Aikido Seminar Musings

Aikido is not just what we do in class. It's in how we live and take on roles of uke and nage in real life. It's in how we assess what one person is offering or giving and how we respond to that offer. How we exchange energy. How we receive. How we redirect, if necessary. How we blend and adjust. Who we are in the mat reflects who we are off the mat. How we behave outside the dojo is in turn a mirror of how we treat others inside it.

Role Reversal

Tomorrow is test day at the dojo. I am not up for testing as I don't have nearly enough time in to even think about my next rank. I will, however, be participating in the test. This will be my very first time serving as uke for another student. I must admit, I was both flattered and slightly anxious when C asked me to be her partner for her 5th kyu test. I figured, 'Why not?' There's always a first time. It might as well be now.

I'm also bringing the gigantic bottle of hand sanitizer I got at Walgreens last weekend. Another form of self defense. Ethyl alcohol-style.

Self-Defense

Today, Doran Sensei taught an all-kotegaeshi class. From all kinds of different attacks - same side wrist grab, opposite side wrist grab, double arm grab, punch and side strike.

What stuck with me though is what he said right at the end of class when we had bowed out and were gathered in a circle. Self-defense is not just defending against a strike. It's also about defending against sickness. So, bring some hand sanitizer into the dojo and wash your hands and wrists before stepping on the mat. Sneeze into your sleeve, if you have to sneeze. Don't touch your eyes, nose or throat with your hands.

Don't get sick. Don't make others sick.

That's also self-defense.

Wise words.

My Test on Tape

I came back from a week away at a conference to find a CD with my 3rd kyu test in my mailbox at work. I eyed it with a hint of apprehension. Later that night, I popped it into my disc drive and had a look.

Impressions:

1. "Man, this was longer than I remember it!" The footage lasts about 20 minutes. No wonder I was pretty winded by the jiyuwaza at the end. In my mind, there was no time. There was just the test.

2. I skipped through most of the jo techniques because I still can't face looking at them. I did see the last couple of techniques and they don't look as bad as I feared.

3. I do kind of look like I know what I'm doing. Kind of.

4. More practice.

5. I look like I'm having fun.

Thanks to one of my friends who always brings her camcorder for tests, I now have copies of my 5th, 4th and 3rd kyu tests. Something to look back on in the future. Something to learn from.

3rd Kyu

Whew! All done.

I tested at the beginning of last month and, just like the last test, it pretty much was a blur. What do I remember? I remember my jo hitting the mat during the 20 jo suburi, doing tsuki kotegaeshi instead of the called out tsuki iriminage. I remember the mistakes. I suppose it's the perfectionist in me that chooses to dwell on what I missed rather than on what I got right. (Why does this sound just like my third grader? Augh! He must get it from me, poor kid!)

I also remember the first day I stepped on the mat, in jeans, no less, and joined in class. I remember the welcome I felt from the teacher and the students. I remember the confusion about what to do with my feet and my arms.

It's been three years and though I've come along, I still think a whole lot about what I'm doing when I'm doing it. The techniques are more natural than they were before but I still find myself struggling with them. I suppose that is the way it will always be - there is a constant process of learning and improvement.

But there's also a heck of a lot of fun.

Last Thursday's class brought a whole bunch on newcomers to the mat. We warmed up as usual with the basic blending exercises, slowly progressing through some very slow throws into back sit falls and then deconstructing katate dori shihonage, the four-directional throw. At one point while we were practicing, our instructor came up to me and asked, "Can you take a high fall from this?" I grinned and said, "Can we do a practice one first?" We did and then he called for a break and called me up as uke.

"Now we shall work on the fall," he said, and proceeded to throw me into a high fall right smack onto the mat. I landed with a resounding thud.

Cue: bug-eyed newbies.

"No, not really."

Aw shucks. Well, we do want them to come back so maybe next time.

New Year, a month later...

No blog posts yet this year, eh? Well, it's been kind of busy. Plus when your laptop is on top of the lap of your four-year old and he's on your lap, it makes things a little more, shall we say, challenging. And you've just made dinner and cleaned it up. And you've just made muffins with said four-year old and haven't cleaned up that mess yet. And your eight year old is upstairs with his daddy, stressing out about his spelling homework. And your four year old wants to do a puzzle of the United States of America RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the exercise front: NO swimming (still too cold for me), a teeny bit of biking, some running (say, 2-3 miles, 2-3 times a week). Haven't picked my next event/race. I'm contemplating Bay to Breakers (early reg deadline: April 30th, race date: May 17th). I'm still practicing aikido twice a week and just found out that I should be testing for 3rd kyu sometime in March. Eeek! I thought I was all over test anxiety. Guess I was wrong.

I've got a presentation to do for work on March 6th that I'm already starting to worry about (hey, it's never to early for that).

In the meantime, I'm folding paper airplanes. Lots of paper airplanes. See, we (read D) got a paper-airplane-a-day calendar for Christmas. P is obsessed with it. Never let's me forget to fold one. It is February 5th. You do the math, that's a lot of airplanes and it's only the first week of February!!! But they are a lot of fun to fold and they are a lot of fun to fly. I bet it will make me popular with the below-5 set.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

50 seconds to muffin time!

Got to go.

Aikido Fun

Though I haven't been blogging about aikido much lately, I have been in class twice a week, practicing, practicing, practicing. What's great about class is that it's familiar and yet new every time. We could be doing the same technique over and over again but there's always something different to focus on - where the feet go, how you move your arms, how you move your center, how you move your uke's center. Then there's the uke role itself- practicing rolls and falls. I'm trying to round out my corners. I still hear way too much thunk when I hit the mat and marvel at how others can almost float above it. More time is needed. I've got that.

Today's class ended with each person getting six consecutive katate tori (same side wrist grab) attacks. The response could be anything that came to mind (or body, as the case may be). I don't quite know what's going to come out when I'm up as nage so this type of training both thrills and scares me.

But it is always, always a heck of a lot of fun.

Keep It Simple

Doran Sensei's class this week focused on kata dori nikyo, breaking it down into all the little pieces that go into the technique. Stepping off the line of attack, atemi to the face, drawing out the arm on the grabbed side, lowering your center, scooping in, taking the elbow, going for the third point to take uke's center.

It's a lot to remember. Where do my feet go? Where do my hands go? How do I not get clocked by uke?

Then he summed it up in two steps:

1. Take uke's balance.
2. Take uke's balance.

And, when in doubt, refer to step 3:

Don't lose your own balance.

Ukemi

The art of falling.

The art of blending with your partner's defensive technique and minimizing the impact on your own body. Done well, it is truly a thing of beauty. Soft falls, smooth falls, gorgeous rolls. No pain, just absorption and distribution of impact. Very, very cool. The best ones make it look so easy and effortless.

But it's not. It's different with every partner because every person is different in how they give and receive energy. After a while, you learn your classmates' patterns, their styles, their aikido, and you blend accordingly. I might go in harder with one person that I trust to throw me cleanly and softer with others.

So, I practice and I practice and I'll practice some more. Someday, I'll get there.

And then I'll practice some more.

My First Aikido Seminar

I know, it sounds a little strange: an aikido seminar. No, there are no Powerpoint presentations or chairs in a room. There's usually a visiting instructor, the dojo and a whole bunch of enthusiastic people who take time out of their weekends and cough up some cash to learn something new. Sometimes it's something old that shows up in a new guise or is presented from a different angle.

I had been to a bunch of seminars when I was training in karate and arnis but this was my very first aikido seminar. I was excited. Not to mention the weird coincidence that the visiting Sensei was a high school buddy of one of my good friends - the same one that got me into aikido in the first place.

Basic blending. Keeping the connection. Not being hard but just blending and flowing into a throw. Maybe not always a throw.

It was a great chance to train with a whole new set of people, many of them yudansha (black belt rank). All of them very kind and helpful. A community of learners. I like to learn.

4th Kyu

Want to hear about my test? Funny story. I got to the parking lot, bought the parking ticket, placed it on on the dashboard and then headed to the changing rooms. Then I realized that I'd left the jo in the car. Ran back to the car. I opened the trunk and couldn't get the weapon out. It just wouldn't come out. So there I was thinking:

I got it in, why can't I get it out? Did it expand on a rainy day? What am I going to do if I can't get it out? What if it snaps while I'm trying to get it out?

I'm doomed.

I took a deep breath and tried again - and got it out. I still had to get changed. Undressed. Put on gi bottom. Put on gi top. Realized that I was not wearing a sports bra. Took off gi top lest I really give the testing board something to talk about. Got dressed again and made it to class.

I bowed onto the mat and took a couple of test strikes with the jo. They felt ok. I was about as ready as I was ever going to be.

Four people were testing: Immovable Rock for 5th kyu, me for 4th kyu, Dancer for 3rd kyu and Role Model for 1st kyu. Rock is just that, young fellow, strong, likes to resist. He's fun to throw. Dancer is tiny but she can throw someone twice her size. I love to watch Role Model practice aikido. She's got such beautiful posture and projects calm, strength and confidence when she moves. I want to be like her.

Rock's test was over in about 5 minutes. Yipes. That meant that I was up next.

Did I mention that my uke bailed on me about 5 minutes before the test? Her knee had been feeling wonky and, though she thought she'd be better, she wasn't feeling up to taking ukemi that day. Thank goodness Role Model came to the rescue. Whew.

Suddenly, it was my turn. This is what it was like:

bow in

a bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrr

bow out

Somewhere in between the bowing, techniques were called out, I did them, I stepped the wrong way, did sitting pins when I should have done standing ones, kiai-ed in the wrong spots, but I didn't lose grip of the jo! I guess I remember all the things I didn't do quite the way I wanted. Tonight, I watched the video from the test and was surprised to see myself looking semi-competent.

80 training days to 3rd kyu. One down today, 79 to go.

Test Tomorrow

The day has finally come. It's time to test for the next rank - 4th kyu. It has been just over a year since my last test and, I must admit, I'm a little bit nervous. I mean, I know the techniques but there's the whole thing about getting up in front of the whole class and having to perform. It's so much easier to blend into a crowd (even when that crowd is just four or five other people). Oh well, ready or not, here I go. I figure, as long as I don't launch the jo into the testing committee, I should be ok.

I hope.

A Tale of Two Bruises

Exhibit A:

The Bruised: Me, in nage role
The Bruiser: J, in uke role
The Implement: shomenuchi strike
Lesson Learned: Don't meet an incoming overhead strike with your wrist. Blend!

Exhibit B:

The Bruised: D, 7 years old
The Bruiser: P, 3 years old
The Implement: plastic trashcan
Lesson Learned: Don't hit your older brother with a trashcan. Also, don't antagonize your younger brother when he has a plastic trashcan close at hand.


(These were taken last week. The bruises have both faded, D's faster than mine. Ah, the amazing healing powers of youth.)

Kokyu Dosa

Many of my classes end with this exercise in breathing, centering, connection and extension.

Find your opponent's center and move it. Don't try to muscle it because against a bigger and stronger person, it just will not work. Make it very subtle, feel for the center, and then just give it a little nudge. Don't get frustrated. Relax.

It looks so easy but it is hard. When you get it right, it is so very cool.

Uke

I've found that I love being chosen as uke for demonstration. Maybe it's an ego thing. It means that my instructors think that I've achieved some basic level of competence. There's a certain amount of uncertainty and anticipation that comes with not knowing what technique is coming next. You're told what attack you are supposed to execute and Sensei takes it from there. Your role is to provide a committed attack and then go with the flow.

Go with the flow. Nage is defending against your attack but you, as uke, are still in control of your response to that defensive move. Do aikido. Go with the flow. It's all a circle.

Also, it's just a heck of a lot of fun to get thrown around by someone who knows what they're doing.

:)

Sensei is 75 Today

Long may he live and continue to inspire and teach us the art and philosophy of aikido.

1. Harder and stronger is not always better.
2. Get out of the way of conflict.
3. Do not meet aggression head on. Blend and redirect.
4. Center yourself and move from your center.
5. Breathe.

He's a kind and generous man with his knowledge. I am lucky to learn from him.

Progress

• katate tori shihonage
  
• yokomen uchi shihonage
  
• tsuki kotegaeshi
  
• ryote dori tenchinage
  
• suwariwaza ryote dori tenchinage
  

What do all these techniques have in common?

At the very end of class today, R Sensei called on me to get up in front of the class and, with CC as my uke, demonstrate them, one after the other. I had no idea I was going to be asked to do this.

I should have been petrified, but I wasn't. I recognized the words, knew what techniques they represented and did them. I didn't do them perfectly but I didn't hesitate either. It just felt good and natural and not scary. In fact, it was fun.

What a great way to break up my crazy-busy work day.

(And now, back to writing my talk for tomorrow...)

Focus on the Elbow

During Tuesday's class with Doran Sensei, we spent the whole time on aihanmi katatedori ikkyo. Here's what I came away with:

1. Don't focus on the wrist that is being grabbed.
2. Focus on dropping your elbow, not lifting your hand.
3. Get off the line of attack.
4. Blend!
5. Don't try to yank your partner around. Redirect.
6. Use your whole body, not just your arms.
7. Move from your center.

Why do almost all these things sound so familiar? Because I hear them all the time. It is sinking in. Come to think of it, many of these things apply off the mat as well.

Aikido is a way of life.

Back to Normal

Yippee! I'm back on the mat and today was a good day to be back. Nice sized class - 7 guys , 2 girls. Nice mix of techniques - some throwing and rolling, some pinning and shoulder cranking stretching. More throwing and rolling. A preview of a nasty kotegaeshi high breakfall (which I have yet to try but am secretly dying to - maybe I should choose slightly different words).

The test is not going to happen on the 30th but that's ok. With the week off due to sickness, I need more time anyway.

The sloth has been banished. The Red Sox are in the World Series. The family is healthy again. I'm giving a talk at a conference on Saturday and it's ready to go. Life is good.

Got to savor this moment.

Aikido on the Road

Things you don't really need to practice aikido while on a business trip:

• a gi
• a dojo
• mats
  

Absolutely essential: a partner

About two or three times a year, the consortium that I work with gathers together from our individual locations across the US and Europe for some old-fashioned face-to-face time. Part of what makes traveling to locations near and far bearable is that I get to hang out with the really great people that I usually interact with only through email or phone.

What makes the trips truly awesome is that I don't have to put my exercise schedule on hold because I can run and do aikido with one of these friends. He's the one that got me back into exercise mode. Every meeting, we'd talk a little bit about martial arts - me with my karate and arnis background, and he with his aikido. In April of last year, after dinner one night, he said, "Go give aikido a try. There's a class right by your work." I came back from that meeting, went to my first aikido class the next day, and haven't looked back since.

We've packed our gis to meetings in Palo Alto, Seattle, Cambridge (UK!), and, now, Princeton. This last trip, we managed to squeeze in two training sessions, about an hour and a half to two hours each. My classes are only an hour long so having a longer time period was a real treat. Though we did have our gis, there was no time to get to a dojo, so, no mats. Hello, grass! My gi has never been so dirty nor have I ever had so much close contact with a lawn. It was so much fun. The look of glee on his face as he swung me around in irimi nage will stay with me for a long time.

Later this month, he comes to CA for yet another meeting. We're trying to see if we can squeeze in a class at the main dojo. My next kyu test falls a few days later, on his birthday.

I will practice and I will be ready. Here's what I need to know:

• shomen uchi - ikkyo - omote and ura
• shomen uchi - nikyo - omote and ura
• shomen uchi - irimi nage
• kata dori - nikyo - omote and ura
• ryote dori - tenchi nage
• tsuki - kote gaeshi
• katate dori - shihonage - omote and ura
• yokomen uchi - shihonage - omote and ura