Aikido for 03/22/2012

Tip emailed the dojo instructors late yesterday afternoon asking for someone to cover class, I volunteered and arrived a few minutes early to open the dojo. Five people eventually showed up for class, including Ken and Garry. Due to the last-minute nature of teaching this class, I didn't have an idea what I would be teaching but sometimes a lack of a plan enables a more spontaneous and free-flowing class. During warm-ups, instead of doing our usually slide and step tenkan exercises, I had us do a "Simon says" variation where I would call out either step or slide and everyone attempted to that tenkan variation. I liked this exercise when Knut first did many years ago in Illinois and it was fun do. When we got to the first technique in class, our katatetori tenkan kokyunage we usually do for every class, I decided the central focus of the night's class was thinking about the rotational nature of the hip joint. So, for the kokyunage I emphasized how the rotating the hip into uke as nage turn creates the movement instead of trying to muscle through the technique. We then worked on the following techniques:

• Yokomenuchi kotegashi omote
• Yokomenuchi shihonage omote
• Yokomenuchi