Painless Hiji-ate

In this week's early morning class, we've been working on hiji-ate, a throw using pressure on the uke's elbow and shoulder to propel them forward. Before this week, I didn't like this technique as I felt it was using pain to induce the uke to move. However, it turns out there is a "painless" way to do this throw.

Before the throw, apply a little pressure into the shoulder with the hand holding the wrist, with the uke's elbow in the crook of shite's elbow. Then move the knee and hips forward to get the uke to start moving. When the uke starts moving, follow with the legs, either stepping or shuffling. Finally, near the end of the movement, snap your arm so the elbow accelerates the uke forward and down. When rotating the arm, be sure to rotate the elbow into your center, resulting in the uke being thrown not parallel to your movement, but instead across your center.

Doing this correctly results in not so much pressure on the uke's elbow, but a greater movement of the uke's balance into your center. Now to turn this theory into practice.

Osu!

Well timed break

I know missing a day of training is a frowned upon in budo, and to miss a day of the 10-day Aikido-a-thon that is Shochugeiko is even more of a faux pas, but I must say that skipping class yesterday was really good for me.

I've been getting battered from a couple different angles, monotonous work, daily training in the summer heat, and finally my bike getting stolen, so I took yesterday off from both training and played hooky from work to complete unwind and chill at home. I took the opportunity to do some light house work, watch a few shows I've downloaded, do some reading at a coffee shop, etc.

And getting up this morning, I could really feel a difference, not so much physically, but mentally. My outlook was fresher and more optimistic, and at the dojo, I felt faster, smoother and not so tense. I still found difficulties to work through, but I was ready to apply myself fully.

There's one more Shochugeiko class tomorrow morning, and after a Friday and Saturday evening classes, the dojo's closed for a week. After the vacation, I start test training for 4th-kyu, the last white belt rank. Bring it on!

Osu!

Am I getting worse?

It seems that no matter what your level of Aikido is, maintaining focus is paramount. During training, you can't allow your mind to be elsewhere, otherwise it becomes quite obvious, to the uke, to the Sensei, and most importantly, to yourself.

Today, I was merely making my way through the techniques. Instead of concentrating on my movements, my mind was unfocused, as were my techniques. There is a part of me focusing on the technique and working on doing it right, but I just feel that my Aikido edge is a little blunt right now. I'm not thinking about using my hips, or staying in kamae, or the other hundred details that can and should be concentrated on while training.

I've heard other people talk about Aikido improving in spirals, where there are times they feel their movements are crisp and their techniques are strong; and then there are times when they feel slow and weak. I think I'm at a weak point now. But like a baseball player working through a slump, I just have to keep at it, and eventually I'll hit my stride again.

Shochugeiko, day 4

We're four days into Shochugeiko, with today's technique being sankajo.

In the early morning class, we looked at shomen uchi sankajo osae II in depth, focusing on the strike, pivot and entry into the sankajo lock. Sensei emphasized the importance of the circle that uke's wrist makes, starting with the strike, moving down a little as shite pivots, bring the arm back, and then the wrist moves back up as the sankajo lock is applied. Easy, right?

My goal for Shochugeiko

Today was the second day of Shochugeiko (暑中稽古), or mid-summer training. For 10-days over the two hottest weeks of the year, our dojo challenges the students to train every morning. We did eight ikkajo techniques this morning, spending about 5 min on each one.

Last year I was almost a complete novice during Shochugeiko, and so didn't understand most of the techniques. I just tried to mimic what I saw and did my best to keep up. There's not really any time to focus on any technique in depth. This year, I understand a little more but I'm still missing a lot of detail on the techniques. I'm able to mimic the motions well enough, but the techniques don't actually feel like their working.

We have a fair number of beginners doing Shochugeiko and I'm finding this to be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that I can practice the techniques on someone that responds more like some would in a "real" situation, and the curse is that beginners respond without understanding what the shite is doing.

I know that's saying the same thing, but the reason it's good is because an inexperienced uke forces you to be more sure of your balance and movements than an uke who knows what you're going to do next. At the same time, an inexperienced uke has trouble blending with the shite, making the learning process for shite more difficult. The uke will put up more resistance, and personally, I find myself resorting to powering through the technique when I feel uke's resisting too much. Finding the "no-power" line in the technique is tough when you know you can get through the technique by applying a little muscle.

My goal for the rest of the week, "no-power" Aikido. Relax the shoulders, sink my weight into my center, and keep my energy forward.

Osu!

Saturday Night Special

It's been another good week of training, with me being able to attend every class this week. I'm still pretty wiped after two hours of training in the morning 3 days a week, but I can already feel my body getting used to it. But I'll be glad when the heat isn't such an issue.

Tonight Saori ran the class, as both Sensei were unable to attend and it was a great class. The four people who came each chose a technique and we did ikkajo, sankajo, shihonage, and kotegaeshi. We mostly did shomen and yokomen uchi, along with the suwari waza counterpart, but for the sankajo, we did ushiro ryotemochi sankajo osae I & II. I had only practiced this technique maybe once, and it's nice to train on techniques I don't know so well.

A frustrating thing about kotegaeshi, when turning the uke's hand to move into the kotegaeshi, right before the throw, I can conceptualize the correct movement, and at times I feel I have pieces of the movement correct, but I have yet to feel I have the uke locked before the throw. Tonight I tried to connect the movement of my hips with my arm, hand, and into the uke, but I think I need a full class on just that part of kotegaeshi.

So many flaws, and so little time to fix them. See you on the mat. Osu!

Summer has arrived

I started attending the early morning class last week and this combined with the rising temperature and accompanying humidity had me pretty wiped out by the end of the week. However, I did make it to all but the Friday morning class, making a total of 9 hours of training last week. Not bad.

The Friday and Saturday night classes were really enjoyable. In spite of being incredibly hot and humid in the dojo, both classes were fast paced and with more focus on fluidity and speed, obviously an essential element in Aikido. Friday night we worked on yokomen jiyuwaza techniques, shihonage, ikkajo, katatemochi and udegarami. In Saturday's class, we worked on katatemochi techniques, the first being a kokyu-ho, followed by strange, shihonage-based technique.

I really need to work on my flips, if only to use less energy when taking uke repeatedly. I'm so jealous when watching someone talented flipping and getting back to their feet. It looks like it takes no effort at all.