Sunday, August 9, 2009

Aikido, 8/8/09


We started with tegatana, as always, trying to keep the "hypotenuse" of our steps consistent. It became quickly apparent that I make unnaturally large steps on a several of the pieces of this kata. I'll work on that.

We went through Releases 1 - 8 ,and Pat corrected a few things I've been doing on #1, #3, #5, and #7. On #1, I need to remember to step to the "end-of-the-line" on the second step. This will help me to relax and not push on uke. On #3, I need to step toward uke, not directly to the side. I also need to square my shoulders (point my center) to the direction I'm moving. Doing this will allow me to do either a #3 or a #7, depending on what the situation calls for. I also need to sort of "blend" my first and second steps to avoid excessive shuffling. On #5 and #7, I have to remember to relax at the end of the thing...not try to do something to uke, but relax and not resist what's going on with my hand. It's an issue of flowing and following uke better...being more "aiki".

Next we worked on Junana 1 - 5, and we played with it in "kata mode". The longer distances were really screwing with my head. We talked about zanshin, and remaining aware after the "end" of the technique. We went over where tori should be after the throw, and how uke should move on the ground. We camped out mostly on #4 and #5.

We worked on Chain 3, but I didn't feel like it was getting better like 1 and 2 have been - probably because we've played with 1 and 2 more. There's more foot shuffling to get in synch and "phase" with uke's footfalls in this one, so that was tripping me up a bit.

The "Cool Ninja Technique of the Day" was kaitennage from sankata. Neat because you could throw uke on his far footfall, or screw him straight down into the ground with a guruma motion.

3 comments:

Scott Zrubek said...

We played a little with Kaitenage at our most recent seminar. We got into it by having the 4th release turn into the 7th release turning into kaitenage.

At that point, if tori tries to put his finger "through" uke's ear, you get a wonderful rotation of uke along his top-to-bottom axis.

Kim said...

I'd like to see that - I'm having trouble picturing it...

Patrick Parker said...

i think he is describing just what we were playing with - only starting with release 4. when #4 reaches the end of the line and uke turns back onto you, you duck under his arm (release #7) and do kaitennage. we were just playing the #7 to kaiten part.