Aikido for 09/06/2011

Tonight's class was taught by Ken. Jack and I were the only students and so Ken taught a new type of class. Instead of a structured warm-up, Ken had us do a free-from warm-up and then for class he had us first focus on a katatetori grab followed with a punch with the other hand. The first technique involved just a nage tenkan to get out of the way. We worked on some variations with an increase of the attack intensity and speed. The second technique was from a shomen attack with the nage first sliding in irimi, followed with a irimi-nage. We then did the same sequence from a munetsuki attack but with the final technique being a kokyunage with nage dropping uke with a drop to the back. This was a enjoyable class of budo training; Ken's insightful comment was in Aikido nage needs to react to aggression with an expansion of self and not retract into a more traditional defensive instinctual posture/