Enbu Training

All week, the focus in class has been practicing for the our dojo's enbu (martial arts exhibition) in about three weeks. There are several demonstrations to the enbu, with different people participating in the different sections. Some of the simpler demonstrations are coming together quite well, but the more difficult and involved ones haven't really been worked on that much, mostly because of scheduling conflicts. The people involved just don't train at the same time.

But I'm really looking forward to showing some of my friends exactly what it is that I do every morning before work. When they ask, I show them nikajo or kotegaeshi and talk about blending with your attacker, but talk is cheap and it doesn't really get the point across. Some would say that even by watching Aikido, you can't understand what it is; you have to get on the mat and actually try it out. Which is why I'm glad there's a audience participation section of the enbu, where the Sensei will teach a technique to anyone who wants to try it out.

But until then, I have a lot of training to do to get myself ready.

Osu!

Coming back in style

R Sensei is back from Korea, and he sure let us know it. We had a non stop class starting with kihon dosa renzoku, translated as continuous basic movements. We then went through the entirety of dai ichi kihon waza, the first set of basic techniques. There are about 30 techniques and we did them all, left and right side in about 30 minutes. The entire class was sweating and tired by the end, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

I feel I did pretty well, and while of course there were a few techniques I messed up or just faked my way through, I was able to keep up for the most part. I'm not sure how the rest of the class did, since I did all I could just to focus on myself and my partner.

There were 8 people in class, making 4 pairs and I was lucky enough to train with a former shodan. Former because he hasn't trained in 5 years and chooses not to wear his black belt. It seams he wants to get his confidence back before accepting the weight and responsibility of a black belt. I suppose I can understand that, but at what point do you decide to re-don your black belt once you've taken it off? Maybe Sensei will give him a mock shodan test.

Switching into high gear

Last night's class felt a little different for some reason. It's a funny thing that when training with the same group of people, a certain atmosphere can develop among everyone in the dojo. In last night's class, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement that everyone was going to train fast and hard, and with no prompting from Stumpy, we did. So much so that just 15-20 minutes into the class, everyone was getting winded, but no one slowed down. To take advantage of this, I tried to do the techniques without too much pausing, instead working on moving through the techniques fluidly yet still maintaining control of the uke. I didn't want to rush through the techniques, but instead move quickly enough that the uke never had time to recover their balance. I had limited success, but it still felt good to alter the focus a little.

Greater Expectations

Great news, all five students who tested Saturday passed, with myself attaining the exalted rank of 6th kyu (note the sarcasm please). I felt it was a good test and I was pretty confident through the whole thing.

The feedback I got from the Sensei after the test was good as well. R Sensei pointed out that I'm not keeping my knees flexible throughout the techniques and I allow my center to come up as I move forward. This is something I've been working on in my kihon dosa, but I need to be conscious of this as I do my techniques as well. I basically need to remember to move through my knees as I move forward.

After completing this last test, I feel like I'm approaching the intermediate level of training. For example, the curriculum for the next test includes hiyaku ukemi (flying forward flips), as well as kotegaeshi. Up until now, doing hiyaku ukemi has been a novelty, preparing for the time when I'll be expected to be able to perform them well. However, now that time has arrived. I am at the level where I'm expected to be able to flip. I suppose it's good I've already been exposed to flipping, but I'm far from confident. I did a few after class this morning and I felt pretty comfortable doing them, however I did scrape my head along the mat on one of the flips, which is a big no-no. If you do that when someone's really throwing you, you're setting yourself up for a serious injury.

The next event to look forward to is our dojo's annual embu (演武, or martial arts exhibition) in April. We worked on a weapons enbu during the last gashuku, but there's still a lot of work to be done to prepare. But it should be a lot of fun showing people why I get up so damn early every morning.

Osu!