Friday's Class

From the beginning... We began with stretching and warm up exercises, which are really important. With all the joint movements that we do it's something that I've learnt to take seriously. Next came the ukemi. Again we began with the basics and progressed to the full versions both front (mae) and back (ushiro). Another important aspect of warm up.

Okay, by now you must be interested in knowing what techniques we covered...

• Tenchi Nage (Omote & Ura)
• some form of Irimi Nage (at least what it seemed to me)

For the Tenchi Nage, we were taken through the building blocks of the technique; from the single hand movements then integrating both to give the technique. Same with the Irimi Nage. Important point to remember for the latter is to go underneath the arm in order to protect oneself from Uke's elbow. With the Ura version of the Tenchi Nage, once the turn is complete, the direction of the throw is dependent on the position of Uke after the turn.

Well, that more or less covers the day's lesson.