Kangeiko Day 3: Nikkajo

In today's kangeiko class, the focus was on nikkajo. We did some standard techniques, like katate-mochi nikkajo osae 1 and aya-mochi nikkajo osae 2, but mixed in were some difficult nage techniques whose names I can't begin to figure out.

My goal today was to relax the upper body and focus on proper technique when applying the nikkajo lock instead of using muscle. For the most part it worked, with my greatest success coming when my uke, a guy at least eight inches taller than me, decided to resist. In response, I just made my circle bigger and used speed to apply the technique instead of muscle. His gasp of pain and collapse to the mat caused great satisfaction. Of course my satisfaction wasn't from causing pain, but due to being able to apply the lock on a physically stronger uke by using proper technique.

Kangeiko has begun

腿が弱くなった!

After the first day of kangeiko, I'm faced with the obvious fact that I've missed a lot of training over the past few months. My balance is poor, my lines are off, and my muscles tire much too quickly. I'm hoping the next two weeks will help take care of that.

Kangeiko is a 2 week period during winter where class is held every morning, Monday to Friday and students are highly encouraged to attend all 10 days. It's a great way to get back into the rhythm of attending class every day after the New Year break, but even more that that, it's a test of your dedication to training.

Today, being the first day, was shihonage. While I really enjoy working on shihonage, at the same time it's incredibly frustrating. I find it very difficult to find the correct line to bring the uke's balance into my center. I was making an effort to move along a larger circle, and that did seem to help but I'm still nowhere near satisfied with my execution of this technique.

Perhaps if I repeat it a few thousand times...

I'm not dead, I swear

Ah yes, a new year bring new goals and promises to yourself to be a better person. After taking almost all of December off from training, I have it in my mind to be more diligent this year. I have my 1st kyu test to prepare for, and then it's the long march to shodan. But more important than testing or rank is making Aikido part of my daily life again.

It's important to realize that Aikido isn't about spending x number of hours in the dojo to achieve a certain level of proficiency. Instead, to me, Aikido is more about making training a natural part of who you are, where going to the dojo and training seem as natural as a morning cup of coffee or brushing your teeth before you go to bed. Unfortunately, Aikido hasn't been coming naturally to me for the past few months.

I'd like to get back to the point where Aikido is just something I do naturally and not feel that it's a struggle to get to the dojo. Here's to making a New Year's goal a reality.