Aikido for 10/28/2009

Last night after warming up and ukemi practice; Mike, Heather, and I practiced the following techniques:

katatetori ikkyo omote, while the technique was the basic hombu-style ikkyo with nage stepping up to atemi and then stepping back, we worked on uke not just passively accepting nage's atemi, but worked on uke bring up and blocking the atemi.

katatetori ikkyo omote second variation, for this variation, nage slides slightly off the line and then extends the grabbed wrist into uke, ideally forcing uke's elbow up and bring uke's wrist for the easy ikkyo movement, this movement is a spiral upwards and into uke

ryokatatetori tenshin-nage omote

ryokatatetori tenshin-nage ura

For the tenshin-nages, I emphasized the spiral movement up for heaven and down for earth as Saotome Sensei demonstrated last weekend. Sunday's class at the Gunnison Recreation Center will focus on more techniques from the Halloween Seminar.

Aikido for 10/26/2009

Tonight after warm-up and ukemi practice, I added the two single-leg exercises Saotome Sensei had us practice to improve your balance for kicking followed by tenkan and irimi exercises. We then practiced the following techniques from Saotome Sensei's seminar:

munetsuki to the face, nage atemi's with a front kick to uke's midsection

uke front kick, nage slides irimi, scooping with outer hand, catching uke's foot while nage comes straight down with an elbow atemi, this would be a type of ukemi

munetuski elbow pin, where nage uses the hand of the forward arm to blend with the punch while sliding to side. Nage comes underneith and the forward hand grabs the other wrist locking uke's lower arm and the submission pin comes quick.

munetuski kokyunage with uke using the forward arm with an atemi strike.

All of these techniques Mike and I constructed from our collective memories from the seminar. I know we are missing more techniques, but I still have few more kicking kokyunages to practice for Wednesday and Sunday classes. As Saotome Sensei said this weekend, "The past are memories, the future is hope, now is now."

Halloween Seminar Day 3

Saotome Sensei taught in the morning and we picked up with a couple more kicking techniques and responses. We also worked on kokyunages, iriminage, and ikkyo again. In on of the kicking techniques, nage slides to side, kicks uke's leg below the knee while using the other foot to trip nage. We also practiced some randori techniques including having one person hold nage in a bear hug from behind to restrain while two other ukes attack at the same time. Saotome Sensei made a point that nage needs to get into a position within the situation to deal with one uke at a time, that it is not good to try to deal with multiple uke's simulantiously, that the better strategy is to move to a safer position where only one uke can attack at a time.
Class finished up by noon and then after saying our goodbyes, Mike and I had lunch with his nice family. We then left for Gunnison.
This seminar has opened up a whole new realm of kicking and punching techniques into my Aikido training and I hope to incorporate these techniques into my classes.

Halloween Seminar Day 2

Saotome Sensei started the morning classes with each of us first focusing on centering while standing on one foot and bring the other foot to the knee. We then did a number of different kicking atemi practice, a couple of notable examples:

Instead of letting uke come with a munetsuki to the face, nage does a straight kick to the chest of uki (we also practiced this variation the night before)

When uke does a forward kick, nage shifts to the side and does a round-house kick to uke's lower leg to throw uke

Many of the reasons why I learn and develop as a martial artist is listening and absorbing what such master teachers as Saotome Sensei say and demonstrate technique on the mat. Saotome Sensei talked about aiki and the multiple meaning of ki, how ki can be a sound, a color, and that the most important connection to harmonize is with gravity and space around nage.
For lunch, I went with Mike, my friend Steve, and a couple of other people from Denver Aikikai including Jay and Mike, to Sushi Toro inn Boulder. Jay took this photo from lunch (I am having problems getting the direct link to the photo from Denver Aikikai's website, so I just downloaded the photo, it is copyrighted by Denver Aikikai.) After lunch, Steve, Mike, and I went to a bookstore where I purchased an Aikido book I don't have and a book on Geek Logic.

After working more on ikkyo and a number of different kokyunages, Saotome Sensei finished class at 5. I hung around Boulder, went to a couple of different stores, and then went to the Golden Lotus for dinner. I left dinner early so that I could go out with my sister Jill and my brother Jarrett. We went to a bar where Jill's friend Brandie was having a birthday party. We didn't back to Jill's house until after 2, so Sunday morning came early for me.

Halloween Seminar Day 1

Today Mike rode with me to Boulder for the first day of the Saotome Sensei's Halloween Seminar. We arrived with plenty of time and at 6:00 Saotome Sensei started class. After tenkan warm-up, Saotome Sensei asked us what the difference between Aikido and Dancing. When no one spoke up, Saotome Sensei emphatically stated that Aikido is a Martial Art and when we practice, it comes down to be or not to be. In a martial art, we practice to be, or to live. Saotome Sensei said that it doesn't matter what our rank is, right now we are beginners at this moment in practice, that the years previous do not matter in the moment. He said that the past are memories, the future is hope, but now is now. Saotome Sensei commented that in practice we shouldn't treat the exercises and techniques we practice with anything less than our full and immediate attention and we should be aware of the tension between uke and nage. Saotome Sensei related that when he was uke for O'Sensei, O'Sensei was always aware and had full martial awareness of being in the moment and always had that marital awareness of uke when doing a technique.

For first forty minutes we worked on katatetori kokyunage variations. We practiced katatetori ikkyo and Saotome Sensei said that ikkyo was like the first chapter of the book of Aikido which I thought was a cool metaphor of ikkyo. We then worked for the first time in my Aikido practice with a front kick atemi by nage from munetsuki attack by uke. Nage does a forward kick to the upper leg or stomach to stop the attack. We also worked on a leg sweep where nage kicks the back of uke's knee to throw uke. Saotome Sensei's class was the full two hours without any breaks so do feel tired but also very energized from the great instruction, practice, and learning moments on the mat. UPDATE:The photo is from Denver Aikikai's website, I am doing a kokyunage technique where nage is just using a finger to move uke as opposed to using all of your strength. This photo is copyrighted by Denver Aikikai.

Aikido for 10/21/2009

Last night, Mike, Heather, and I warmed up, practiced forward and backward ukemi. I then brought out the bokken and we practiced the following bokken take-aways with my intention to show the relationship between bokken techniques and empty-hand techniques:

shomen ikkyo omote

shomen ikkyo ura

shomen iriminage

shomenuchi ikkyo omote and ura

We ended class with kokyu-ho exercises.

Aikido for 10/19/2009

At tonight's class, Heather, Tim, Mike, and new student Cotton, started with a warm-up and then I worked on forward and backward ukemi with Cotton from sitting position while the other students practiced ukemi and shikkyo. After tenkan and irimi exercise, we practiced the following technique:

katate dori shihonage omote

katate dori shihonage ura

katate dori shihonage omote and ura

We ended class with kokyu-ho and a back stretch.

After class, Tim asked why Aikido rolled the way we do from hamni and then rolling over the forward side. He then demonstrated a straight roll I have never seen before and will have to practice. The first answer I thought of was that our style of rolls comes from rolling with bokken. I grabbed a bokken and did a roll to confirm my guess. The roll was okay but I need to try some variations with more room to fully test. I may ask someone at this weekend's seminar with Saotome Sensei in Boulder.

Aikido for 10/18/2009

After an extended warm-up, Heather, Mike, and I practiced forward and backward ukemi and then worked on some break-fall exercises and at the end, all of us where able to do a basic break-fall from standing position. I also threw Mike for a koshunage. We then trained in the following techniques:

katate dori kokyunage uchi variation

katate dori kokyunage soto variation

hanmi handachi katate dori kokyunage uchi

hanmi handachi katate dori kokyunage soto

katate dori hijinage omote and ura

hanmi handachi katate dori hijinage omote and ura

We ended class with kokyu-ho exercise after about an hour and twenty minute class.

Dr. Vandana Shiva's Lecture

This evening I walked to campus to hear Dr. Vandana Shiva speak as the keynote speaker for this year's Water workshop at Western State College. Dr. Shiva is an Indian environmental educator and activist whos strong emphasis on local resilences and her stark condemnation of multi-national corporations was refreshing to hear. I am very happy to live in a community that is engaged towards building resiliency as a fundamental core value perhaps driven by the college and many of the professor interests.

Dr. Shiva talked about her research and observations that directly counters many of the corporate sponsored research about the productivity gains using GMO crops and modern fossil-fuel based agricultural chemical pesticides and herbicides. Indigenous farming techniques do not require massive external inputs to produce a wide range of food stuffs, where as industrial farming focusing on monocultural crops relay on up to 7 times external inputs to produce the same crop output on land. Dr. Shiva also railed against patients on genetic crops as a form of slavery that just transfers wealth from the poor to the weather corporate interests as Cargill, ADM, and Monsanto . She has personally lead India's fight against Coca-Cola who was taking large amounts of water in India that deprived local villages of easily accessible water. She has brought Cargill and Monsanto to India's court to redress some of their worst practices. I have heard some of these stories but to be in the audience listening to one of the main activists that lead some of these fights was amazing. She also said that we need to get back to producing and not just being consumers. We need start using our arms and hands, to build and not be afraid of hard work that is required to build local production facilities. She also mentioned that local problem Gunnison Organic Ranchers are experiencing by not having an easily available slaughter house to support these local producers of food.

During the question-and-answer section, a student asked Dr. Shiva what suggestions or advice she had for him. She responded that while she didn't like giving advice, she recomened to get involved with one thing, food. Food is becoming so important and how we produce and feed the world is becoming more of an issues that impacts a lot of other important issues like global climate change, equal rights, and environmental adjustment.

I have a couple of personal takeaways from listening to Dr. Shiva speak. First, I am going to look for some of her books to read. Second, tomorrow I am going to take her advice and finish building my first SIP (sub-irrigated planter) and try to plant some of the heirloom tomato seeds I saved from a purchase I made last month at Gunnison farmer's market. I have most of the material and last winter I grew a tomato plant that provided a single cherry tomato. Hopefully this effort will turn out more successful.

Aikido for 10/14/2009

For Wednesday's class, Tim, Mike, and I warmed up and then practiced forward and backward ukemi before we practiced the following techniques:

katatori sankyo omote and ura

katatori kokyunage, ikkyo style

katatori iriminage

We finished class with kokyu-ho exercise. While I was demonstrating the katatori sankyo ura with Tim, his strength and flexibility made it more of a challenge to actually bring him to the mat without using too much strength. When I resort to using muscle to accomplish a take-down, it usually means that I am not doing the technique correctly. I was demonstrating a variation of ura when I should have stuck with the most basic form of the ura, because I had no problems and little strength to take Tim to the mat when I went back to the most basic form of ura. This also allowed me to talk and demonstrate the need to be flexible and adaptable when working with different uke.

Sometimes in practice, we get so focused on doing the technique that we end up resorting to muscle and forcing the technique even when the technique isn't working with this particular uke. Practice quickly devolves to the cycle of escalation as uke resists and nage applies more strength and pressure until brawling between the two might begin. I wanted to try to deescalate the aggression by not getting locked into a technique, nage needs to respond to what uke is providing even if that means nage does a different technique from the one being practiced in class. Next Aikido class will be on 2:00 pm on Sunday at the Gunnison Community Recreation Center.

Aikido for 10/12/2009

On Monday night, Mike, Heather, and I finished the usual warm-up and the worked on the following techniques:

munetsuki kotegaeshi omoete and ura

munetsuki kokyunage

munetsuki shihonage omote and ura. I tried a new variation for this technique where nage slides to the outside of the attack just enough to have uke's arm pass before starting the shihonage throw. The leg and body position does not shift and I working with Mike and Heather on this technique

We finished with kokyu-ho exercise.
(The lateness of this post is a combination of me forgetting and also trying to get Quest and my ISP to fix my DSL connection at home. Hopefully this will finally be fixed after a visit from the Quest technician tomorrow afternoon.)

Aikido for 10/11/2009

Today Heather and I were the only students for the 2:00 pm class. We warmed up and then with of all of the extra space at the Gunnison Community Recreation Center, we practiced forward and backward ukemi. After shikkyo, tenkan, and irimi exercises, we practiced the following techniques:

shomenuchi sankyo omote and ura

shoemnuchi iriminage two variations

We then practiced our shomen bokken cuts and then practiced happo-undo exercise with the bokken. The final technique we practiced was a bokken-tori kokyunage.

Aikido for 10/07/2009

Heather and I were the only two practicing tonight. We started off with wrist, legs, torso, stretches and then we practiced forward and backward ukemi. We then practiced forward and backward shikkyo walking and I also had us do a forward or backward roll from shikkyo. We then practiced the following techniques:

Kata dori (shoulder grab) ikkyo omote and ura

Kata dori kokyunage omote and ura

Kata dori shihonage omote and ura

At the end of class, I demonstrated how many of the other techniques we practice (iriminage, sankyo) can easily be executed from a different attack like kata dori. Heather threw me a few times and I showed her how the ikkyo we practiced before can be adjusted to a ikkyo-style kokyunage. We finished class with seated kokyu-ho exercise.

Aikido for 10/05/2009

Practiced started with just Heather and I. We went through the warm-up, practiced our ukemi, and then we spent some extra time on the tenkan and irimi exercises while Mike warmed up for class. We practiced the following techniques:

yokomenuchi ikkyo omote and ura

yokomenuchi iriminage, two variations. The first variation might be considered ura because nage does the irimi movement behind uke. The second variation I have heard other instructors call an kokyu-nage and other irimnage, regardless, nage sweeps uke's attacking arm to the front, breaking uke's balance before the throw.

Mutual yokomen attack exercise, both uke and nage attack yokomen and move the same way. This was an exercise to help all of us with maai of yokomenuchi family of techniques

We all did a 2 minute randori with uke just attacking with the yokomen attack. This randori was to (hopefully) bring some of the techniques we practiced earlier in class into a more dynamic and reactive environment of the randori.

Aikido for 10/04/2009

Practiced started with Mike, Heather, and I doing the standard warm-up. We then practiced forward and backward ukemi and shikkyo walking before we practiced the following techniques:

munetsuki kaitennage omote and ura

munetsuki shihonage omote and ura

We then worked on the following tanto-tori techniques:

ushiro kubi shime reverse kotegaeshi

munetsuki kotegaeshi with ura tenkan

The class ended with kokyu-ho exercise.

The photo is from yesterday's fishing trip on the Gunnison River, right outside the inlet to Blue Mesa Reservoir. I didn't catch any fish; however I am very conscious that we won't be having very many more late autumn days as beautiful as Saturday was here in Gunnison.