After Easter break; 2012年4月１１日

Conditioning
Gyakuhanmi katatedori – tenchinage(one-handed) ; movement is like nukitsuke and uke’s weak point (triangle) should be taken into account. It is easy to get carried away and either move sideways, or in uke’s firm position.

The aihanmi game, both with holding hands and just by keeping contact alone with eyes closed. Again, all basics apply. There are several ways of winning. One is to counter with iriminage, hence hands go forwards towards opponent’s face. Two is the normal way, i.e. towards the weak point. Three is a kind of counter attack where as opponent pushes forward, you reverse your hands and keep pushing them in the very same direction they are pushing. Four is tricky because it requires you to pull opponent towards you and down behind you. But this will not work on skilled opponents.

Gyakuhanmi katatedori – tenchinage(one-handed) with tainotenkanho opening ; again basics apply. After opening with normal tai no tenkan ho, you need to step back and bring uke down on their weak (triangle) point. Again it is easy to get carried away and take uke too far from their weak point.

Techniques
Gyakuhanmi katatedori sotokaitennage (with tainotenkanho opening) - Opening is with tai no tenkan ho. Tricky bit is what to do after this. There are 2 things depending on uke’s commitment to attack. If it is a commited one, uke will keep contact as you control elbow and do the kaiten movement. However, if it is a lazy attack, it is necessary to grab uke’s keikogi at the elbow and force them to do the kaiten movement.

Hanmihandachi katatedori sotokaitennage – movement is exactly same as above. If you manage to bring uke down with the tai no tenkan ho movement, it becomes easy because you can stand before them as you execute the kaiten. However, if uke remains up even after opening, then its necessary to grab keikogi at elbow and force them into the kaiten.

Aihanmi katatedori nikyo ura (with ushiro tenkan opening) – since this is ura technique, a second tenkan is necessary after the first one. The trailing leg hence moves twice in the same direction, pivoting on the front leg.

Hanmihandachi katatedori uchikaitennage – open uke by raising grabbed hand using the wrist movement. With atemi as distraction, move with kaiten into the opening created, so that you end up standing while doing the kaiten, then proceed as usual.

Extras
As an exercise, tori initiates aihanmi attack in form of a hand strike towards uke’s eyes. As uke instinctively moves hand up to cover face, tori grabs said hand and does an ikyo ura movement. There are many tricky bits in this, one of them being the ability to blend into uke’s movement and grab their hand at the same time as they move it up. Next is the ura movement. Without proper tenkan it is impossible. Also there is the natural tendency to forget your center and pull, rather than lead, uke. Hence with experienced uke, this exercise will be quite a daunting task.

Another exercise was how to execute sankyo from aihanmi ura attack, using an ushirotenkan opening. I really don’t know how to explain this one, but I remember one caution. After the opening, uke can strike tori with elbow if the former stays in place. Hence even with the complicated hand change taking place, tori should keep moving all the time.

Jo session
Conditioning
We had warm-up, followed by the jo kata (my words) that involves all the jo basic movements. It goes something like; tsuki, barai, tsuki, migi kesa, hidari kesa, migi shomen uchi, tenkan, makiotoshi, finishing with some sort of kaiten movement to grab jo in readiness for another round.
Sansho1
Then we had a review of sansho 1. After such a short period of time without practicing, it was a pathetic attempt from me, but somehow we managed to remember just the form, even if the whole thing is still very sloppy. I wonder how many hours of practice are needed to drum this kata into the head…

Iaido session.
Basics for nukitsuke and noto were once again explained. Then there followed a practical application of this with different feet movements, namely, right leg forward, left leg forward, left leg backward and right leg backward. Shomen uchi was added to this sequence, and it made sense when executed in pairs.
Then we went through Shindo Munen Ryu.
Caution
With shomen uchi, you want to execute it as fast as possible. This is because when hands are raised in readiness for the strike, you are open. Granted no one in their right mind will move under your weapon, you are still open. Ok, maybe my explanation is not convincing, but logically it makes sense, right?