Lesson in Patience

Well, I had my test, or rather, my test had me. I went into class with a lot of confidence and mentally prepared, but throughout the class, I felt my concentration start to waver.

I did ok, but felt my form was a little sloppy and I wasn't as focused as I'd like to have been. The test was held at the end of class and while that gave me a chance to practice the forms a bit more, I don't think it helped me mentally. I tried to maintain my focus for a full hour before the test, but that just made it so I couldn't focus during the test.

My kamae (stance) didn't feel strong, and when I did my zenpo kaiten ukemi (forward rolls), I kept drifting off center. This kind of got into my head and I felt awkward for the rest of the test. I was able to relax a bit for the kihon waza (basic techniques) and felt I did alright on that section.

Results on Tuesday...

Next time I have a test, I need to remember not to psych myself up so much and wait until just before the test to sharpen my focus. As long as I put in the training to learn the forms, I can just relax and let my body move naturally, leaving my mind to focus on breathing and mantaining a strong kamae.

More test training

I came into the dojo today and it was empty. "Am I training alone today?" I thought. So I turned on the lights, and started to change, but soon enough, Sao-chan, Oxford, and the guest Black Belt arrived. I wasn't alone after all.

Like the title says, I did more test training today with Sao-chan. She's agreed to be my uke for the test, so it was good to have this opportunity to practice with her before the big event. I was able to get some good advice on the techniques as well as refine my kamae. Overall, a productive class.

I read one of Stumpy's blog entries yesterday and he talked about how important it is to have your own goals in mind while training. Up until now, I focused on what the sensei was trying to teach, and of course, it's important to work on that as well, but while the sensei is setting up a focus for the class as a whole, you can still be working on what you feel is an aspect of your Aikido that you want to improve. It can be something that was pointed out in a previous class, or just something you observed in someone else's Aikido.

I think it was last week as I watched Oxford doing a technique, an iriminage. I noticed how he was keeping his weight forward through the whole technique. When I noticed this, I thought that that's what I need to be doing. It's easy to get lazy and "sit back" during a technique, but keeping your weight forward keeps your momentum moving forward and help keeps the uke off balance. So that's my personal focus for now, to keep my weight, and thus the force of my technique, moving forward.

Test training

Big class today. The General brought some youngins, three kids about 16 years old I think. There was also three of the beginners, a guest black belt, along with the regular crew, 11 students in all, along with 2 sensei. Surprisingly though, the mat didn't feel crowded. Big Drew and I worked on test techniques. Stumpy didn't point out any major flaws, so I guess I generally get it. However, on kata mochi hijishime osae ichi, an elbow lock technique, I still feel my arm movements are awkward during the pivot. I need to make sure I'm holding the arm high against my chest and am standing upright after the pivot. A helpful pointer was to move the uke's hand across my chest on the pivot and don't push it down. I'll try to remember that during the test.

Training for 1st kyu

That's right everybody, I've already started training for 1st kyu. Pretty ambitious, don't you think.

No but actually, today we did 2 advanced techniques, both dai-san I think. The first was suwari waza shomen uchi kotegaeshi, both ichi and ni. I had practiced this technique last Friday night, so I wasn't completely lost, but it's still quite difficult. I haven't even really done much tachi waza kotegaeshi (standing forearm reversal), and suwari waza (sitting technique) just adds another level of difficulty.

The other technique was ushiro eri mochi ikkajo osae. This is another difficult technique and I was seeing it for the first time. We only did the ichi technique, but that was enough. It seems there's a bit of subtlety involved in order to get this technique to work. While uke's holding the back of the collar, shite must pivot under the arm in order to move into position for ikkajo, but while you move under the arm, you still must keep your kamae (as always, right?). Definitely need more practice on this one.

I've got my 9th kyu test at the end of the week, with four different techniques. I'm feeling ok about all four of them at this point. Still a few weak points I'd like to work out, but for the most part I think I'll be ok, at least good enough for 9th kyu criteria.

Back to basics

Well, my first class after vacation and was able to ease back in with a beginner's course class. I was actually the senior student today! Wow!

The General taught the class and had us do a little ab workout to start off, and then we practiced suri-ashi, sliding the feet along the mat when moving. A good aikidoka (Aikido practitioner) never picks his feet up off the mat.

We also practiced pivoting, which then moved us into shumatsu dosa. Shumatsu dosa are two movement patterns with many basic components used in other techniques. Truthfully, the class covered a lot of basics, but all the things covered are important for executing more advanced techniques.

Sankajo and Nikajo

I neglected to write an entry for last Saturday, so today you get two classes in one write up.

Saturday I trained with MG for an hour and a half doing just yokumen uchi sankajo osae 2.　It wasn't nearly as boring as it sounds though. Stumpy was teaching us, bouncing between us and a few students preparing for enbu. I'll tell you what, training with MG is demanding, but really enlightening. MG's a real practical guy when it comes to the techniques and he wants to make every technique work, and not just pretend to have it work. This means breaking the technique down and finding what's effective in each step. And of course he never executes the technique softly, kind of like a mini version of The General. But truthfully, that's the kind of training I really enjoy. So yeah, my wrists hurt but I learned a lot about that technique.

So in today's class Big Andrew, Frenchy and I did katatemochi nikajo osae 2. Frenchy did the beginner's course with me, but has missed quite a few classes, so we spent the time teaching her a few basic things, but everyone got some good training so I can't call it a wasted class. Tried to do nikajo on The General. マジ無理よ！

Dai Ichi

Today the brown belts and two white belts continued to train for the enbu while Lil' Cuba, Big Andrew and I went through the second half of the Dai Ichi techniques. Dai Ichi is the first set of techniques a student should learn, consisting of about 10 different forms. There's also Dai Ni and Dai San. The Ichi, Ni, and San techniques constitute all the techniques necessary for shodan.

This was my first time training with Big Andrew and I was happily surprised. Mostly because his level is somewhat close to mine, but his knowledge of the techniques is a bit better than me, but no so much that I felt like I was a hindrance to his training. Training with some of the browns can make you feel like you're just wasting their time.

As for Lil' Cuba, he walked into the changing room before class and asked if I was doing the beginner's course today.

"The beginner's course was yesterday." I said.

In a quiet voice he said, "Oh."

Poor little guy, he looked so sad.

Beginner's course

Today was the first day of a new beginner's course. There were 3 new students and they were being taught basics by The General. The rest of us broke up into pairs and worked on different techniques with Stumpy helping us in turns. I practiced two different nikajo techniques, katatemochi and katamochi, with a partner, and the other students worked on their enbu (demonstration) techniques. The All Japan Yoshinkan Aikido Enbu is on Saturday, the 15th and a bunch of the students are going to participate. Unfortunately I won't be able to go, I'll be on a beach in Bali at that time. So sad, I know.

One on One

Training one on one with The General is both good and bad. It's great if your doing a nage (throws), but if your practicing elbow locks, hijishime, like we did today, prepare to hurt. He trains and teaches hard. It's great encouragement to move properly as uke. And it also encourages you to try and do the technique with power when he's uke.

Today we practiced katamochi hijishime and ryotemotchi tenchinage. I started to feel pretty good about the hijishime, which is on my next test, but I need a lot more practice on the tenchinage. It's tough because the movements are quite subtle and both hands have to be in sync with each other and with the feet. Luckily this technique isn't on my next test, but will be on the 7th/8th kyu test.

So tomorrow is the first day of the beginner's course, should be interesting.

Trying out Aikikai

Today I went to an Aikikai lesson in Takadababa. The teaching style is a bit different from Roppongi Yoshinkan, but I'm not sure if it's because of the people leading the lesson or because it's Aikikai. There were a lot of experienced older Aikidoka, so finding good instruction wasn't a problem. However the focus, or goal was a bit unclear. There was a lot of standing around, unless you really pushed and found a partner willing to do the same. There's no focus on footwork, which seems a bit strange to me. Techniques start with footwork, don't they.

One thing I felt it did do well was trying to convey a feel for the whole movement. When there's no pausing during the technique, the execution feels a bit more natural. However, for a teaching environment, I felt there was a real lack of formality, something that Yoshinkan really gives. While I'm still learning Yoshinkan, I don't feel it's a good idea to mix the styles. There's a few differences that need to become natural before I would feel comfortable deviating into a different style.