Aikido for 11/04/2010

Earlier today Tip e-mailed asking someone to cover tonight's Open Aikido class. I e-mailed back and said I could cover and so I taught tonight. After warming up (I included rowing exercise to the usual stretches, tenkan, and irimi exercises. We then practiced the following techniques:

• morote-dori kokyunage tenkan variation
• morte-dori kokyunage
• hanmi-hantachi morte-dori kokyunage tenkan variation
• morte-dori ikkyo, sliding the back-foot back and off the line while bringing the inside hand up along the center-line, following the shomen bokken cut
• morte-dori iriminage
• morte-dori iriminage (CIA called it a kokyunage, Doshu's book calls it a standing kokyu-ho)
• hanmi-hantachi morte-dori iriminage (the same technique we just did standing up)

We finished class with sitting kokyu-ho exercises. One of the themes of the night was how the basic bokken shomen cut is used many different ways and applications in these techniques and that by focusing on oneself and just thinking about bringing the hand up in a strike, it shifts the balance from uke to nage even if uke is very strong. One of the things I have noticed when I have been teaching Aikido, I'll usually come into class with an idea or two; tonight's was morote-dori (uke's two hands grabbing nage's nearest arm) and I wanted to include a couple of hanmi-hantachi techniques as well. The bokken shomen cut theme started during tenkan warm-ups when I mentioned that I like to do the arm-swing style visualizing I am using a bokken and doing a shomen cut. It really drew the class together and made me think about my own style and I how I teach and express my Aikido.