Twin Cities Aikido Center Autumn Seminar 2008, Day 2
The day began after a pleasant potluck dinner and good night's sleep. I was worried that with the hotel full of sports fans, it might have been too noisy to get any rest, but either it was quieter than I expected or I was so tired any amount of partying wouldn't have kept me from sleeping.
Most of the out-of-towners, me included, were planning on leaving after the morning classes. The organizers decided that, instead of two one-hour classes in the morning followed by another after lunch, to have all three hours of classes in the morning.
Thoughts of the day include:
You can't move uke—well, you can, but it's tough—so don't try. Move yourself in such a way that it affects uke. Short form: Don't move uke; move yourself.
Connect to the earth. This is a shorthand way of talking about the need for a solid foundation of balance, as well as affecting uke's balance (kuzushi) through shifting weight, dropping one's center.
[While whirling a jo around in a way that would earn me a split lip:] The movements of nage's body are similar to those of whirling the jo. Uke is like the jo.
If uke wants the jo, give uke the jo.
A recurring theme among the demonstrated techniques was leading uke's mind. Uke's body mind and body are connected; you can lead one by leading the other. Takeguchi sensei demonstrated that it's possible to affect uke's body (eventually leading to a fall) without physically touching it, by leading uke's mind where you want it to go. The words make sense, but it's clearly a 30-year technique!
It occurs to me that affecting uke's body also affects uke's mind, drawing attention to balance or potential targets in the case atemi, so the connection is bidirectional. Interesting.
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Twin Cities Aikido Center Autumn Seminar 2008, Day 1
The first day of classes is finished, and as you might expect, it was like trying to drink from a firehose.
The morning classes were kind of a blur. The techniques Takeguchi sensei concentrated on were nikkyo and sankyo from yokomenuchi, as well as shihonage and iriminage (and kokyunage) from ushiro tekubitori
There were times during the morning classes where it was coming so fast and furious I was struggling to keep up. I'm still very confused about the application of shihonage from ushiro tekubitori Takeguchi shihan demonstrated.
The afternoon began with weapons. Bokuto were used to demonstrate control of the center (center line). Jo were then broken out and used to illustrate how the back hand and hip are critical to a succesful throw, the jo solidifying the otherwise hypothetical connections between the two hands and the hips and the hands.
The second class of the afternoon was about kuzushi: using small body
movements to control uke's balance. Moving uke's hips out from under
him or her, and the idea of the third leg
were emphasized. The
third leg is the one that makes a stool stable, and that people don't
have. If uke's balance is shifted toward this theoretical third
leg
, uke becomes unstable, making it possible for nage to execute a
technique resulting in a throw or pin.
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