4th kyu and 2nd kyu Test Prep

Well, I met R.(5th kyu) yesterday before class and went over his test techniques. Mostly just details in needs to work on. D.(5th kyu) showed up and he helped out, too. D. will not be testing this time around, but he his going ahead and learning his techniques.

S.(1st dan) filled in for Sensei for the first class. He saw me working with R. and D. and also saw that D.(3rd kyu) was in class. So, he reviewed the 4th kyu and 2nd kyu techniques as well.

Not much to say, today. Just that the Olympic Opening ceremonies are tonight and I'm really excited about it. I can't wait to get home after class tonight to watch them! Go Team USA!!!!

Ryotetori and 4th kyu

Hey all! I'm back.

I went to class tonight and finally worked off that upset stomach feeling. My neck feels about 95% better, too.

H. (5th dan) taught tonight. We practiced the following techniques from ryotetori:

• kokyunage (hitoe iriminage)
• kokyunage (zemponage version): I practiced this one with E.(2nd kyu). E. is getting ready for his 1st kyu test and will be testing not this weekend but next. E. is a liver transplant recipient so he has some medical challenges. I think I mentioned before that he's one of those people on the mat that I look up to. He really grasps the concepts of aikido especially the mental/spiritual and aiki-extensions aspects.
• shihonage: I practiced with my friend K. (4th kyu), I'm so glad that she is back on the mat training! Go K.!
• nikkyo: I practiced with S.(1st dan). I asked S. about Summer Camp and he said N.B. tested for 3rd dan. I asked him about the new testing requirements and he said that Y.Sensei was really bored and took overe the testing. Uh, this new standardization thing doesn't sound like it will last.
• kotegaeshi: I practiced with R.(5th kyu)--kokyu forward arm and cut with rear arm as you enter irimi...that's all I'm going to say.

Next class, I taught. I had four people in class (J.(no kyu), C.(no kyu), D.(5th kyu) and R.(5th kyu). I divided the class up between the no kyu and 5th kyu. R. is testing in a couple weeks for 4th kyu so I wanted to make certain he would be ready. I taught Shomenuchi ikkyo to the no kyus and Shomenuchi Nikkyo to the 5th kyus. At the end of class, I ran R. through the test techniques to see what he need to brush up on and told him so.

Overall, it was a couple of nice classes. I was a little tired due to my upset stomach. I looked today on the new juice I tried and noticed it had sucralose in it. If I remember correctly that gave me a really bad upset stomach once. Hopefully, it's not the case, because I didn't notice that until after my third glass tonight. If I wake up at 5:00 am again, I'll know what it was...ugh.

Gonna Try and Make It Tonight

Well, as an update from Saturday, my neck was pretty sore on Sunday and it was still a little sore yesterday. Today, it feels okay, but now I still feel a little sick. I don't know what's wrong with me. Is it real or is it Memorex? I'll let you know how tonight goes.

LawKi and Aiki!

LawKi: A lesson in the application of Aiki in mediation and negotiations!

Well, on Friday at my Legal Seminar I got an aikido lesson! Actually, it was Gung Ngo (a Vietnamese Martial Art that incorporates Karate, Aikido, and Judo). The topic of the seminar was Mediations and Negotiations. One of the lecturers talk about how mediations (not meditation!) was a lot like martial arts. Some martial arts are hard like karate or boxing where you go on a frontal direct attack with lots of blocks and kicks and others are soft where you just evade an attack. He said you want to be more spherical in your mediation or negotiation stategy where you redirect their attack while still maintaining control of your opponent. He even used kotegaeshi and iriminage as demonstrations! w00t!

Aiki: Lessons in reversals and variations

Today, I took the first class which was taught by R. (3rd dan) and taught the 2nd class. R. taught reversals from koshinage (aiki koshi and judo koshi). Fun, except when I banged my head on the mat really hard when my parter was trying to do a sutemi (sacrifice throw). Instead of letting me go out he pulled me straight down and my head jerked back really hard when I hit the mat. Actually, from what R. said, my head may have hit the mat first. I think my arm hit then my head. It freaked me out a bit, but class was almost over at that point.

I taught the second class, and I had a lot of people in class, too! Well, 7 folks, but that's a lot for 2nd class. R. (2nd dan), E. (2nd kyu), D. (2nd Kyu), J. (2nd kyu), L. (4th kyu), G. (5th kyu) and C. (no kyu). Since E. (2nd kyu) is going to test for 1st kyu in about three weeks, it taught techniques from katamenuchi. I emphasized how you can do techniques both on the striking hand and the grabbing hand. I did a couple of techniques each. For the stricking hand, I did kokyunage, kotegaeshi and shihonage from a tenkan opening demonstrating that when you tenkan that these are some of the techniques that you have available. On the grabbing hand, I did nikkyo and shihonage. I also told E. (2nd kyu) that when he is doing the test to demonstrate 4 basic techniques first then at least 1 advanced technique. The same with pinning, do the kneeling pin first then standing.