Gasshou no renshu is like Suwari Waza

We have Branch sensei leading us Thurs night. After the warm up, we did our usual routine practice like Gasshou no renshu.  Sensei has taken some time to clarify this exercise with a new analogy, I find this analogy very appropriate . Then we did kuzushi waza, spent extra time on the double handed grab one after sensei's demonstration. Since we have all blue belts tonight in even pairs, we did the Kihon ura waza Atemi waza no ura with the slow, medium and fast repetition. Last but not the least, we spent the last 15 minutes doing randori with tegatana.

1) Gasshou no renshu: it is a blocking exercise with the hands joined together. Uke starts with yokomenuchi strike, this is really a sword attack, but done with an unarmed hand. Hand needs to go straight over the head, before come down diagonally to the side of the head. Tori needs to block before Uke's hand comes down, the analogy was that it works just like the block we do for suwari waza, blend with the Uke, and block him before the hand drops.


2) The 7th of go no sen no kuzushi waza: famously for two handed grab. I learn two key things.
A. I need to be a better Uke by not stepping with the Tori, hold on to Tori and let my structure corrupts, I unconsciously followed Tori by stepping in, hence Tori don't feel the right kuzushi.
B. Two hands must act together, upper hand tries to do hair brush, body turn, hairbrushing hand remain in center. The throw is really done by the lower hand by drilling the hand deep to the floor.

I found my old video taken back in 2009 during the Japan international tournament trip, amazingly I taped all techniques of kuzushi waza. I still recall at that time, I had no clue... The second video shows how it came from the sword motion, both hands are on the sword, little swirl around the sword in the center, Uke gets thrown.

Terminology:

Kihon ura waza	Basic Counter Technique
Atemi waza no ura	Striking Counter Technique
Kansetsu waza no ura	Joint Counter Technique
Hiji mochi no tsukuri	Technique of grasping arm with both hands

Blue Paraty

Recently I have my eyes on this blue paraty bag, it is available in NM, I haven't seen it in person yet, I am wondering if it is the same shade of blue as before.

Paraty Medium Shoulder Bag, Blue

$1895

Back in 2012, I saw NordStrom has one of Oceania Blue, it was gorgeous. It is slightly different from Peacock Blue, the latter has a green undertone, I have actually have a bag has the exact color like peacock blue. 

100 Throws + 100 falls = Exhausted

Tuesday night's class was a very intense class. After warm up, we immediately come to a fighting mode. Morgan sensei had all of us lined up, and he started to throw everyone one by one, after he finished, the next one started to throw the rest of us, we called it a line drill. So each every one of us has take 5 falls for one person, and got to throw the other five for the same technique, we did twice for each technique in Atemi waza and Hiji waza, you do the math, that comes to total of 100 falls and 100 throws. At end of the practice, I was completely exhausted, legs and but started to protest.

I remember last Tuesday was also very exhausting, took me several days to recover. What did we do last week? We did 17 kata for Kihon and Grabs continuously.

But, it was good, it was what we needed, more practice!

I want to be able to write down what I learned in the class, if I can just recall at least one thing, that should be good.

1) Shomenate: don't forget to have initial kuzushi, make sure you break Uke's balance. And no grabbie, both hands push with shotei. 


2) Gedanate: don't need to bend Uke's elbow unless you are in much height disadvantage, see Uke's arm is straight


3) Ushiroate: Don't forget the initial kuzushi, lower Uke's hand; Don't use finger to throw, put the whole hand down on Uke's shoulder, get behind the Uke, not too sideway and throw using idoiyoku


4) Udehineri: Know which hand is the throwing hand, the hineri hand got thrown, not the other hand, See which hand is Tomiki Sensei throwing?


5) Wakigatame: Minh got sensei's praise on his performance on this one, he dropped the right shoulder and have good control of the Uke. The initial kuzushi should emphasize extend the Uke out to the weakline.

My first BLOG

I thought the first post will start with a Aikido memo back in Feb 4th, it was just after a exciting trip from Denver, I could not help myself writing a long email about my take away, here it is.

Take away from Denver trip

kate	Feb 4
to Aikido

Hi guys, the trip was awesome,  met old and new friends,  most importantly learn Aikido. Many things have been shown and taught by our senseis, somehow this time I have so much better understanding than before, the perspectives that i start to see became much different.  I would like to share some of my thoughts as well as serve as a reminder to myself.

1. I have been doing all wrong in all of my techniques! it has never occured to me that how bad they are. I am lack of control in my techniques, it may appear I got some kuzhushi and throw the uke with movement,  but I was not completely controlling the uke from the head to toe. Many times, my excuse is i don't want to hurt uke, i didn't even attempt to do it to the full extend. The truth is i missed the whole point of practicing martial art,  simply wasted my time. Kuzhushi is more than weight shifting, it is a matter of control and make uke feel stuck all the way to the toes.

2. Small hand twist made big difference, many techniques shown by senseis begun with a hand turn or twist, I  unconsciously or consciously ignored them a lot of times, thinking it doesn't make difference, the truth is big difference. The hand turn provides so much leverage for the rest of the techniques, it is amazing how much it makes sense to me now.

3. Body drop tend to be abused, it is a way to finish the technique, but not the technique itself, I emphasized or used my dropping so that it feels like i can throw uke with bigger or quicker drop, but by doing that, again miss the point of the kata, forgetting in controll is the most important thing.

There are so many things to remember, Endu sensei is a great teacher, his demonstration is amazingly precise and easy to follow, it may have something to do with him being Nariyama's students,  I can tell in every move the uke is under controll and nailed to the toes. I can't wait to see them again in DVD.

sorry for the long email, I really need to share my excitement. See you all on Tuesday.