At the Embassy

Today’s class was again quite amazing. I learnt for the first time that most of the techniques we do in tachi-waza can also be done in suwari-waza. I always saw Mateusz demonstrate a technique in suwari-waza whenever shorter people complained that it is hard to practice aikido with tall people, but I never gave it much thought until today. Ok, I won’t mention names but there is one particular tall guy who I could not perform a certain technique with. Hmm…

But first we did shiko, whereby one turns on his knees just like when standing. At first it wasn’t so bad but then things got real hot with most of us really grazing our knees and hands. Woe unto those who didn’t have proper gi.

Anyway, we first did ikkyo-omote-suwari-waza, after which we did ikkyo-ura-suwari-waza. Then just to relate things, we did the same techniques in tachi-waza. Next was shomen-uchi-ikkyo-omote. The only difference with this was the attack, which had to be shomen-uchi from suwari-waza. Then due to time, we finished with shomen-uchi-kote-gaeshi-ura.

If I remember correctly, we did all this techniques in ai-hanmi stance. Since we spent most of the one hour on our knees, it didn’t seem as short as it normally does. And besides, we have quite a number of bruises to show for it.

All in all, it was a pretty interesting session. Next session is Tuesday at the Aga Khan Sports Club. See you there!