Shochu-geiko: day 10

Finished!! Shochu-geiko is over. Not that it was real tough, but after 12 days straight of training, perhaps a few days of rest are in order.

Todays class was kokyunage. It seems to be the technique of turning your hand to blend with the uke's force and take their balance. It was pretty interesting, but all suwariwaza. My knees were complaining pretty loudly near the end.

Shochu-geiko: day 9

One more day of Shochu-geiko. Getting through it has been easier than I expected. Getting up at 5am every morning has become routine and I've been winning the battle at night by getting to bed by 11pm.

Today The General ran the class with kotegaeshi and tenchinage. I had a really tough time with hiyaku ukemi (flying flips) today. I still can't land correctly. I always end up landing either feet first, or flat on my lower back, and that hurts. My neck is also a bit stiff, so I guess I need to make sure it's tucked when flipping. I did have one or two flips near the end that weren't so bad. I think what I need to do is have someone throw me like 10 times in a row in order to get really good at it.

one...more...day...

Shochu-geiko: day 8

Wow, good day. I came into class feeling slow and lead-footed, and that feeling lasted past warm-ups and into the first few techniques. I eventually loosened up and by the end of class felt pretty good and was going through the new forms feeling pretty comfortable. We did hijishime and hijiate today at a pretty good pace, going through 5 or 6 techniques in the hour. The thing I found most difficult about these techniques was moving the arms into the correct position for the lock or throw.

Lil' Cuba came today, but spent he class training separately with The General while Stumpy ran the class. I feel bad that The General has to waste his time with him, but having a student train with him really slows things down. Overall, a good solution.

What's wrong with Lil Cuba? He moves very strangely and doesn't understand how Aikido works. Maybe he'll get better after some more training, but we'll see.

Shochu-geiko: day 7

Today was shomen iriminage. Generally it's a pretty basic technique, and seems like it'd be really useful in jiyuwaza. I felt my movements were fluid today, exect in suwariwaza. I think I need more practice pivoting in suwariwaza as well as shiko ho.

Shochu-geiko: day 6

Today was sokumen iriminage. Luckily we only had one suwariwaza, katate mochi sokumen iriminage(I). Today's class was taught by Stumpy and I had the chance to practice with The General a few times. Best of all I only had to pair with Lil' Cuba once, and on a very simple technique.

As far as the techniques themselves, I need to remember to enter deeper into the uke, hip-to-hip. Other than that I felt I did OK considering my unfamiliarity with the techniques.

Tomorrow is shomen iriminage. Should be fun.

What am I talking about?

This'll be an attempt to record my thoughts on my Aikido training at a Yoshinkan dojo here in Tokyo. I've now been practicing for 3 months and passed my first test to 10-kyu.

First I'll talk a little about my dojo. It's a small dojo in Roppongi with mostly foreigner students in addition to the two foreigner sensei (That's The General in the picture). But for that's enough explanation. I'm sure more details will come out as I write.

Last nights class was taught by Stumpy, and the students were S, D, and Lil' Cuba, in addition to myself. We did some flipping and basic jiyu-waza practice. I'm the one that requested the flipping practice because I still feel quite uncomfortable with it. I'd like to get to the point where I feel "graceful" when flipping (or being flipped). I think I'll have to go through lot of pain before that happens.

That's it for today. I've got a another class tonight, taught by The General, and I'm sure it'll be just the way I like it, intense.