Monday Night at the Dojo 10/30

Attendees: Randy, Raj, Marty, Keith, Sheila, Kim and James (a returning beginning student).

Ukemi: More tweaks again this evening. Everyone seems to think I collapse as my legs reach their highest point. Nothing hurts, but I need to keep tweaking.

Took some big falls this evening, getting a very minor ping on one shoulder that had no lasting effect.

I'm still looking for ukemi bipolar meds.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Keith. Tweaks to 3rd, 7th and 8th. I was dipping my shoulder on some and not extending uke softly on others.

Techniques: Worked with Keith.

Gyakugamea-ate: Rmember to push at the elbow and allow uke to walk into the eye flash.

Oshi-taoshi: Small off-balances. In order words: small steps. Move _slightly_ off-line. Hands in center.

Ude-hineri: Tweak uke's attacking arm by tensioning it right after the pivot. It really improves the reaction to the eye flash.

Waki-gatame: This is a "something's gone wrong" technique. Uke is within ma'ai so you're not going to be able intercept uke's attack at the wrist. You have to deal with mid-forearm or elbow.

Aftermath: Nothing of note.

I'm going to be out of town when Keith demonstrates for his Shodan this weekend, so good luck to him!

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/25

I joined Sensei Raymond again at a Champion Judo in Pasa-get down-dena for another training session on scoring/keeping time for a judo tournament.

Sensei spent most of the evening in a meeting for the tournament, but two guys from Champion Judo helped out. they did the timing while I did the scoring. The timing was not really necesary as almost all of the matches ended with "Ippon" before the time limit.

Another dojo brought some of their players in to get some experience, so it was a fun night watching a wide variety of folks throw each other around. A couple of guys I'm looking forward to watching at the tournament.

Volleyball, again

Well, we didn't lose all 3 this week. We had two matches. Six games. We lost all six. :(

That said, we played decently, just not well enough to win.

To top it all off I tweaked two muscles and jammed 3 fingers on a block. Becuase of the slight swelling, I'm not able to wear my wedding ring.

Just a winner all around.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/23

Attendees: Randy, Keith and Kim.

Ukemi: Kim was there to take some of the eyes off of me. I'm not certain I'm doing much different, but Sensei Randy and Sensei Raymond had fewer tweaks for me this evening. Keep legs extended. Try to reduce twisting.

Took some big falls this evening with no issues.

Anyone got any bipolar meds for my ukemi?

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Randy. He has a more dynamic style for working releases and it seems easier to get the timing right.

Techniques: Worked with Keith. I offered to uke, but I ended up tori for most of the evening. We worked on Ude-hineri, Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate. I wanted to work on getting my hand threatening the elbow when taking down uke on Ude-hineri. Worked on the pivot after the initial off-balance, trying not to settle my weight on my back foot. Don't give up ground when you make the pivot.

Shomen-ate: Don't give up ground when you make the pivot. *Push* with your hands on the initial off-balance. Allow uke to almost recover before gake.

Aigamae-ate: Initial off-balance should have you in a weak strong position. Almost neutral position. This allows the pivot that is the essence of the technique to come much more easily.

Aftermath: Knees a little achy.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/18

Attendees: John, Rob, and Keith.

Ukemi: I wasn't hurting myself, but apparently my ukemi stinks. All three guys on the mat and Sensei Raymond were working on improving my ukemi. Apparent problems: twisting during the roll, forcing my legs over instead of letting them flow, hands to close to feet where they meet the mat.

Ukemi seems to be the roadblock for my next demonstration. sigh.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Rob. Took the time to work on adjusting my balance a little bit forward of what I'm used to. Still a little bit late from time to time.

Techniques:

Worked with Rob on 1-10. Was a little grabby on some techniques and that, of course, caused any off-balances to disappear. the techniques that were most troubled by that were: Oshi-taoshi, Ude-hineri (left side), and Hiki-taoshi (left side)

Aftermath: Annoyance at ukemi. Slightly stiff, but no joint making obnoxious complaints.

Rain ramifications

Leaks. In the roof.

They weren't too bad considering the amount of rain we got. They still need to be fixed. And, since the roof is about 17 years old, that likely means a completely new roof.

Ouch. After some extensive car repair and Vlad's surgery.

I hear the bank account screaming : Uncle!

Vlad

We took Vlad to the vet Monday afternoon, driving through an absolutely torrential downpour to get there. Unfortunately, the vet was not able to spot anything while there using either ultrasound or x-ray.

She wanted to keep him overnight.

Kim had told me, in no uncertain terms, that Vlad was not to stay overnight. Rock. Hard place. Annoy the heck outta Kim or help Vlad? Vlad won. He stayed overnight.

Turns out he had bladder stones and surgery was required. Turns out he had 15 stones in his bladder. Ouch!

I picked him up before volleyball yesterday and brought him home. He was not terribly happy and not moving well last night.

This morning he ate fairly well, so we were able to give him his pain medication and his antibiotics. He also wanted to get his outdoor time, but the vet tld us not to let him out for the next week or so.

I hope to come home to a happier cat this afternoon.

Victory

in volleyball against "Way Out"!

We won 2 out of 3 games. We lost the first one. We won the third one 16-14, I think. We played a 6-2 rotation and it went ok.

We're still in last place, but a playoff spot is achievable.

Monday Not at the Dojo 10/16

Too much rain. 12 inches over two days.

Sensei sent out a note and told everyone to stay home at home.

Bummer.

To add to the bummer, one of our cats was peeing blood. Vet appointment time.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/11

Attendees: Randy, John, Keith, and Oliver.

Ukemi: Not bad. Need to take big falls again soon.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with John. Worked on getting centered properly. It's tough taking some extra time before each release since John is essentially blind. Need to slow down some too. And need to move on time.

Techniques:

Worked with John on the 14 two-handed grab techniques.

Worked with John on Bhakwas. Eeek was I rusty on it.

Worked with John on shihonage. A fun technique for when you screw up Shomen-ate. Not bad for a first time.

Aftermath: Sweat, sweat and more sweat.

Volleyball disappointment

We lost all three again. Damn.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/9

Attendees: Rob, and Keith.

Ukemi: Not bad. Haven't taken big falls recently.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Keith and Rob. All evening. That's all we did. Tweak after tweak after tweak.

My timing is off. I need to be more centered. I think my weight tends to be more on my back foot.

Concentrate on getting off-line, the rest can take care of itself.

Aftermath: Nothing of note.

Geocaching ramble

The library hosted a geocaching ramble on Saturday. What's a ramble? Well, we decided it was an opportunity to get geocachers to meet at the library as an event and to then go find the 4 caches we'd hidden around the city.

We had a handout with the coordinates of the four caches printed on it. Also on the sheet were 4 questions that had to be answered if you wanted to get additional prizes. Each of the caches started out with a supply of goodies as well.

It turned out to be a far better attended event than we expected. We were expecting around 20 folks and from our calculations 48 people attended. The supplies in the caches were not sufficient to keep up with the number of cachers. When we went to collect the caches, they were all pretty much empty.

This event turned out to be the best attended event that the library has sponsored. We may do it again next year.

Friday Night at the Dojo 10/6

Attendees: Randy, John, Raj, Keith, Oliver, Sheila and Kim

Kim and I zipped off to the dojo in case we could squeeze some space for some work on the mat.

We did manage to grab some space. Keith and Oliver were working Shodan stuff and Raj and John were working together. Kim, Sheila and I did the walk and worked on releases.

We got through all 8 with Sheila as tori. We made it through 5 with Kim as tori beforee had to get off the mat and let the iaido folks on.

Thursday Night at the Dojo 10/5

Attendees: Mainly judo folks. No other aikidokas showed up until late, when Keith and Oliver arrived, so I was on the sidelines watching.

I brought the camera along in case this occurred. I managed to get some good pictures of K and O while they were working on Keith's Shodan stuff.

One really good one of Oliver taking a big fall, but the lighting was iffy. I need to see if I can tweak it on the computer and make it look good. I got some other good ones in black and white that I'll probably post to my flickr account.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/4

I joined Sensei Raymond again at a Champion Judo in Pasa-get down-dena for another training session on scoring/keeping time for a judo tournament.

A number of the adults were suffering from some sort of gut bug, so they didn't not want to have a mock tournament. We just officiated for the juniors.

And Buck wants to be able to spend more time working on techniques before the tournamentso we're not going to have mock tournaments for the next couple of weeks.

That means I get to go to aikido on Wednesdays. Cool.

Another volleyball loss

And the hits just keep on coming.

"Fandango" trashed us, as expected. First game was a disaster. I think we won 5 points. Second game was better and third game was ok.

We're now in last place. At least we're not alone in last. We play the other last place team this week, so it's got playoff implications. :D

Sensei Williams doing foot sweeps

Sensei Williams doing foot sweeps with our youngest judoka

A review of Salt Lick BBQ

A review of Salt Lick BBQ in Dripping Springs. 3MB around 3 minutes long

The trip back from the Salt Lick, back in August

The trip back to Austin from the Salt Lick BBQ in Dripping Springs. 15MB around 9 minutes long

Dinner at Joe's

Kim's parents were in town this weekend and, as usual, one of our meals was at Joe's Bar-B-Q in Alvin. I don't know why, but we hadn't eaten there in quite some time. Good stuff. I had the stuffed baked potato. So far I've had 3 meals off of it and will have one more tomorrow.

At the restaurant I ate a good portion of the thing. I had to save room for the blackberry cobbler that was available. Blackberry cobbler and Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. Fantastic!

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/2

Attendees: Randy, Rob, Keith, Stanley and Kim.

Ukemi: Not bad. Didn't get around to big falls.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Rob. He's almost my height, and the tallest person I've worked with, so there were some adjustments on the off-balances for both of us. It'd been a while since he'd done any aikido so adding my height to the mix was an added challenge

Techniques: Worked with Rob. Tori'd for 6-10. They went well overall. I'm taking too big of a step on the entries to a number of techniques.

Had to do some adjustment for waki-gatame as Rob is too tall for my elbow to go straight over his shoulder as I normally do. I have to get off-line and get his posture broken down enough so that my elbow can slip over his upper arm and then my elbow can slide up to his shoulder to control it. The rest of the technique follows from there easily.

Uke'd for Rob on Ude-hineri and Waki-gatame. Sensei Raymond gave us the approach to use for the technique against taller opponents.

Uke'd for Oliver (he showed up late to work with Keith on his Shodan demonstration) on Waki-gatame. Luckily the aforementioned tips had already been dispensed.

It was pointed out to me that my big toe is "flinching" as uke approaches. This is a big problem on the one-step entry for techniques as it makes me late. It causes my weight to rock back. Then I have to rock forward before I can fall into the right spot. I have to try to remember to correct this.

Aftermath: The bruises are sooo nice to look at.

Saturday at the Dojo 9/30

Attendees: Tim, Greg, Oliver and Kim.

Normal class.

Ukemi: Felt off enough that I didn't take any big falls. Just didn't feel like risking it.

I spent the day working with Greg: releases and techniques. I don't remember much of my work as tori, but I spent a lot of time ukeing for Ushiro-ate. So much so that I developed bruises on both arms. The cause was my gi bunching up and twisting on my upper arm when Greg made contact on the initial off-balance. It felt like we worked on the technique for about 30 minutes.

Aftermath: Two nice bruises. One on each arm just above the biceps.