Yesterday I was in Denver for a meeting and after it was over, I decided to drive to Boulder to attend the fundamentals and open classes at Boulder Aikikai. Tres Hofmeister Sensei taught both classes. After a long warm-up for the fundamentals class, we started off with surawazi shomenuchi ikkyo omote and ura. Hofmeister Sensei emphysised a couple of subtle but important points on ikkyo; the first is keep your arms and hands in front of your own center so that after absorbing the initial strike, you move into the second point nage shifts in front of uke and cuts into uke's face, disrupting uke's balance for the ikkyo finish and pin. We then did a surawazi shomenuchi iriminage before standing up and working on shomenuchi ikkyo omote and ura. We finished with kokyu-ho tanden-ho.
The second open class started with Hofmeister Sensei having us work on kokyu-ho tanden-ho. I worked with a really strong partner, Nate, that turned the exercise into a more realistic training were he, being physically stronger and bigger than me, could muscle through me. I struggled but was able to present a solid response when he was throwing me, throwing him was easier because I could use technique to overcome his advantages (surprise, that is the probably the most fundamental reason to practice a martial art, learning how to overcome superior force with technique). We also worked on shomenuchi kokyunage that started off with uke absorbing nage's outstreached arm and bending at the waist before doing ukemi. We then worked on taking a different type of backward ukemi where uke lands on the back of both shoulders and redircts the backward momentum by thrusing both feet up in the air before rolling back to one side or the other. We working a second kokyunage and then Hofmeister Sensei had us practice an exercise where you start with both feet together, then you either step forward, bringing your hand and arm inside your center line, closing any gaps between your arm and body. Next, you step forward bring the arm and hand up along your center line to your head before extending the arm to about 80% for a quick shomen atemi starting from the elbow. There is a variation where the starting from both feet together, you step back with the far leg, which brings you to a forward hamni for the same strike along the center-line as before. We finished with shomenuchi iriminage using the same understanding of the strike and throw in the iriminage.
A great class and a good way to spend a Friday night.
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