Weekend jiyuwaza

Had a couple of great evening classes over the weekend (...and incidentally were both followed by a couple of really fun parties). Friday night, Tokita Sensei went through 4 different katatemochi kokyu nage techniques, and kept us going the whole class. He showed us the first one, had us practice it, showed us the next throw, and then had us chain them together, jiyuwaza-style. After that, he tacked on another 2 throws in the same style.

This gave the whole class, even us white belts, a chance to feel like we were effectively doing jiyuwaza without having to pause and think of a technique. I felt that even though my throws weren't terribly effective, I was able to practice moving fluidly through a number of techniques.

On Saturday, Roland Sensei ran us through a very similar class. The techniques were again taught jiyuwaza style, but this time they were a little longer and more complicated. The first was another kokyunage, but with two different finishes. The next was aya-mochi jujinage, again with two different finishes.

Both classes were really high energy and lots of fun. I love walking out of the dojo knowing I left nothing in the tank.

Enbu

With the enbu finally finished, this morning was back to training as normal. We did a simple shihonage class, katatemochi shihonage I and II. Roland Sensei made a few good points, like keeping the posture straight during the pivot and not arching back toward the uke. Also I guess I haven't been turning on my toes through the whole turn.

As for the Enbu, it was a great success. Turnout was good and all the feedback I heard from the audience was quite positive, except my girlfriend mocking the way I bow. I think all the students and teachers were happy with how things went.

The final jiyuwaza demos were great to watch. Tokida Sensei and Okamoto-san had a great presentation with quick, powerful execution of the techniques. Another highlight of the jiyuwaza section was when Bryce neglected to block a punch from Roland Sensei during yokomen uchi juyuwaza and got a good sized lump between his eyes for it. Incidentally, I saw a video of Roland Sensei's 3rd-dan test, where he broke his uke's nose doing the same entry. At least there wasn't any blood this time.

Where's the grace?

For the past few weeks, students, and sometimes the Sensei, have been practicing jiyuwaza (freestyle techniques) after class. Last Friday I took uke (attacker) for Roland Sensei, and had a terrible time of it. It was ryotemochi (grabbing both hands), and after just a few throws, I was getting confused, grabbing the wrong hand and doing sloppy flips.

Today was a bit different. I'm not saying my uke today was stellar, but it was a marked improvement over last Friday. The attack was yokomen, and my uke was much cleaner and my flips better. Perhaps I wasn't so worried about taking uke this time, or maybe I wanted to make up for embarrassing myself last time.

However directly after I took uke for Sensei, he had me take uke for David, a brown belt. I hung in there and David threw me seven or eight times. But after that, Sensei called out "Shite uke kotae!" ("Shite and uke switch!"). At this point I was dead tired and couldn't think of any techniques. But I ran on instinct and just tried to let my body remember some of the jiyuwaza techniques I've practiced before. I went through four or five throws before I had to start repeating the same techniques. I think I made some up along the way as well.

Roland Sensei gave me some good advice about doing ukemi in such a way as to be able to get to my feet earlier. If I keep my legs straight and slow down the flip, I can then use my arm to both cushion my fall and push myself back up again. Right now I turn quickly in the air and just kind of crash into the mat and it takes a lot of time and energy to get back up. I basically need to introduce grace to my ukemi because right now, there's a severe shortage.

One week to go

We've reached the one week countdown to the enbu next weekend. We had a special training session yesterday morning and did a run through of most of the demonstrations. Everything seems to becoming together nicely. The techniques look good and the groups are pretty well synchronized on the movements. Of course there are areas that can be improved, and a few details to iron out, but no one seems worried about performing their demos in front of a crowd.