Aikido for 12/06/2011

Ken taught class and after warm-ups, we worked on katatetori kokyunage tenkan and irimi before working on a couple of different kokyunages and other techniques before we practiced a randori with shinahs. Nage's role was just to get out of the way of the shomen strikes with shinah but be aware of the other uke's attacking. Getting hit with the shinah doesn't hurt that much, more of a sting but the bamboo sword still increases the intensity of the training and is a good to reveals the shortcomings and sloppy movements. If you bend over or lean back, it is harder to move in a different direction and with other uke's coming in, that delay usually results in getting hit. On my second randori, I moved into an uke's strike too soon and got git across my left temple, stinging but not a direct blow but still showing that gap in my movement and awareness. These exercises are good training.