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

Thoughts from Saturday Practices

This Saturday was a very hot sunny day, surprised that Summer came so quickly. As usual we have the practice in the morning at the gym. I ran a few errands, so I was quite late when I got to gym. Robert and Tim were practicing already, it was nice of them that they worked with me on my mirror hand grabs junanahon, gave me correction and good suggestion. Thanks so much guys!

Below are some of the notes that I remember.

1. Shomen-ate: question - should aim the attack directly to chin or from chest to chin?

2. Aigamae-ate : swing back leg, open hip, then I can face uke, position both hands in my center

3. Gyakugamae-ate: meet uke's grab, avoid collision.

4. Ushiro-ate: tough one for me, uke seems to run away from me. Robert pointed out that I can catch up with Uke a bit by doing extra shuffle step, don't let uke get passed me too much.

5. Oshitaoshi: top hand should come down on uke's back hand, you should grab the meaty palm with mawashi grib as soon as my hand being grabbed.

6. Hikitaoshi: I did horribly on this one. One of the tips from Tim is once move to the weak line, need to swing the back leg, thus open and twist the hip, which will create kuzushi, then immediately drop. I think it is important to step and swing the back leg, that way hip will be opened much sooner. Fish the uke a bit will break the balance easier.

7. Udehineri: once I have uke bend over, immediately i should start to do the next, don't wait. The comment was had too long pause.

8. Wakigatame: lower my center by lower the elbow not by bending over. this can only observed by a third person, thanks Tim and Robert! Connect hip with the pushing hand, then drive the hip to push uke's hand to his weak line, very effective if done correctly to me. A lot of time I felt not able to move uke, that is because not using my hip to drive them.

9. Hikiotoshi: another weak one, after extensive trial run and discussion, we discovered that I am missing the leg swing again which allows the hip to be opened, which will enable connection much easier and sooner. Basically I need to do shuffle steps before I got the hand blade up, after the blade up, two hands connect to uke with un-corrupted sturcture, then swing back leg to create the second kuzushi, drop immediately

I have some additional notes from RMR seminar in Denver back in Feb, post below.

1. Shomen-ate cross hand grab: turn palm over and drop slightly with dead wrist, stick to uke's belt, make him stuck, then slide up turn blade, push and drop.

2. Ushiro-ate cross hand grab: first it is jodan kuzushi, then drop. Why is it not gedan kuzushi?

3. Ushiro-ate mirror hand grab: it is a different application of hikitaoshi, elbow bend.

4. Wakigatame: think about pushing uke's hand, not pulling.

Two handed practice:

1. Ushiro-ate: kimay first, cross feet, drop wrist and switch hand.

2. Aigamae-ate: left hand go deep, breaks balance, bring uke to your side, makes right hand easier. Tori can kneel down if needed, but two hands in center.

3. Gyakugamae-ate: flip plam side up, then tasakbaki the same time

4. Oshitaoshi: Once had the initial kuzushi, need to keep it all time, control elbow. When moving forward, right foot step side way is ok, use idoyoku moving sideway, then step the other foot to take uke's place.

Mat abuser are gone!

Before I forgot what we did in week of April 22-27, I want to run a quick recap here.

First breaking news, after putting up new yellow signs on the mats, our mats stay intact each time when we came in, we didn't catch the mat abusers, but it seems that the new signs scared them away, hopefully it will keep this way.

Tuesday night class, we have both Morgan sensei and Branch sensei. After warm up, we did several round of tasabaki drill. Then followed by a lot of kuzushi waza practice. At the end of the class, we did self kuzushi practice, what it means is that we pretend being attacked by a invisible tori, so we have to show all the kuzushi and fall ourselves in each technique, it was a funny scene that all of us act like zombie. :-)

Thursday night class, we have Branch sensei. More kuzushi  waza and tasabaki practice, and again we practiced the self kuzushi uke, it is fun and it is kind of reminder of all principle of the techniques. Then on the extension of that practice, we added with tori, the goal is that the kuzushi made by the tori should match with those as if the uke does the self kuzushi, that way you can easily tell whether tori is doing a good job or not, uke can teach tori by telling him whether he has the right kuzushi or not.

Saturday morning practice, we did quite a few things, mainly focus on suwari waza, cross hand grab junanahon and mirror hand grab junanahon. Branch sensei stopped by, and gave up some advices on suwari waza.

1. In general, meet uke before he raised the hand, meet early, use that connection for kuzushi.

2. On 1,3,5 and 7, don't forget to do the full shikko step so you end up close to uke when he falls, get the knee up and pull on to it.

3. On 2 and 8, body torso should turn 180 degree 

4. Last but not the least, use live toes the whole time.

Found a interesting site where those pictures display actions and kuzhushi very very clearly and precisely, http://www.shodokan.narod.ru/sports.htm. They have old but clear pictures of the techniques performed by Nariyama sensei. Below pictures are from there. I guess that is where the source of those animated pictures I found earilier.

Noticed in pictures marked 2, in both pictures, uke was twisted by the kuzhushi.
I am going to try to practice for that kind of effect

Not a good week for our Aikido club

Let me start with something good this week. On Tuesday night, we had a randori focus class, Morgan sensei led us doing drill after dirll, primarily working on moving the feet and keeping the ma-ai. The requirement was to block attack and be gone instantaneously. The other requirement was to block attack with corner taisabaki, establish ma-ai behind uke, at the same time uke turned around, immediately attack with Shomen-ate. I think this drill is a very helpful randori practice, it teaches a lot of principle and setup some chain reaction in the mind. To me, if the system is not in the mind, the body will never be able to do it.

Other not so merry thing includes I missed Thursday's class, since I thought no one will show up, but turned out two did show up. Our tatami mats have been used by unknown person in the gym for the third time in a row, they stacked the mats in the wrong ways, which makes mats very dirty, and most importantly they don't know how to handle them right, it will definitely shorten the life of our expensive mats. We have found  three occurrence of which all happens on Friday, this week, it happened on Wednesday. Today we took turn to patrol in the gym to find out, but somehow we haven't found anything yet, maybe this week, those people changed schedules. It is very frustrating, and sad to think of our mats were abused.

I hope we can catch those group of people soon.

At the mean time, below is another excellent demonstration of all 6 of kuzushi waza performed by Kobayashi sensei and Charlie back in 2009 in Waseda university shortly after the international tournament.




Terminology:

Maai	Proper distance 間合
Irimi	Entering 入身