Snowboarding and Aikido for 01/31/2010

On Saturday morning I drove up to Crested Butte for a day of snowboarding using my free pass I received from volunteering at the ski race in December. I was able to get on the mountain by 10:00 am, and I spent the morning and early afternoon improving my snowboarding skills. One of the first falls, I focused on extending my arms into a hoop, like I emphasize when teaching forward ukemi, and my fall was a lot less painful. Duh! I now describe my snowboarding experience as moments of shear joy punctuated by white, cold ukemi practice. Because my snowboarding skills are slowing improving, I am getting more adventurous in trying harder, more expert black diamond slopes. The first photo is a mogul black diamond run that I had just finished moving down (not really snowboarding as every couple of meters I ended up on my back). I had collapsed into some deep powder at the bottom and took this photo of other snowboarders having trouble getting down as well.

This second photo is from the base area on Mt. Crested Butte Resort looking towards the mountain in the background. The final photo is below the Paradise Bowl and the warming building on the Northwest side of the mountain. For a late lunch, I drove back to Crested Butte and met up with my friends Marc and Pat along with a couple of other people, Richard and Peter.

Funny Aikido sidenote, Richard was describing a scene from Steven Seagal's new reality cop show on cable where Seagal does an ikkyo on a guy, Richard didn't know any Aikido but it was cool to be able to recognize the technique second-hand from a person who knows nothing about Aikido. We all went to a new Asian restaurant, Ryce, and I had a great chicken-noodle curry dish. I was able to get in another run on the mountain before driving back to Gunnison.

Sunday afternoon I went to the Gunnison Community Center for the 2pm Aikido class. Mike and I began warm-up and I added a kosatori tenkan and a kosatori irimi movement to the usual tenkan exercises. We then practiced the following techniques:

• kosatori ikkyo omote and ura
• katatetori koshunage (3 variations). The koshunage practiced started first with break-fall practice on the softer mats before using the standard foam mats they have in multi-purpose room.

We finished practiced with kokyu-ho exercise.

Aikido for 01/25/2010

Today for Aikido class, Mike and I, after warming-up, practiced the following techniques:

• yokomenuchi iriminage. The first technique was from Doran Sensei, instead of nage swinging outside, nage moves slightly out of the line and then directly inside of uke. The second variation was inspired byMurashige Sensei's collapsing elbow to get behind uke for the iriminage throw
• katatetori ikkyo omote and ura, hombu style
• katatetori nikkyo omote and ura, hombu style

We finished class by going through four different openings of katatetori ikkyo.

Tomorrow morning I am participating in the Student Health Fair, I'll be dressing up in a gi and hakama and handing out Aikido fliers.

Aikido for 01/20/2010

For the first class of the term, Mike and I began with our traditional warm-up while I talked about my trip to San Diego and Boulder the week before. During the tenkan exercise, I showed Mike the deeper tenkan that Frank Doran Sensei showed us at the Aikido Bridge Seminar. Mike and I then worked on the unity and breaking balance exercises that Ikeda Sensei worked on for much of the week. I related to Mike how I am finally seeing some of the deeper connections between nage's internal posture and balance and how connecting to uke through the wrist, following up to elbow, but focusing on the moving the shoulder allows nage to more easily break the fragile balance of uke. I told Mike the theme of the class would be a separate shihonage technique from a Doran Sensei class, am Ikeda Sensei class, and a Tissier Sensei class from the seminar. Here are the techniques we practiced last night:

• shomenuchi shihonage omote from Doran Sensei. I showed Mike Doran Sensei's way of nage dropping the inside the knee when doing the shihonage that allows a taller uke to under a shorter nage's arm to complete the throw to the ground. The opening was also Doran Sensei when nage is unable to get to the shomen strike early and lets the strike continue down.
• Ai-hamni (kosatori) katatetori shihonage omote, for this basic shihonage, Mike and I worked on connecting with uke, breaking uke balance by moving from nage's hari and then smoothing moving through to a more traditional shihonage throw and pin following a variation I practiced in an Ikeda class.
• katatetori shihonage omote. The final shihonage was from katatetori and I talked about Tissier Sensei's demonstration and practice about not getting caught up and trying to repeat a failed point in the shihonage as a way to get of trouble when an experienced uke is attempting a reverse. Tissier Sensei's focus on not repeating but moving to a different point in the technique was valuable to actual see and practice in this context because Mike was able to not caught up in struggling with a point in a shihonage when I was attempting a reverse than before.
• katatetori kokyunage
• For the last technique, I wanted to bring everything back around to ikkyo because of its importance and emphasis during the past week's seminar. Mike and I worked on various ikkyos from shomen, kosatori, and katatetori attacks

It felt wonderful and comfortable to back on mat even after a couple of days from San Diego. My Aikido practice is deepening because of the fantastic instruction and practice I have had over the past couple of weeks. I can immediately see the difference in my own instruction because by the end of the night I found Mike's shihonage to have improved and he was already integrating some of the instructions that was taught to me.

"Infotopia" by Cass R. Sunstein

I just finished "Infotopia" by Cass Sunstein published in 2006, a law professor at the University of Chicago. I enjoyed the book and have the following comments:

• Sunstein starts off with the danger of individuals and organizations surrounding themselves in an "information cocoon" (pg.9) where news sources and commentary are all geared to their specific cognitive bias. I find his solution, adding more blogs from the opposite political spectrum to be a bit simple. Critical thinking and rhetorical skills could be repositioned and replicated in software tools so that cognitive and consistent arguments with supporting empirical evidence would be integrated to the information stream of the individual or organization regardless of the source
• The failure of deliberative groups to reach optimal decision when compared to more automatic methods he mentions of open-source, prediction markets, and random surveys, is the best part of the book for me. I have already seen far too many times in my career when decisions are made by a deliberative body that are clearly sub-optimal in my opinion and later events bear out that assessment. I have been one of those outliers that speak-up but are marginalized by the group-think of the moment. Sunstein's prescriptions for minimizing the failures are good, including supporting diversity of opinion in the group and to supplement the deliberative process with pre-surveys of experts or other automatic mechanisms to extract the group consensus. A better take away for myself was to increase my skepticism of deliberative decisions even more. Ego by individuals and groups shield us from the logical fallacies in the internal arguements and can prevent relevant information and judgements to be adopted as the decision. My hope is that for my current and future groups deliberative decision-making that I encourage diversity for all members by allowing them to feel comfortable speaking, not ignoring or marginalizing feedback and commentary from individuals I may not like, and to look for tools and techniques to supplement the decision-making process.
• I also liked Sunstein's explanation of the Condorcet Jury Theorem that explains both way even if a percentage of a group is more likely to be right, that the overall group's response will more accurate than the individual. The Condorcet Jury Theorem also explains why deliberative group decision making fails if the initial conditions predispose the members to certain positions.

What this book misses is partly a function of when it was written. I would be interested to see how Sunstein evaluates the market failures and current recession in light of the ideas and framework he writes about in "Infotopia". Additionally, Sunstein doesn't include methods of automatic decision making tools and techniques like large-scale system simulations and data mining. The dangers of becoming too reliant on automatic decision-making systems are not as well fleshed out as Daniel Suaraz has raised in a number of places including his novel "Daemon".

Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar Day 4

After last night's excess alcohol consumption, I didn't make it the first class at 8:45. I did make myself do the wash so that I have a clean gi for the rest of the seminar.

The first class was taught by Ikeda Sensei. We worked more on establishing a connection with uke

Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar Day 5

This morning I was only able to attend Ikeda Sensei's class as my flight was changed from my itinerary. Ikeda Sensein returned to the similar themes from his earlier classes this week. While we worked on katatetori and kosatori kokyunages, ikkyo, and iriminage. Ikeda Sensei emphasized on establishing unity in nage and then moving uke is easier even if uke is larger and stronger. Ikeda Sensei said that nage needs to establish an emptiness inside to establish this unity before moving, that our movements need to establish the balance we use everyday when walking. This balance is best achieved when nage keeps his or her posture and not bending over, keeping the balance line. Ikeda Sensei finished the class by encouraging all of us to seek out different teachers to learn from and not get stuck in a particular viewpoint but keep an open mind and spirit to grow our Aikido to something better for the next generation of Aikido.

These past few days have been a great experience with the small and intimate classes with more opportunities to get know some wonderful people in the Aikido community. Coming to these seminars allows for deeper development of martial arts and I am coming back a few pounds lighter (a great bonus of such intense training) and a deeper commitment to this art that I love.

Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar Day 4

Ikeda Sensei started the day with katatetori kokyunages and he went back to his instruction about developing internal balance before being able to move uke. Ikeda Sensei demonstrated multiple ways and multiple techniques like ikkyo, iriminage, and shihonage all based on internal unity between nage and uke. Ikeda Sensei stress that the technique should be over in less than .5 seconds, the time of a blink. When we are doing techniques, we need to react with our body and our mind and not think about what is happening. Ikeda Sensei is able to move all different types of ukes and I can see how he is trying to impart this knowledge to all of us. At one point, he was throwing his uke by just touching uke's shin and uke would fall. During that moment, I realized that human being's balance is a lot more tenuous than we think it is. What Ikeda Sensei was doing (from my perspective of course) is to just disrupt this fine balance that we are not conscious of but when we establish our own balance and connect with uke's balance, it shouldn't take much to move uke.

All of the sensei at the seminar got together for a group photo and I happened to have my camera so I took this photo.

In Tissier Sensei's class we worked on katatetori techniques including ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, and shihonage. Tissier Sensei focus in class was that even if nage is able to the techniques, we should work towards efficiency in our techniques, with a preference for doing a technique in less steps or points in the technique, a kind of of Occum's razor for Aikido. After class, Yelena took this photo of Tissier Sensei and I:

Doran Sensei's class started after lunch (I went to the beach with Yelena, a new friend I met here in San Diego, and had fish tacos [one of my favorite food from San Diego]. Afterward, we walked on the beach and watched the surfers and swimmers, I haven't had such a good lunch in a long time). Doran Sensei read a quote from a samuri in feudal Japan. We again started class without a traditional warm-up but did spend more time on tenkan and irimi exercises. I enjoyed Doran Sensei and the different techniques we practiced, when I was working with a senior instructor from Arizona, Doran Sensei came over and complemented the instructor about his technique and then said one my best compliments I have ever received in Aikido, Doran Sensei said that the my partner's technique was so great because he had a prefect uke. For my Aikido, I have always taken more pride in being a good uke for my partner and so it was very kind and humbling to be honored this way.

Francis Takahashi Sensei was the guest instructor for the final class of the evening. Takahashi Sensei had us practice a number of different techniques with the focus on nage keeping everything in front in a shomen, that the balance for nage is front. Takahashhi Sensei's instruction and questions to the class forced us to think about way we are practicing a martial art and that we need to be committed. Takahashi Sensei brought me up for a demonstration for a technique, I don't remember what the technique was but I felt being up there was such honor and tried not to screw up in front of everyone. After class, Takahashi Sensei thanked me for practice and I felt doubly honored to have such a well-known sensei acknowledge me. Good stuff.

Today has been a very special day for me and tonight was the dinner and everyone was eating sushi and having an enjoyable time. Tomorrow my plane leaves early so I'll only be able to attend Ikeda Sensei's class in the morning before I have to leave for the airport. This California trip has been wonderful and I have even more incentive to come out to the coast for more seminars.

Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar Day 3

On Friday night I drove north to Carlsbad to have dinner and spend the night with my cousin Jason and his wife Jody. Jason cooked a great steak and corn dinner and as we sat and talked, sipping vodka cranberries cocktails, our conversation turned to martial arts and some of the challenges Jason has encountered when teaching Marines in martial arts. Jason is one of the best martial artists and overall athlete that I know and I felt privileged to have known him all of our lives. Military martial arts has a different focus of weapon retention and a much more brutal response from the civilian martial art of Aikido that I practice. I learned a lot as we worked on some typical scenarios that he teaches including pistol and rifle retention when an attacker is trying to disarm a Marine with 60+ pounds of gear. My perspective changed a lot and I hope to get on a mat with Jason to learn much more. Jody came home from work and we all visited until 2am.

Saturday morning I did not make the Tissier and Doran sensei classes but had a nice breakfast and visit with Jason and Jody before driving back to San Diego.

Ikeda Sensei taught the third class at 3. Ikeda Sensei returned to the same themes of connection and musubi, of establishing a connection between nage and uke. We worked on a number of different kokyunages as well as ikkyo when Ikeda Sensei had us practice a breakfall kotegashei and a breakfall kokyunage.

Murashige Sensei was the guest instructor for the last class of the night. He showed and then we practiced ikkyo and kokyunage variations where nage slightly collapses the wrist while moving his or her elbow into uke, the key for me when I was practicing with various ukes, was to make sure my arm that was grabbed and then as I collapsed the elbow towards uke was to make sure my elbow and wrist was connected to my hips. My technique was weaker when I didn't connect my arms with my hips and my throws were not as effective.

After class there was a mixer at the dojo and I talked to Doran Sensei about Jason and then asked Ikeda Sensei about what he would do if someone was grabbing a pistol as Jason and I were working on the night before. Ikeda Sensei showed me a couple of variations, one where the arm is hyper-extended that I wish I could show Jason. The night ended with a dinner at Thai Time II restaurant where I had a number of interesting conversations, in particular with my friends Adam and Craig from Sacramento.

Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar Day 2

The first class was taught by Doran Sensei. Doran Sensei started off by saying that he has changed his warm-up routine, instead of going through the stretches and other exercises common to most Aikido classes, Doran Sensei had us go through multiple tenkan and irimi movements through katatetori, kosatori, tsuki, and jodan tsuki (punch to the face). We didn't practice any "techniques" until an hour into the class but the point I believe Doran Sensei was making was that there is a lot of learning about the movement of Aikido through doing these exercises and not focusing on the throws or the technique. Doran Sensei showed how important it is to get in deep for the tenkan to avoid a counter-strike by uke to nage's face.

Ikeda Sensei taught the second session started with katatetori connection with nage's body or "musubi" with the whole body of uke. While demonstrating a strong shomenuchi kokyuho nage should move and concentrate on moving his or her own center instead of trying or focusing on moving uke. This especially comes into play when a smaller person is trying to move/throw a larger person. Martial Arts and Aikido in particular is about how a smaller person can overcome the power and strength advantages of a larger uke. We also practice a kosatori hijinage that illustrated his points of nage controlling one's own center to move a larger uke.

Tissier Sensei taught the third class after the lunch break. Tissier Sensei demonstrated a number of katatetori variations. While watching Tissier Sensei show the techniques and help with various pairings of uke/nage on the mat, I am always impressed with the technical preciseness of his techniques. When we were working on a shihonage, Tissier Sensei showed how nage can cut down across his or her body to throw uke even if uke stops the shihonage movement. I also noticed (and like) how Tissier Sensei, when showing a technique to the class or small group, will occasionally switch roles and have uke throw him. This is valuable to understand when and how techniques can be stopped.

A guest sensei from the Netherlands, Wilko Vriesman, taught the last class of the day. His focus was on A,B,C where A is the lower half of the body, B is the torso, and A is the head. Doing an Aikido technique, first focus on the moving and controlling your A and then when you need to move uke, open up B, while always keeping C aligned with A and B to keep nage's balance. This was a new way to visualize the relationships between the various points of the body that are important for a complete and powerful technique.

Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar Day 1

The first class was taught by Ikeda Sensei. After warming up, Ikeda Sensei talked about how when we start to learn Aikido, we focus on the wrist when practicing katatetori, trying to move uke through moving the wrist. Ikeda Sensei had us focus on the shoulder as we move up the arm from the wrist, to the elbow, and then to the shoulder, moving eventually to moving uke's center automatically when attacked. We practiced katatetori kokyuunages as well as ikkyo omote and ura. We then switched to kosatori kokyunages with the focus not so much moving your entire body out of the way of uke's attack but on moving your own center.

The second class was taught by Doran Sensei. He picked up on Ikeda Sensei and we worked on kosatori techniques for the session. We started off with a kosatori iriminage and Doran Sensei had nage start with the palm up and then nage brings the hand up, sweeping past uke and then throws uke. We then practiced a couple of kosatori kokyunages followed with kosatori ikkyo and some other techniques all focusing on the hand movement extending into uke. Doran Sensei's movement and perspective tonight was on the extending and harmonizing ki. We laughed when he said that we don't want to practice kiki, with both uke and nage extending ki at the same time but not what strive for which is aiki or nage's try to harmonizing the extension of ki by uke during an attack.

Tissier Sensei taught the third class with a kosadori iriminage. We then worked on shomenuchi techniques, starting with shomenuchi iriminage. Tissier Sensei demonstrated and then talked about how to not to try to throw uke too soon with the throwing arm, to keep arm extended until the throw while rotating the arm and the hand to the final position. By delaying the rotation in the iriminage, nage is better able to complete the throw even if nage is stronger than expected. We then worked on a shomenuchi shihonage omote where nage blocks uke's attack and then cuts to throw uke. I believe I was working with one of Tissier Sensei's students and I was having a brain fart and not able to the block effectively while she was able to throw me with ease. We also worked on a shomenuchi ikkyo where after blocking the forward hand, nage grabs and rolls the forearm to provide leverage for the throw.

The seminar has started strong and I was able to see a number of people I know from the previous Bridge Seminar from last year, including Bob and Craig. Tory from Boulder was there and I was able to say hi to Ikeda Sensei. The photos are from this morning's trip to Mission Beach. It was a beautiful and special day and tomorrow starts at 9:30 class. I'm planning on going out to dinner and party afterward with my cousin Jason, a U.S. Marine stationed here in San Diego.

Ikeda Birthday Seminar 1/9/2010

Jude Blitz Sensei started off class with a tenkan exercise and then we worked a number of kokyunages and hijinages. Jude Sensei's tenkan (and all of Ikeda Sensei's senior students) is strong and solid at the point of connection.

In Mark Reeder Sensei session, he emphasized connecting and moving to the right place for the technique before uke can completely attack nage. I was able to practice with Tres Hofmeister during this session and I really enjoyed how we were able to be creative and spontaneous in our attacks and responses during the back-and-forth between nage and uke during a tsuki kokyunage technique.

Lee Crawford Sensei session focused on nage entering directly into uke's attack. During a yokomenuchi attack, I wasn't moving my feet, just my head, and Crawford Sensei came over and showed me what I was doing. I didn't notice myself, but not moving my feet broke my balance and center too much. I sometimes get too solid in a position and having her remind me of the need to move all of my body out of the way of the attack is good teaching and observation.

Tom McIntyre Sensei's session was lighthearted and fun. We worked on blending between uke and nage and the flow of attack and response. As with most of the instructors, McIntyre Sensei talked about training with Ikeda Sensei in decades past and how great of influence Ikeda Sensei has been to McIntyre's training.

Warren Little Sensei began his session by relating how he met Ikeda Sensei in Washington DC after Little Sensei retired from law enforcement in 1980. Little Sensei mentioned he started training Aikido in 1964 with Doran Sensei but before he also trained in Judo. Little Sensei started by saying when he practices a technique he always thinks how effective it would be with some of the criminals he dealt with in his career. He showed us how to apply a kotegaeshi technique properly so that uke cannot do a reverse arm bar (it was great to see Little Sensei demonstrate how quickly uke can reverse to an arm-bar). Little Sensei also mentioned how important it is to properly tie your gi belt and to take pride in having your gi and hakama mended and tidy, not dirty and in rags. I really enjoyed his class and I was privileged to practice with Warren in later instructor's classes.

Darren McKee Sensei's didn't speak much but we worked on the type of broader kokyunage's that other said Ikeda Sensei taught more of in the past.

Dan Messisco Sensei's session was interesting in that he started class by confessing that he was an "Aikido junkie" (an affliction I may share). Messisco Sensei related how one time in Florida he came to practice and other students wanted to go to breakfest but Ikeda Sensei, realizing Messisco Sensei's desire to train, practiced with Messisco Sensei one-on-one. Messisco Sensei's main point in his practice was to change the dynamics between uke and nage. Nage should not lose center, the ai or harmony with the universe, but move so that uke is forced to change to nage's position.

Kevin Choate Sensei session was the second to last and he demonstrated and then we practiced the soft touch to throw and pin uke. Choate Sensei talked about how if we as nage are aggressive, uke's reaction is to tense up, but if our approach is not with force, uke is much easier to pin.

The final session was taught by Ikeda Sensei. Ikeda Sensei related a number of other stories about the instructors. He then worked on a series of technqiues where nage did not move off the line to casual observer, but that move was done internally with nage's center. One of the technqiues was an ikkyo block from uke's shomen strike. Normally, we don't practice blocking but the point was that in confined space, you might not have the luxury of making large movements out of the line of attack but that Aikido principles are still the same.

After class, my friend Steve and I went down and had pizza and beer at a restaurant on Pearl street before going back for the coffee mixer at the dojo. Later that night, I went to the formal dinner and enjoyed mixing with everyone from the day's practice.

Ikeda Birthday Seminar 1/8/2010

On Friday I left Gunnison by 12:30 and arrived in Boulder with plenty of time for a leisurely dinner before classes started at 6:00. Tres Hofmeister Sensei taught the first class. Hofmeister Sensei talked about the early days of Boulder Aikikai where Ikeda Sensei would spend all class working on break-falls or suriwaza techniques. We practiced a number of kokyunages techniques from those days where the style of the technique was broader and more open.

Ikeda Sensei taught the second class. He talked about the early students, Tres, June, and others and the changes Boulder Aikikai has gone through in space and students over the past 30 years. We then worked on connection exercises with Ikeda Sensei emphasizing of taking your opponent's balance, both mentally and physically, before even making contact with uke. We also practiced a number of katatetori kokyunages, ikkyo, and a couple of iriminages. The energy and spirit of the dojo was celebratory, paying respect to all of the years Ikeda Sensei has devoted to the study and teaching of Aikido and martial arts.

Avatar and weekend plans

Tomorrow I am leaving for Ikeda Sensei's 60th birthday party/seminar at Boulder Aikikai. The weather is looking okay and I hope the trip goes well.

I just got back from seeing James Cameron's Avatar at the new College Center's Ruby Theater. This was my first 3-D movie and the visuals were incredible, the CGI's characters' uncanny valley effect was not there, and the Pandora environment was so visually rich and alive for a computer generated world. I had fun.

Photos from this weekend and Aikido status

This past weekend I volunteered as a gate-watcher for local youth ski race on Sunday. I took the following photos.

I haven't been teaching Aikido but I have been doing a lot of work on the my Aikido catalog as I develop eCataloger.