Fixing the small things

Started off class today with kihon dosa (basic movements), with Stumpy giving some good pointers and refinements. I felt pretty clumsy this morning during shumatsu dosa and kept messing up the suriashi (sliding the feet along the mat).

After that worked on some 7th/8th kyu test techniques with Oxford. We did katatemochi shihonage I, yokomen uchi sankajo osae II, and suwariwaza ryote mochi kokyu ho I.

One great insight for the shihonage was a) hook the uke's wrist to keep it in place, don't try to lock it in place with power and b) during the pivot, of course use the hand on the uke's wrist to maintain contact with the "free" hand, but also push back toward the uke with that free hand. It's not necessary to extend the uke's arm out during th pivot as I previously thought.

For kokyu ho on the final movement, it seems it's ok to bend over a lot to get the uke to fall back.

Overall a good day with lots of minor corrections and hints to keep in mind for the future.