Aikido for 09/20/2011

Tuesday night Ken taught class and after warm-ups we worked on improving uke's attack. We first started off with katatetori attack where like in previous classes, uke's movement is not just statically grab nage's wrist but was moving to a follow-up strike, either to nage's face or mid-section. Uke, with the wrist grab, is trying to move the hand out of the way either into nage or nage's side. Nage, in response, can either move into uke's space and catch the grab earlier disrupting uke's intent for the second phase of the attack, or nage steps back and through movement disrupts uke's balance through nage's body position. The timing on these attacks was important as uke is able to land the second punch or keep balance then the technique does not work. Good class although I was attacking nage and he responded with a strong and solid attack and caught the side of my throat and I felt my windpipe compress. I had a hard time breathing for a bit, my neck is brused, and later that night when we went to OC for beer because of Doug visiting, I started to lose my voice.