Aikido for 04/22/2009

Jim and I started off with warm-up and since it was the two of us, we were able to spend more time working on both our forward and backward ukemi. I then introduced shikkyo (knee walking) since Jim was wearing shorts I didn't want to spend too much time practicing shikkyo. We then practiced the following techniques:

• Round-house punch ikkyo omote - starting in ai hamni, uke step forwards and delivers a punch to the same side jaw. Nage, steps back and bring back hand up and from that opening, all of the omote and ura techniques are available. Working on ikkyo, it is easy to build to other techniques.
  
• Round-house punch ikkyo ura - same opening as omote but back foot at the end of the opening now steps forward behind uke for the ikkyo ura.
  
• Katatetori iriminage - basic tenkan opening for the technique
• Round-house punch iriminage - same opening as the ikkyo ura, basic iriminage easily follows

We ended class with kokyu-ho exercise. My next Aikido class is Friday night in Boulder. I am excited and I look forward to learning and growing in my practice.