Sixteen Random Attacks

Aikido class today was moving along pretty much the way class always does: R Sensei demonstrates a technique, we follow, changing uke/nage roles. It was a nice mix of practicing the entering and turning blends followed by yokomenuchi shihonage ura and omote. Then he threw us a curveball.

Defense against random attack practice. This means each student gets a turn at standing in the center of the mat, while the other students attack him or her, one at a time, four times each, with a random attack each time. I had been uke, the one who takes the fall, in such an exercise a few times before but not so often had I been nage, the thrower.

Yikes.

For me, being uke in this exercise is, in some ways, easier because what I have to do is respond to the technique and follow the lead of nage. As nage, I had to decide, in a split-second what form my self-defense would take, I would have to lead.

I've been practicing aikido for just under a year. Training twice a week, I've taken one test and made it to 5th kyu. I think that I've learned some techniques but this was really a test of how much had sunk in. So much of martial arts is muscle memory, responding without thinking about it - how much had my muscles learned?

What happened? Well, let's see, it's kind of a blur. I froze a couple times ("Just keep moving!" my classmates yelled), almost tripped over my own feet once, and, lo and behold, irimi nage, shihonage, kotegaeshi and ikkyo miraculously appeared. Hurrah! I have learned something!!