2016 RMI

Nice to be back here. We have just come back from RMI seminar in Denver, weather was gorgeous, dojo was wonderful, meeting old and new friends.

Before I forgot, last year's RMI was a big success, too. I had the honor to test for Shodan, and yes, I passed! Our Intel club had quite a few ppl to test Shodan like me, all of us passed, what a great achievement for our club, our sensei were very proud.

This year's seminar are mostly taught by Endo sensei, as usual a lot of good stuff, I tried to absorb as much as I can.

Day 1,  I have had good practice on Kaieshiwasa with my fellow akidoka.


1, oshitoshi to flat arm on chest, back step and ushiro

2, hijitoashi to shomen, sink and expand wrist out to create bridge between uke, while uke try hard to pull back, tori reverse wrist and do shomen

3, wakagatemae , timing of gedanwasa, create bridge between uke, while he is trying hard to lift and do wakegatame, sink back and retract elbow, then do gyaku.

4, kotegaeshi, when uke stats to take wrist to the back, follow his flow, step in and do ushiro

5, kotegaeshi, when uke start to reverse wrist, tori create kuzhshi same time, expand wrist to his face or head, then use left hand to do gedan watch miai between uke.

6. Kotehineri, uke start to step in , tori step in to his back and do ushiro

7. Shihonate timing 1, before uke take second foot up, follow his arm swing, and do gyaku
8. Shihonate timing 2, as soon as uke did tasabaki, and touch tori wrist, move in on to uke and do gyaku.

9. miotoshi, uke swing arm, before second foot planted, do gedan.

10 Sumiotoshi, uke touch wrist, it is time to sink and expand wrist, create bridge, then switch feet do shomen


Kneeling first technique, use hami to make uke drop right under you, and tori raises fist across to left side then strike to the right, use idoriyoku move to right side of uke.

Learning Daisan - a tip of the iceburg

Koryu Dai San

Suwari-waza (Section A - Kneeling Techniques)

1. Oshi-taoshi
2. Gyaku-gamae-ate
3. Kote-gaeshi
4. Ryote-mochi-sukui-nage
5. Tentai-kote-hineri
6. Shiho-nage
7. Gedan-ate
8. Hiji-kime

Tachi-waza (Section B - Standing Techniques)

1. Kote-mawashi
2. Uchi-tenkai-nage
3. Gyaku-gamae-ate
4. Hiji-kime
5. Mae-otoshi
6. Ushiro-waza-mae-otoshi
7. Ushiro-waza-tentai-kote-hineri
8. Mune-tori-kata-gatame

It is a journey to learn all the Dai San technique, I have been practicing for months now, it is really a blend of everything we have learned so far, timing, kazhushi, controls, all put into these set of connecting techniques. In some way, I feel that it makes them more practical.

I found our Morgan sensei's demo on the dai san kata, he showcased all of the 50 techniques, it is a good video to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STgPpdfPF2A

Some notes I took from last night's class. I asked sensei specifically about two techniques: kneeling Gedan-ate and standing Mune-tori-kata-gatame. Same question from those two troubled me, how to throw the knee? I think I got my answers, will definitely try next time. 

Kneeling Gedan-ate: 1. Make Knee bend forward to toes, 2. then around to side of knee, make leg unstable, 3. Push knee to weak line , back fall. Overall knee circle out then in then back.

Standing Mune-tori-kata-gatame: 1. Make knee bend forward to toes, the other hand make sure the foot doesn't step away, kneel next to uke knee only, not to center. Move hip to do the cut. 2. Around to side of knee push to back weak line.

Denver RMR 2013

Like last couple of years, this year's RMR is again in Denver and again in Superbowl weekend. It is a quite eventful trip, first and foremost we had a wonderful Aikido seminar from Endo sensei, second, the new Dojo is opened officially, practicing on brand new mats is a treat. On our way back to San Jose, we catch some part of Superbowl in flight, southwest offers free wifi TV in flight, turned out to be a disappointing game.

Since we had smaller audience this time, Endo sensei's lecture focused on more advanced techniques. We did variation of 17 on Friday night, then on Saturday, mostly Daisan stuff.


I also had the pleasure to have Garth show me the suwari waza, here are some of the notes I took, along with the notes that I took when Endo sensei demonstrate:


Suwari waza:

Oshitaoshi: one hand hsould be able to do it, don't crank on wrist

Gyakugamae ate: act early

Kotegaeshi: block first, 90 degree turn, don't need more than that. One motion not like Tick Tack. Once kotegaeshi, then turn around the body, rollover the uke. If rollover is slow, cut inside elbow around, if rollover speed is fast, grabing elbow is enough.

Ryote dori Sukuinage: use hip to stand up, which will stand uke up, don't lift with shoulder, hip up first, then maki sukito to twist uke's wrist, just like Jodan kazushi, tuck arm. After Uke forward weighted on his toes, drop right shoulder, at the same time turn to left, extend the arm, in one motion.

Tenkai kotehineri osae:  Lean forward when uke attack, don't hunch back, pull uke elbow to break grip, turn hip to the left, start from my left chest, to far right, extending uke the same time, then big drop, one knee up to allow bigger drop.

Tenkai kotegaeshi osae:  draw back the hand first, make uke come to my side. Use hands like lever, grab hinari on fingers if shotei is too big to grab, wrist is not the right spot, should grab shotei, the meaty part,. After uke is thrown, tuck uke's finger under his shoulder, next to his head, ping my knee next to his shoulder.

Gedanate: make uke work harder by getting heavy, try not to be moved. Hook figners on the gi as much as I can, uke should do back fall, not fall on the side, hand blade cut around and back

Hijikime nage:  Gedan on uke first, control the elbow like stick, then Jodan, after turn around, knee get ups the same time doing maeotashi. Normal way is Jodan first then Gedan, for my size, skipping the initial Jodan might be beneficial.

On Sunday, Endo sensei demontrated the DaiYong kata, 11 of them. Morgan sensei remember all of them and reviewed them with us on Tuesday night class. Let me try to put down what I recall.

1. Gyakugamaeate: uke cross grab right hand, another hand grab the back of gi. Slide to the left, get kazhushi, then idoyiyoku backward with a big circle, and do Gyakugamaeate.
2. Maeotoshi:  uke cross cross grab left hand, another hand grab the back of gi, Slide to the right, get kazhushi, then idoyiyoku backward with a big circle, go under uke's arm, so that you are almost completely behind uke,  rotate and cut over his shoulder, uke take a roll forward
3. Oshitaoshi: uke cross grab right hand, another hand try to grab the back of gi. before uke can grab the gi, tori turn uke's hand into hineri and throw with oshitaoshi.
4. 
   
5. kotegaeshi: tori turn back to uke when uke try to grab his right hand, uke still was able to grab the back of tori's right hand, but had a kazhushi, tori's left hand should be on the uke's right wrist and one idoyiyoku step to break of grip, and turn around do kotegaeshi.
6. Hijitaoshi: 
7. Tenhai kotegaeshi: uke cross cross grab left hand, another hand grab other wrist, big idoyiyoku step to the left, break uke's balance, turn both wrists over, reverse grab uke's two hand, one in hineri, one in gaeshi, then throw uke's back.
8. 
   
9. Hijitaoshi: uke cross grab right hand, another hand grab the gi, try to choke tori, before uke can grab the gi, tori spin and drop to knee, uke fall next to tori and take a roll.
10. Like Daisan suwariwaza, maki zuki on the both hands, do jodan kuzhushi on uke's both hands, drop, and body turn to left, left hand up and extend, other hand drop, stresh uke, double hand throw uke over the head to roll
11. Tenhai kotegaeshi, uke cross grab left hand, another hand grab the gi, try to choke tori, tori turn to left, break the grip, do yate Tenhai kotegaeshii, the reverse gaeshi grip. 

Keeping in the same line

Two weeks from now will be my brown belt exam, this opportunity did not come easily, it's been more than 15 months since my last blue belt exam. Both sensei have made very clear that this test is meant to hold higher standard than any of the previous tests, they will go over everything that we have learned so far. Most importantly we need to demonstrate the principle through techniques from tangible and intangible standpoint. The intangible part is what has been taking most of students so long time to be eligible for exams. Now that I am given the chance, I am excited that I can show what I got, at the same time, I also know that I am far from perfection, need continuously practice and learning.

Today is Saturday, we had four people showed up in the morning practice. It was a good practice, we covered quite a bit of material, one of the key things I learned today is keeping in the same line.

1. Tenkai kotegaeshi:  The typical thing I don't do well is when I finished rotate myself, usually find myself too far from uke, ending up chicken-wing the uke. Today Tim mentioned that if in initial kuzushi, I were to direct the uke towards the line straight in front of me, after I rotate, as long as I stay in the line, the uke will be at the same line. This makes a  lot of sense. Uke was kept to stick to one straight line, it enables me make the final throw much more accurate.

2. Ude-hineri: On the same train of thought, sensei has recently corrected us that it needs to happen on one straight line, we should not short-cut the technique by throwing uke on a angled line. Only with hip engaged turn, then the throw will be 180 degrees, and that is what they would like to see that we comprehend the technique both physically and mentally.

3. Hikiotoshi: This is another technique that requires staying on the same line. Engage the hip to connect is the key to success

This afternoon I went over my past two exam's video, found a lot of things that I have improved, I also found  that the speed and crispness in my previous two exams were very poor, there were many casual steps and little things that does not make me look good as a martial artist. I need to watch out for zanshin, maintain awareness, be crispy in between techniques.



Terminology:

Zanchin	State of awareness  残心
no	of  の 的
Tsukuri	Stucture, physique
Hiji	Elbow
Mochi	Must not
Hijimochi no Tsukuri	Elbow grabbing movements techniques

Let us talk about tote bags

In general, I don't like large size handbags, they are heavy and clumsy, most of them are designed with partial  closure such as hook, hinge or snap, which is far less secured for me, I will much prefer a full closure like a zip-around or zip-top. The only place I think it suitable to wear is when travelling, you can stuff clothes, books, small items in one giant bag. Very few totes will leave a mark in my memory, below are those exceptions.


Came across a very nice Gucci tote, vibrant color, classic bamboo handle, large enough for travel bag. This Gucci Bamboo Shopping Tote would go with anything! Sale in NM for $1890



Valentino continues to perform with their Rock Stub collection, more and more innovative pattern, it gives me fresh looks every time I look. This red Punkouture Medium Allover Stud Patent Tote Bag is listed for whopping $3795 in NM



This pink version is less provocative, more affordable and most importantly fully zippable, Rockstud Double-Handle Shoulder Tote Bag ask for $1595 in NM



Prada recently emerged quite a impressive number of tote bags, but the all seem to be similar, size and shape slightly different, when I browse throught the catalog, they are actually quite confusing. Neverthless most of them seem durable and good quality, the designs are conservatively lady-like. This cobalt blue Saffiano Executive tote bag is elegant, smooth, has a lot of zipped pocket, very practical. Listed for $2100 in NM
   


Another cobalt blue Saffiano Large Tote Bag doesn't have as nice as the form, but it is zip-around closure! Listed for $1960 in NM
   


Alexander McQueen has a tote bag similar to the below one, it is two-way zip top, they meet in the middle to his signature skull padlock. I remember seeing it in Nordstrom, my heart beating, the leather was also finer than the one in the picture, it was on sale for $1200 or less, I was in such urge to own it. Eventually decided to let go, but my head still can't let go of this bag after at least two years.

06/25 After practice thought

On this Tuesday night, we have a almost full class, everyone seems to be in good spirit. 

After warm up, we did sword practice, walking straight line with sword in hands. It sounds easy, but it is difficult to do. Holding the sword make you sensitive of where the weight is, you have to be very careful maintain the balance so you walk straight and steady. We also did some hip turn exercise, shift weight to one side, rotate on the weighted leg with arms wide open to your side.

Then Q&A time, I brought up that I felt Kotehineri is the hardest technique of all, sensei decided to test all of us how well we do on this technique, not surprisingly we failed. We spent the rest of the class rotating through sensei, correct our kotehineri one by one. My takeaway is use thumb rather than fingers to do hineri on uke, and really need to see uke's arm as a stick, drive it to uke's center, maintain it throughout.

Been a while

Wow, my last post was more than a month ago! I admitted being bad. Here is a quick post to capture a few thoughts.

Over last week, we spent a lot of time on kotehineri and kotegaeshi which triggered by a question from Ilya. Both sensei felt that we did horribly on those two techniques, they dedicated half a class time to train us for just these two. My take away are the following: 

1. Kotehineri:  Must get hineri firmly at the beginning, lock the elbow, create connection to the center, then use the other hand to push into the center, once you moved to the weak line of the uke, it is important to maintain the connection, so that creates the double back kuzushi, avoid collapsing arms, avoid lifting the uke's arm, if you do, that means you didn't have the good connection to create kuzhushi on uke, thus one tends to push them back with their arms. After double back kuzushi is created, pull to front leg and turn, thus throwing the uke, avoid push with the arms again, use the maintained kuzushi.

2. Kotegaeshi: Go with uke when he retracts the arm, use idoryoku, take him to his weak line, then take his hand to gaeshi, extend arms always, adjust footwork if needed, but be sure to maintain my own structure.

Tuesday (6/18) nights's class, we did some bokken draw. Sensei determined that our structure is horribly corrupted during practice, doing bokken exercise should help our structure problem.

• Holding bokken, left hand on bottom, right hand on top, loose grip
• Shoulder down, raise the elbow to raise bokken, think of it extending elbow out vs. lifting shoulder
• Blade should be pointing towards uke's eyes
• Never lay bokken on floor, bad luck and dangerous
• Never let bokken tip touch the floor
• Right hand holding the bokken, arm relax, hand next to body is the least threatening pose
• Bokken in left waist position, both arm relax, both hand next to body is the a bit more threatening pose
• Bokken in left waist position, left hand on bokken, right hand ready to draw, most threatening pose