke in the hole (for more info go to www.mokurendojo.com), or that you can swing around like a door opening. I remembered something Bryce told me about a key to Judo being able to keep a little bit of tension to lead and follow with, but that slightest bit of tension needing always be there. I tried applying that to Honasu, especially number two, and to my surprise, it made all the difference for me in the world. Instead of dropping in the hole, I gave a LITTLE bit of tension then eased off and as uke came forward I re-established the tension after uke was SLIGHTLY more off-balance. I really need to get a camera. Typing this out doesn't do justice to what I'm trying to say.

Videos

ok, our NEW SITE on BLOGSPOT makes it easier to post videos. The first video is up, and the rest will be tonight. We did not in face practice today due to trying to fix the videos from day one, lol. So to make up for it, tomorrow will be two hours and we'll probably do two hours the next day as well. Follow the new site, we're going to make a post at the wordpress one to redirect people there.

There's more

So yesterday we had our first hour of practice and recorded it...only we're having trouble posting it. It's an avi and even compressing it into an mp4 it'll take over 4 hours to post to any site. We're going to try posting it from the University to get day one up there. Does anyone have any suggestions for an easy way to get the video up there efficiently that we could do daily?

To anyone who checks here anymore

So me and Andy have started a new project now that he's up here in Washington state with me. It's called the JAproject. The idea is me and Andy will be practicing for at least one hour every day on two for a year and filming it. We will post a video of one hour every day (and two hours if we miss a day) on this new site. I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback from ANYONE interested.

Last Class

Ok, I've been putting off writing about my last class because it was pretty straightforward. We went over Tegatana with a notepad and pen to make SURE the steps were understood, then went over Honasu again and again until class was over. The last class was fairly short.
Something happened after class that warrants at least a mention. I was talking with a friend of mine about how his Aikido training was going and he commented lately he has no one to do it with. My natural response is "Oh, well train someone then you have a partner." My friend then told me he doesn't think he has what it takes to actually TEACH Aikido.
I think there are a lot of common misconceptions about teaching. I know I had quite a few in Orlando when I started teaching Rob. First off, you can't expect to teach everything. You can only teach what you do know. Tell your prospective student that, straight off the bat. I don't know know everything, but what I'm sure of, I'll tell you. When you're not sure of something, tell them that too. This is my interpretation of what happens, but only what I think. I've noticed over the past year that my interpretation of something when I explain it to Pat isn't always the same as his, but they both could be "correct" based on what we feel is happening.
After getting over that barrier, remember that teaching someone else something teaches you too, maybe even more than they learn from you. In Aikido (and again, this is just what I think), you learn the moves from your teacher so you can copy them when they may or may not feel natural at first. Then, they feel natural and you just start doing them, likely forgetting HOW you're doing them in the process. It doesn't end there. When you teach someone, you re-learn HOW you're doing what you're doing so you can show it to someone else, and by re-analyzing your own technique you discover things. I noticed that when I do Gyakugamae ate (the link is the closest pic I could find), I used to spread my arms farther and farther apart. I initially thought that at a certain point it became an arm thing. I noticed when I started teaching Rob, I don't do that anymore. When my arm comes across Uke's face, I turn my hips and rise and fall with my whole body. Sort of a Gedan ate feel. I never would have known I started doing that unless I taught someone else.
In learning new things about your Aikido you also start applying those ideas to different techniques. I prefer doing Mae Otoshi like Gedan Ate only with my foot in front of Uke and using my body push to continue Uke's rise. Sort of like the guy in the Mae Otoshi link, only closer.
Another advantage is by teaching Aikido to someone who doesn't know it, you get to really practice honasu (the wrist releases) with someone who has not idea what it is supposed to look like, so their resistance is genuine. They won't move for you, so you REALLY get a look at where the holes are in your technique. In making them softer, you have to get softer first.
All I'm trying to say in all this, and I WISH I could find the article in that book on my list at the bottom of my page called "Black Belt Korean Karate", is that teaching is not just a part of learning. I've learned SO much from it I think it should be mandatory to teach at least a few classes upon getting an Ikkyu or Shodan rank. It improves your techniques, makes you think in detail about what you're ACTUALLY doing, and if forces patience on you. Also, there's no reward in the world like when a student just "gets it" one day and starts doing Aikido on their own and you pointed the way.

Next to Last Class

Next Tuesday will be my final class at the YMCA in Bremerton, Wa. Since I'm down to one student, I decided this week I would use the class time to go through Tegatana, Honasu, then Junana once. Junana would (I thought) give her a peek at what she would be learning as her training progressed. A few observations I noticed were, I do Sumi-Otoshi much better the Junana way instead of the Nijusan way and I need to work on that. Gedan ate went well, but when we got to Mai Otoshi (I think I spelled that right), I could not remember exactly how to do it. I thought for a second and tried Gedan Ate and intentionally missed the timing and caught Uke on the rise coming forward and an interesting thing happened. Usually when I do get Mai Otoshi I have a feeling of almost catching the back of the elbow and it's a toss or continuation of that forward movement. While the catching Uke going upward and getting that forward feeling, I caught Uke just above the elbow and it felt like the throw, or point affected I should say, was Uke's shoulder. Is that right? Is that still Mai Otoshi?

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.

For Pat...

I was going to post how the past two classes have actually felt more like work than a class, where I've been teaching the same stuff and haven't really seen anything myself. I WAS going to post that, but I did remember something that happened last class where I was going over what we call "the stupid drill" which is going from kote-gaeshi to kote-hineri and back again and I felt something weird. Class was ending and I was feeling sick so I didn't want to explore it then, but I made a mental note of exactly what was happening and decided to further speculate on it later. This morning when deciding to post that I hadn't learned anything new or seen anything, I figured it out.

I know this next part is going to make a lot of people nod their heads (and by a lot, I mean my one reader) and say "well duh!" but it's something that just never really occurred to me and I'd like to voice it. First off, when I do kote-gaeshi, I feel like I'm locking Uke's hip when I do it right. I get the wrist to a point where I control the elbow, then the elbow to a point where it shortens one of Uke's legs, at least that's how it feels to me. With kote-hineri I feel like I control the wrist, then elbow, then the shoulder.

Ok, now that the preliminary explanation of how I feel Uke responding to the two is out of the way, onto the speculative part. When doing the drill, I've usually had trouble transitioning from kote-gaeshi into hineri. What I was doing is when Uke pushes out of kote-gaeshi and I switch hands as uke's arm straightens, I'd extend uke just a little to set the wrist and elbow close to the same time as the arm comes back up. What I noticed is, I don't have to. If I feel the wrist, then elbow, then shoulder/hip locking up as I set it, I can work back down in reverse order during the switch. When Uke pushes out of kote-gaeshi I lose the hip feeling but I have the elbow. As the arm straightens I lose the elbow but I still have the wrist and that is what I've been neglecting. If instead of stretching the arm as I switch hands, I just focus on the continual rotation of the wrist, I lock it down in the opposite direction, which gives me more than enough tension to follow it up through the elbow then to the shoulder. I haven't had a chance to apply it yet, but I just KNOW my kote-hineri has improved a lot just from realizing this, this morning.

There you go Pat, an epiphany, all stemming from a post initially intended to being centered around me feeling like I haven't learned anything the last two classes. I suppose I still have a lot to learn about learning things :P

Ok, ok...so I haven't posted in a while...

There have been complaints from certain people (Sarah Jane) that I haven't update in a while. The reason being that there isn't really anything to report. I've had a single student the past two classes and with me leaving for Bellingham in a month, there's only so much to teach in each class. We've been going over the Aiki-brush off and tegatana almost exclusively. The wrist releases were the subject of the last 20 minutes of this past Tuesday's class. Updated!

A Week Ago at Pat's

This post is one week overdue but I've been doing a lot of traveling. Last week at Pat's I got to meet his new group of students, and we went over a few familiar exercises, mainly waki-gatamae to kote gaeshi and back again. It was extremely hot in the dojo, but there were two new things I learned that I found really interesting. With the eighth wrist release, I always interpreted it as Uke grabbing Tori's wrist then pulling it across his body causing the turning motion. At Pat's well there was almost no resistance from anyone on any wrist releases, but from what I gathered Pat was doing, Uke grabbed Tori's wrist but didn't change anything, Tori just does the turning motion with no prompting. I always thought Uke determined where Tori went, but it felt more like Tori determined where Uke went after Uke grabbed. The most interesting thing though was Gendan ate. I learned in Washington that the timing issue of performing it while moving behind the arm could be fixed by actually stopping your motion for one step making Uke "catch up" and putting him in a perfect position for Gedan ate. Pat had a twist on this where Tori tosses Uke's arm over behind him which twists Uke slowing him down. The end result is Tori and Uke in sync with each other and facing each other and Tori could just push Uke backwards. It's an odd feel. Wish I had a camera to get some footage of it. Maybe later :)