Thursday- Deena, beginners

All of the techniques began in gyakuhanmi katate dori. We did nikyo (omote and ura), junji nage, shiho nage, and a couple of others. I was, in some ways, the most senior person in the class (not in all). I now completely realize why it is that advanced students get hurt practicing with beginners. I was patient with them, though. I actually enjoyed it, because I had to figure out how to move with people who didn't want to move with me. The only frustration was this weird old guy who didn't want to take ukemi. I finally started forcing him a little and that worked. Lots of patience. It felt good.

Wednesday- TV star

Taught by:Miguel

Miguel set up something with a local Spanish language TV station to come and do a feature on the dojo. He taught a long class and we had a good mix of people attend. Most of the techniques were things I hadn't learned yet, but all the entries involved staving off a shomen unchi or yokumen uchi attack. I had some good exchanges with Steve Garber.

Tuesday- weapons

Teaching:Miguel

Practiced with: new Chris

We used a bokken and practiced a lot of saburi. Some of the cuts where done with the opposite foot and were ones that I had never done before. We then practiced keeping a connection with each other's blades and pushing each other back and forth across the mat. It was exhausting. But I really worked to lower my shoulders and engage my center and it started to work. There were a few exchanges where I could really feel how Miguel was moving his sword from my center and all the way into my back foot. It was a spooky, integrated feeling. Very alien, and intimate, but good. Between this and some advances I have made in yoga, I felt that this was a very good day.

Saturday

Leslie's class:

practiced with : Cindy, Jamie, Matsuo, Deena,

suwari waza shomen uchi ikyo (omoto and ura)
tachi waza ai hanmi shomen uchi
tachi waza ai hanmi shomen uchi ikyo (omote and ura)
suwari waza kokyu ho

During suwari waza kokyu ho, Jamie told me to go where he wasn't. If I felt strength or presence I was NOT to go there. I found that if I move slowly, relax, and try to find a way to move that requires little effort that I am likely to do it correctly. The problem, of course, remains the paradox between trying with all my might and acting with as little effort as possible. This was especially important because Jamie and Matsuo were tag teaming me and they have completely different ways of doing kokyu nage.

Deena's weapons class:

practiced with : Cindy and Paul

bokken- practiced cuts and extension; need to relax my entire upper body; Deena said that you should think of water or rubber; all strength and power should come from the lower body and really should emanate from where the lower body comes together (i.e. the hara). practiced makiotoshi (I think), horse stance, a weird side cutting exercise that no one knew how to do; then Deena got pissed at us for being stiff and having crap ukemi and so she made us do leg conditioning exercise (saburi, duckwalking, bunny hops, lunge and cuts).

Leslie's class

In class: Lori and Alan

Did a weird gyakuhanmi ryotedori sequence: evade to the side in a sweeping circle: then ikyo (omote and ura), or blend into juji nage (one variation was with a tenkan), and lastly, evade to the side with the circling motion and continue into a kokyu ho.

Then zazen.

keeping track of aikido classes again

I know that my practice would improve more quickly if I started recording my classes and what I learn in them again. The techniques are just as important as the life lessons (the techniques are the life lessons). I might as well bring my talent for book learning to bear since it's the only thing I have going for me in this practice that privileges everything but.

And, of course, I have gotten to a point where I have plenty of things to work on, even when I can't get to class. For example, I have been too sick this week to train, but I have still been focusing on tightening my center whenever I can remember to do so. This serves two purposes: 1.) it improves my posture and 2.) it takes a load off my shoulders, which allows me to relax. I expend a lot of energy now to make this a habit, but as my core muscles strengthen, I can tell that the sum total of energy expended is less. I waste a lot of energy by slouching and by being tense. It's just hard at first to believe the truth of those facts.

Also, I have been thinking a lot about an exchange I had with Jamie the Saturday before last:

J: You need to tighten your center as soon as you step on the mat.
K: I try to remember, but then I get excited and forget. I have been practicing doing it when I run-
J: That's great, but I need you to practice doing that when you do aikido.

I shut up right then. I had been getting to a point about how I have been training myself, but really, no matter what I had to say, Jamie was more right than I was. I needed to do this when I practiced aikido. And if I know this, and yet I'm not doing it, what the fuck? Period. So I know something I need to work on the second I bow in when I go to class on Friday.