Friday,26 August 2011 session at the Japan Information and Cultural Centre 'dojo'

I wonder if I am the only one but two hours of Aikido seem to fly so fast nowadays.Anyway last Friday we had a Kohai by the name of Yassin.

The first hour by Daniel Sempai consisted of warm up exercises followed by Ushiro and Mae Ukemi from Suwari Waza not forgetting the exercise whereby one attempts to lead the other down the imaginary triangle thus distabilising his balance.

In the second hour,Sensei took over and we began with Soto Kaiten Nage Omote and the Soto Kaiten 'stretch' whereby one stretches the other until he taps out.

There was also Soto Kaiten Kata gatame and I must say I found it quite a challenge bringing down Uke but I hope to perfect that in the sessions to come.

Other techniques of the day which were mainly from the Shomen Uchi attack were:Iriminage,Kokyu Ho,Tenchi Nage,Kata Gatame and Sumi Otoshi and Gyaku Hanmi Rokyo.In Shomen Uchi Sumi Otoshi,Sensei stressed the importance of Tori keeping the arms straight when going for Uke's elbow.

I must say Gyaku Hanmi Rokyo made me sweat especially pinning Uke's elbow under my armpit but finally I managed to execute the technique.To top it up all there was the back stretch commonly refered to as Haishin Undo.......Great class!

Advanced class

Pointers;(1.) When doing yonkyo, keep your movements forward to give uke no time to counter. This means keeping uke occupied all the time, which is easier said than done.
(2.) In the same vein, the grip is important. First, you have no time to change grips, so make sure you hold tight. Next, hold very close to the wrist, just like you hold a sword. Uke's hand becomes the handle, while the part of the arm between the wrist and the elbow becomes the blade. (3.) Make sure uke's arm is vertical just before doing the cut. (4.) Make the cut decisive and convincing. In order to do this, you have to make sure that uke's elbow ends up pointing downwards. (5.) In regards to shomenuchi kokyuho, move in with your whole body, and keep your movements forward to avoid tripping uke on your knee. (6.) Lastly, the more relaxed you are, the easier the movements.
Techniques: gyakuhanmi katatedori yonkyo omote and ura, gyakuhanmi katadori kokyunage, gyakuhanmi katatedori katagatame, shomenuchi kokyunage, and ryotedori kokyunage omote.
Comments: To be very honest, I didn't manage to move my body correctly enough to do yonkyo. I think i have the motion in my head, but my body just doesn't respond appropriately.
Weapons(Jo); We reviewed what we did last time and added the last of the kesa techniques. I won't go into names since i am quite sure none of us remembers even a simple one like, say Kesa uchi no.1. Of course maki otoshi no.1 doesn't count because we have done it countless times for it to be permanently etched in our memories.

Beginners class at Goan gym

From aihanmi katatedori attack, we were able to revisit nikyo (omote and ura), yonkyo omote and iriminage omote. We finished off with shomenuchi kokyunage, which is very difficult because it requires perfect timing, and also very taxing for uke due to the element of collision. By this i mean the idea of both uke and tori attacking at the exact same time.
Challenges included the yonkyo cut. Most of us (maybe even all of us) have a problem when it comes to leading uke's arm down. The cut is just never convincing enough, and apparently there are some very honest guys who will reverse the technique on you if you are this sloppy. The other major challenge was the timing for kokyunage, just as i have mentioned above.
An important tip for beginners would be; try to find your center (not my words). This is also not easy since most of the times i (having practised for almost 2 years now) am all over the place, but at least by now i have an idea of where my center is. Trust me, it helps to locate it.

Advanced Class at Goan Gym

This time the attacks were varied. Starting us off was gyakuhanmi kokyunage, which was a review of what we have been doing the last several classes. Then we moved to ushiro ryote dori attack, from which tori had the option to do shihonage or kotegaeshi. Of course the conditioning exercise for this is ushiro ryokatadori, and it is neither easy for tori nor for uke, because timing is crucial. The last technique of the day was aihanmi ikkyo from an ura kind of attack. This means using the funakogi undou movement to counter uke's attack. One thing i have to mention was that in the middle of class we had this conditioning exercise where we played lets pretend. We were soldiers on the field, and were taught various ways of behaving while on the ground. Anyone guess who the last man standing was? Anyway, after this exercise, we were effectively tired. Tired enough such that when doing a technique, brute force will not help. So much for that. Personally i was beat, and i realised how soft i have allowed myself to become, especially after my uchideshi experience.
Weapons class was dedicated to bokken, where we revisited ichinotachi and shohatto. In general, it was a tiring, eye-opening, sweaty, painful and confusing class.

Beginners' class

Attack; gyakuhanmi katatedori
Techniques; shihonage omote, uchikaiten sankyo omote, sotokaiten sankyo omote.
Emphasis; Necessity for tori to move, since very little (or no movement at all), has little effect on uke. Also, it was pointed out that when doing atemi, a fist is more effective than an open hand. It is equally important for tori to feel in control, otherwise there is no point for all this fuss, classes, and so on.
There was also hanmihandachi shihonage. With this technique it is easy to leave oneself open to a counter-attack by leaving hands behind when doing the shihonage turn. Knowing this, i know where to concentrate my efforts.

@ Embassy 12 Aug 2011

Really sorry for posting this late.
The ukemi we did was mainly gyaku ukemi, then followed by a brief ai-hanmi ikyo ura and omote in suwari waza. Was shocked to learn that suwari waza is easier than tachiwaza???

Then we did a kind of opening using tenkan, and out of this the techniques covered were kote gaeshi, irimi nage, kokyunage, kokyuho, shihonage, and my favourite a kind of lock that leaves uke gasping for air (locally referred to as Ngeta )

A good back stretch summarised the whole session.

Beginners' class

Attack: gyakuhanmi katatedori
Techniques: various forms of kokyunage, shihonage, kotegaeshi and kiriotoshi.
Points to note: (1.) We should strive to cultivate fluidity in our movements. This is one of the ways we can come to appreciate the use of aikido in 'the streets'.
(2.) 2 ways of dealing neutralising an ura attack (when uke pushes against tori) were shown; either stiffly force it, or relax and move correctly.
(3.) The above can also be applied in kotegaeshi. You can painfully force uke down, or gently guide them downwards with the correct grip.
(4.) With kiriotoshi, it is important for tori to realise where uke will naturally fall. This will help tori move out of the way of uke's fall, hence avoiding injury.

@ Embassy Friday 5 Aug 2011

The ukemis were practised to some extend this Friday. Mae, Ushiro, Gyaku and the strangest of them all.... Yoko!!

Due to presence of quite a number of beginners, we stuck to the 'basic' techniques gyaku hanmi kote gaeshi, aihanmi kokyunage, gyaku hanmi Irimi nage, Uchi kaiten, the two compositions of tenchi nage, i.e the first one stand in aihanmi, and push uke to his weak spot, and the second one aihanmi and move like you are going to punch, slap, scratch uke's face. Uke should not let tori reach his face. Then finally combine the two and do Tenchi nage!

We also did  a bit of stomach exercises for noise making in the dojo.

Session ended with a massage session, niiiiice :)

wonderment

Wonder what guys were upto on Friday...

Wednesday Class at Goan Gym

Attack; aihanmi katatedori
Techniques; shihonage,kokyunage,kotegaeshi and iriminage.
Bokken; ichi-no-tachi review
Next time; Sansho one (Jo)

Monday Class

Attack; Gyakuhanmi katatedori
Techniques; Ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo and yonkyo (both omote and ura).
Others; aihanmi katatedori kotegaeshi, gyakuhanmi katatedori shihonage and this interesting version of what i think is kokyunage, but looks like a 2-handed nikyo.

@ Embassy 29 July 2011

First of all, two things: Four beginners in today's class including little David, how many will remain? Time will tell.
Secondly, Sarah has a Gi!! sparkling white, guess the message on her  red T-shirt didn't work :)
Back to training issues, ushiro ukemi was the starting point after the usual warm-ups proving that more work still need to be done!

First technique was gyaku hanmi katate-dori  kokyunage which was done to almost perfection apart from the usual things which Sensei keeps drumming to our heads, DON'T do the technique with hands behind your back and STRETCH uke to make it uncomfortable for him!!

Then followed gyaku hanmi katate-dori kotegaeshi. In kotegaeshi, some things can't be stressed enough, such as don't raise uke's hand when almost completing the technique, and step back to give uke space to fall!!
Now the technique that seems hard for me to perform on some guy in the dojo (name withheld) is gyaku kotegaeshi. seems am not the only one with this problem.

Another technique was sankyo in which one is required to 'cut' towards uke's centre, a thing to keep in mind

Uchi kaiten was probably the last technique to be practised, fairly well done and finally, in uchi kaiten just before the throw by tori, he would go to the other side of uke and stretch his hand backwards, this was just a stretching exercise in itself.