Friday's Class

For starters, class began before I arrived - well actually... I was late for class. Hence, the techniques I'll mention were those covered while I was present.

Okay, today there was a Hamni Hadachi technique from Gyaku Hanmi, namely Shiho Nage. Concept wise, it is similar to the Tachi Waza version, and Uke would do themselves a favour (protect themselves) by not remaining static during the technique (I'm guilty of this one).

We then moved to an interesting technique - Shomen Uchi Sumi Otoshi (Gyaku Hanmi Tachi Waza). How do I describe this one... It begins with a Tenkan to mirror Uke. Uke's hand, the one performing the Shomen is then hooked from underneath and its downward momentum maintained (similar to Kaiten). Once the hand reaches the rear of Uke, Nage turns and using the other hand grabs at the elbow of the same hand Uke is using for Shomen. Nage then uses their whole body to throw Uke down backwards.

Little variation of the above technique results in Shomen Uchi Irimi Nage!

Before I forget, another variation was Shomen Uchi Kote Gaeshi. With this one, Uke's arm must be got on the upward motion at the elbow. If it's on the downward path - it's too late. If not at the elbow - won't work. Nage - keep your upper body upright (another one I need to improve).

By this point, it was time for an interesting part of class - yes... surprise Uke! I'll give a summary of some of the techniques that we were asked to try (all Tachi Waza Gyaku Hanmi):

• Shiho Nage
• Rokkyo
• Nikyo
• Kote Gaeshi
• (basically anything one could remember)
  

With Kokyu Ho, class ended.

Goan Gym, 23rd Feb(Wed.)

We had an interesting array of techniques for this session. First we started with a variation of shihonage from a gyakuhanmi attack. This later turned into a kokyuho technique. The difference is that in the former, the held hand strikes the elbow of the holding hand from inside. With the latter, the strike is from outside with an irimi tenkan. The last technique was one we had never done before: ushirowaza eridori. Imagine a person behind you pointing a weapon at your back. This is the attack. From this we were able to do both shihonage and kokyuho. An interesting twist was added when uke was to hold a bokken. This resulted in some very painful dislodging technique that could easily break the elbow if done correctly, or at least I felt that my elbow was about to snap into several pieces.

Maybe it is worth noting that when a weapon is pointed at you there is no time to do these techniques as leisurely as we were doing them. I seriously think it will take countless hours of practice before anyone can understand the complexities of a technique like eridori.

Anyway, the jo session again was spent practicing the first part of sansho 1. A preview of the second part was shown but since there was not much time left, we had to call it a day at that.

Friday's Class

We reviewed several techniques from Tachi Waza Gyaku Hanmi, namely,

• Kote Gaeshi
• Irimi Nage
• Nikyo
• Rokkyo
• Shiho Nage

Now, there were several forms of the Kote Gaeshi. One was totally new, and involved an initial setup similar to Kaiten Uchi. It's just interesting to see how techniques morph and blend into each other. Variants of Kote Gaeshi exist - just a reminder.

End of class involved the surprising of Uke with the various techniques, which really makes one have to remember them. Of the techniques we were asked to use were those listed above, but included others covered during previous classes and even last year's seminar!

Goan Gym, １月１6日（水）

The basic attack was gyaku hanmi katate dori. From this we were able to go through a number of techniques, the first of which was kokyu nage. I discovered in this one that one has to adapt to uke's movements. I know this is very basic but there are several techniques which give me trouble in terms of connection with uke. Irimi nage immediately comes to mind.

Anyway, next was kote gaeshi. The way i saw it, this was the ura version. And finally the most challenging was uchi kaiten sankyo. This is a rather long combination and we had to break it down in bits to understand it.

The jo session was spent reviewing the first part of sansho? 1. Personally I still can't do simple strikes like kesa with the right distance. My center is also all over the place when handling the jo. Still a long way to go, but I am confident that under Mateusz's guidance we are headed in the right direction.

Goan Gymkhana, ２月１０日（水）

Ai-hanmi sankyo ura version. Possible? Apparently yes. But it is initially very tricky. See, what I have come to appreciate is that the omote versions of aikido are manageable in that one is always in control of his/her 'center'. This is not so easily achieved with ura versions. I don't know what everyones experiences are, though.

Anyway, we also tried ai-hanmi sankyo omote and ai-hanmi yonkyo.

The jo session was spent fine-tuning the first of the 3 jo katas. It is all very basic right now, so there is not much excitement. We are yet to master the basics first.

Friday's Class

Irimi Nage was the order of the day. We covered 3 variations all from Tachi Waza Ai Hanmi Katate Dori. Namely Gedan (high), Jodan (low), and Chudan (middle). Note that I might have mixed up the names but the main concepts of high, middle, and low remain.

With Irimi Nage, there are some key points to remember, ie

• get Uke's head as close as possible to the inner shoulder and as soon as possible
• once Uke is on the ground, Nage is not meant to lift him back up. It is to Uke's advantage to get up as soon as possible, and this is when Nage uses Uke's momentum
• open Uke upwards; not the pushing through which always 'seems' easier

In addition, there was a technique that involved locking Uke's elbow while Uke is still grabbing onto Nage's wrist. This is in Gyaku Hanmi Katate Dori. The technique is then applied by pushing through the arm towards the shoulder; not in any circular movement just straight into the shoulder. As for it's name - not sure - but I'd gladly demonstrate :) By the way, we might have covered it before but from Hanmi Hadachi - it was 'demonstrated' on me - I doubt I'd forget :)

Like last week, with the Rokkyo and Nikyo, class ended with the opportunity to surprise Uke with the 3 forms of Irimi. I really enjoy this part of class as one gets to apply what was learnt during class. Having the option of a couple of techniques, it's interesting, at least for me, to develop the capability of feeling which technique to choose out of many, but more importantly instinctively.

Otherwise, enjoy your week - let's meet on Friday!

Goan Gym, ２月２日（水）

We tried our hand at a number of techniques, beginning with gyaku-hanmi sankyo omote. If you ever get a chance to try this on a flexible lady (am being very formal here, no puns), you experience a whole new set of problems. Its difficult to know exactly how to apply this with some ladies. Of course its much much easier when uke is a stiff partner. Very effective. I watched this Steven Seagal movie (Deadly Crossing) over the weekend and I was so amazed to see him use sankyo on some guy.

Next we reviewed gyaku-hanmi nikyo, followed by rokkyo.

As we have been doing in the last couple of sessions, at the end we are required to remember all these techniques and apply them at our own discretion. This is a nice twist in that it helps one remember the techniques better. For me the hesitation you get when uke attacks is quite puzzling. This is a critical moment because in normal situations uke will not be so nice as to give you time to imagine what you would like to do to them. So, this is what I am working on.

We also had a jo session where we again went through the basics.