May 20th&21st, 2007-Learning to Walk

This weekend we practiced more for Tokyo. Everyone's bristling with excitement. I got a chance to try on a hakama and perform some. It felt really weird to have these long, baggy pants on. I have to be careful not to trip on the hems. I was walking like a baby taking my first steps. I suppose I will adjust in time. My girlfriend volunteered to be thrown in front of the camera. Nice gesture.



I practiced some throws with our newest yondan. Left me pretty winded, so I paused to take some pics of my girlfriend throwing her partner for Tokyo. Her form is getting better, very smooth.



Nice butt shot eh? That's all for now. See you in Tokyo!

May 18th, 2007- Parts Make Up the Whole

Thought I'd throw a couple of new pics up for you to look at. After my test, I was pretty beat so I rested for a few minutes. Caught some great moments. These guys were throwing down pretty good eh?



My throws are still quite clumsy, but watching their examples has inspired me to improve my own techniques. I have a bad habit of focusing on each little piece of a waza. Details are important, but I am trying see the entire technique as one fluid motion. A musician must play every note, but it's only music worth listening to when all the notes come together.

May 5th, 2007-The First Step

So it was my turn Saturday. Right after our warm-up, sensei looked at me and said OK. Time for my black belt test. My partner for the first part was a nidan Dutchman. Good guy, pretty intense. He just flew at me full force. Didn't have much time to think. Could barely hear the sensei calling out the techniques.

We went through a long list of wazas. Zagi, ushirodori, tanto (knife) attacks, etc. Oh yeah, he picked up a katana and tried to skewer me. I had to perform ten wazas like that. With a long sword coming straight at you, you have virtually no time to think. My hands were a flurry of motion. I think I did ok, mistakes notwithstanding. He didn't run the sword through my gut and make yakitori out of me, so that's a success in my book.

The last part was me doing kokyuunage with four opponents. I've done that before, can be quite a bit of fun. These guys were running at me randomly, grabbing me at every opportunity. Honestly at this point, I was a bit tired but kept going.

The whole thing was so quick, I didn't realize that 40 minutes flew by. My only conscious thoughts during the test were of focusing my energy in my stomach and breathing. Yup, breathing. As they approached me, I inhaled and moved towards them. Then I exhaled as I turned and threw them. Everything was a blur. Couldn't make out faces, I could only see clouds of white uniforms charging me.

Then the sensei said "Kekkoo desu" and I did zagi kokyuuhoo with another fellow and it was all over. Like a little child, I took my first step.

April 29th, 2007-Next Step

Sunday I watched a yondan test. That was impressive. The sensei had the fellow go through virtually every waza imaginable. Zagi, ushirodori-you name it.

When he was performing all the hanmihandachi wazas, the sensei called in four of us to attack the test-taker. That was fun, just flying at the guy randomly. He later went through the jo, tanto and katana techniques as well. He did quite well, in my opinion. Very fluid motions. Of course, he's being doing this for 10-12 years.

For me, there's no real hurry. I'd like to take my time and slowly work my way up. Still it's inspiring to see someone else make fourth-degree black belt.

April 28th, 2007-Control and Release

Saturday we practiced more for Tokyo. My partner and I spent 45 minutes trading off throwing each other. We have to decide soon what wazas we will do, got less than a month left.

Got some mixed news. Sensei wants me to be the tori in Tokyo. Wow, my first time to throw my partner. I was quite flattered until the sensei said it was because my uke is so bad. Still, I'm pretty happy.
Before that, all of us worked on a technique that starts with being grabbed. Then the tori drops and spins while raising our other arm. Essentially we guide the aite over our shoulder and onto the floor.

I was practicing with a rather tall nidan and we spent some time experimenting on how much we can control our partner's fall. If the tori releases us early, we can gently (relatively speaking) land on the mat. If the tori aims for below the mat and doesn't release us, then the uke gets slammed pretty hard.

My partner was rather merciless, so he was not releasing me at all. Instead he just whipped me full force. I felt like a cheap futon. Loosened me up real good for the rest of the night.

April 27th, 2007-Variety is the Spice eh?

Quick one hour practice today. Besides sensei, there were four of us this morning. We did a variety of techniques, let's see if I can remember them. Kotogaeshi, ikkyo, shihonage.

Actually, we spent quite a large part of the session practicing ushirodori. One of my favorites. It involves grabbing the tori's wrist while running behind them (hence the "ushiro" 後ろ）and trying to grab their other wrist. The tori has to tenkan and act as a pivot for the attacker to spin around. Their momentum, combined with the tori sliding back a bit, puts them into a disadvantegous, unbalanced position. This makes it quite easy to perform the technique.

The final segment consisted of me in the center doing kokyuunage with four people attacking. They were flying at me with no warning, not waiting their turn. It was pretty fun, but a bit confusing at first. Then I stopped thinking about everything and just did the waza. Over and over, from all angles. Just a smooth blur of tenkan.

After practice, sensei and I were chatting about the group today. We were a mixed group of different ability levels. Different nationalities, too. And I had to work with all of them and react to their movements without fear, panic or even much thought. To achieve this in the dojo would be impressive, to utilize this firm yet respective calm in my life outside the dojo would be amazing.

April 22nd-Tokyo here we come!

So even though my wrist is still sore, I went to the dojo Sunday. We were practicing kokyunage some more. I was in a trio with my girlfriend and this oaktree of an Englishman. He throws pretty hard, bit daunting at times. It pushed me to work on my tobiukemi in this waza.

As with so many other situations in and out of the dojo, I just have to let go and let myself to do it. So I dropped my fear and ran full steam at my partner. He performed the throw very well and I went flying head over heels. Banged my butt pretty good, but it was a better uke performance. Speaking of which, it was rather amusing watching my girlfriend get thrown and seeing her spin 360 balanced on one buttcheek.

The differences in our weights becomes an issue with these momentum-based techniques. When a smaller person is throwing a larger person, the smaller person must be grounded and confident with their techniques or they get thrown by their attacker. In kokyunage, we should redirect their momentum to throw them. We goofed a few times and the result was that we basically threw ourselves along with our uke. Baby with the bathwater, as it were.

Towards the end of the night, we started our pairwork for Tokyo. I'm working with one of the teachers again. He's a funny, kind man. Always good to work with him. We practiced some of the koshinage techniques together. Speaking of momentum, its easy to bungle these. If your positioning is incorrect, the aite feels really heavy. I threw my partner and sometimes fell on top of him as a clumsy grand finale. We haven't finalized our routine for Tokyo yet, but I'm looking forward to hammering it all out.

April 13, 2007-Entering the Other's Space

My wrist is still messed up, so I'm resting at home. To be honest, it's my fault so I feel a little stupid. Yeah, mistakes can be painful ne? So I will compensate by posting about our Friday morning practice.

We are still practicing the multiple opponent style. Sensei varies the wazas every week. This week we practiced sumiotoshi and sankyo quite a bit. Having sankyo performed on me was tough with my bum wrist, but I endured.

Much of sumiotoshi's final stage involves moving past or through the opponent in order to throw them. Actually many of the techniques utilize this psychological concept. It is natural to think of two bodies being completely separate, law of physics and all.

I always consider the other person's physical presence too much when doing a waza. Honestly, I tend to overthink everything. But we have to project ourselves past that idea, get ourselves to move into and beyond the other person. The word irimi (入り身）literally means to enter the opponent or their space. With sumiotoshi, entering their space disrupts their balance and weight distribution. This makes it quite easy to throw them. If the waza is done properly, the opponent is merely teetering on a cliff.

On a related note, I started teaching some new kids recently. The smallest girl in the class was terrified to be away from her mother. She was balling her eyes out, so the Japanese staff came in to calm her down. As soon as they left the room, she stared crying again. The little girl wouldn't respond to anything I did. So I took a chance and put her on my lap. Totally worked. She stopped crying and started helping me turn the pages to the storybook. I completely entered her space, breaking the ma-ai (間合い）and she calmed down. I went from being scary man to warm chair.

Saturday April 7, 2007-Building Stamina

Sensei started off saying we need to build our stamina, so we didn't have our regular practice. Instead it was juppon all night long. Yup, everybody threw everybody ten times. We went through our usual list of techniques, then sensei wanted us to do kokyuunage (呼吸投げ) ten times to everyone. I'm still working on doing tobiukemi when thrown kokyuunage. The knee in my pants got seriously torn at this point.

See what I'm talking about! It's quite a fun waza to perform. One of my favorites. If you can do the tenkan properly, you can throw multiple partners quite easily.
I was the uke for a young guy who is steadily improving. His shihonage is getting dangerously good. My wrist is still pretty sore. This is mostly my fault. When my wrist was twisted, I should have moved my body towards my hand. Guess I was too slow, because I didn't jump properly. Two days later, my right wrist is a bit tender. Ah, live and learn.
Actually, it was a night of injuries. My girlfriend twisted her ankle on the third waza with the sensei. She banged up her hand real good.

Check that bad boy out! She was hobbling off the mat after practice. Next morning she had a sweet eggplant on her hand. Both of us were hurting, but we agreed that was a great session.
The juppon is a fantastic way to practice. Rather than doing the same waza repeatedly, we can learn to perform different techniques without thinking too much. Likewise for our partners. They have to be thrown without knowing what technique is coming next.
By the way, another member estimated that we were thrown over 200 times that night. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night.

合気道サイト

合気道のいくつかのサイト！

まずは。。。財団法人合気会の公式サイト
　　　　　　　http://www.aikikai.or.jp/
合気道をしてる人なら、誰でもこのサイトは知ってるでしょう。
本部道場のことも出てます。


次に。。。合気道ねっと
　　　　　　http://www.aikido.ne.jp/
一人での練習についてが面白い！！
街中で人をよけて歩くとか←入り身(笑）
私もよくよく日常生活の中で合気道の基本の動きを
試してみたりしてます（＾＾）
運転中に手刀でハンドル操作したり。


この二つのサイトは日本語と英語を選べます。

また見つけたら紹介していきますね。

April 1st, 2007-Little Things Mean a Lot

Sorry for the delay in posts. Went to the dojo last Sunday. Only practiced two techniques. First was Aihanmikatatedori Shihonage. Shihonage has been a weak point of mine for years. Small class, so the sensei spent a lot of time with each student. I was making a mistake by turning my hand and grabbing the aite's arm too soon. Instead he taught us that we should keep our palms up and rotate down against the aite's grasp and bring them towards us. This serves to upset their balance and prepares us to twist the arm and go under their arm.
My second error was bending my arms when I pivot under my partner's arm. If I bend my arms, their arm is very loose and relaxed. When the sensei demonstrated it on me, my arm was completely immobilized. And it was painful, of course. I tried it again, this time keeping my arms straight and more horizontal. My opponent was not relaxed and their arm was twisted and immobile. Their balance was disrupted and it was much easier to finish the waza.
The interesting thing is that the differences between a good, effective waza and an ineffective one are quite small. Usually a centimeter in the right direction will make a world of difference. Yup, little things mean a lot.

The Meaning of Black Belt

I was recently translating some waza lists. It's a slow process, but quite revealing. Some of the kanji are not too common in modern Japanese. Sensei always says that black belt is only the start of a much longer process. He noted that many people quit after making black belt and miss out on learning true aikido.

www.aikiweb.com

This site has a bunch of good articles covering a lot of different aspects. One that really caught my eye was about the meaning of the shodan rank. In his final paragraph, the author hits the nail on the head when he writes that shodan is just the beginning. If you would like to read the entire article:
www.aikiweb.com/spiritual/goldfield2.html
I am slowly getting to the point here. I found the kanji for shodan and, sure enough, sensei was right. 初　signifies beginner or first and is used in words like beginners' class (初級) and starting salary (初任給). The literal translation of shodan （初段）would be "beginning grade".
As for myself, I am staying in Japan for awhile. I have been here almost four years now and I still have so much to learn and experience. There so many things I want to do and accomplish here. Aikido and otherwise. Like being able to read a newspaper. Yup, this is just the beginning.

Friday March 23, 2007

Went to the dojo this morning. Short one hour practice. For the past month or so, sensei has been focusing on tenkan with multiple opponents trying to stabus. It can be quite bewildering at first, but it forces us to perform the movements fluidly without thinking.
This morning's practice consisted of three variations of iriminage. First we practiced the usual grab-by-the-neck form. Then we tried a couple new forms. I forget the name, but my favorite involved flipping the aite backwards, legs flying up and forward. As the aite tries to stab us, we would do iriminage and slide our arm up the partner's arm/torso. If you move your arm too quickly towards their face, they snap and react. When the time is right, we slide our arm up under their neck as we place our other hand in the small of their back. Took me a few tries,but the end result is the opponent being flipped/swept and slammed down to the mat.
Here's a weakness of mine. I am learning to do some wazas properly,but I don't have much control. This morning, when practicing with a fairly new gaijin, my timing was a bit too good. My partner is still working on his ukemi (falls); I could have caused him to bonk his head pretty good. Must admit, it was quite a bit of fun. He was chuckling too.
Great session today. We all had sore, red necks leaving the dojo. A few of us went to nurse our wounds over coffee and donuts.
Oh yeah, sensei gave me some dvds of our practices. I will try to review some of the key points in future posts.

Saturday March 17th

Last Saturday's practice was great. Everyone is getting excited about the upcoming Enbukkai, so we have been rather gung-ho lately. Sensei taught us a number of variations of morotedori techniques-including a shoulder throw that I'm not very good at. Oh at the beginning, Sensei was kind enough to focus on my tobiukemi. I'm still making mistakes on this basic foundational move. I am trying to coordinate all these little details into one fluid motion. Sensei had me do tobiukemi several times in rapid succession.
I was practicing a cool waza with our newest shodan. It's a nagewaza in which we sweep our partner's feet backwards, knocking them forwards. Kind of a reverse of most throws. It took me a few tries to get the rhythm, but it was quite a bit of fun flipping my partner. Head over heels as it were.
Towards the end of the evening, we got to try an original creation. A sensei special. The name is something like tennchi nage no kaeshi. We start doing the standard tennchi nage, but as our partner falls they throw us. It is a rather acrobatic waza, but when done properly looks pretty cool. Most wazas involve tori dropping/throwing the uke, but this one allows for a sudden change mid-waza.　誰が投げられるかわからなかったけどすごい楽しかった！

初めての投稿☆

管理者のtradersteveさんと一緒に、
私もこのブログに投稿していくことにしました～。

彼に触発されて、私も同じ道場に通い、
みんなと一緒に汗を流して
楽しいんでいます。

これから管理者のtradersteveさんと一緒に
日々、思ったこと、感じたことを
書き綴ってみたいと思います。

Let's get started!

送信者 タイトル未定のアルバム

Here's a pic from the yearly exhibition in Tokyo last May. That was great fun, really looking forward to this year's exhibition.
So let's introduce ourselves. My girlfriend and I are members of the Obata Aikido Kai in the Mie prefecture. This blog will serve as a journal to document our experiences. We look forward to sharing with you and hope you enjoy, too.