Monday Night at the Dojo 10/29

Aikidokas: Randy and Trey

The Walk: as usual.

Ukemi: Holding off on the rolls for a few more weeks. I'm guessing Nov. 12 or so at the moment.

Releases: We spent a lot of time on the second release this evening. Trey appeared to be having an "off night". It seems to me that happens a lot fairly early on in the study of aikido. I think it takes a while to grok the idea that it's going to take a while to grok aikido.

Techniques:

Shomen-ate: Trey and I both worked on this technique. We were both having issues. I'm not sure I like our new version of this technique

Aigamae-ate: Trey and I both worked on this technique. Iffy performance.

Gyakugamae-ate: Trey and I both worked on this technique. Iffy performance.

Ushiro-ate: Trey and I both worked on this technique. Easily Trey's best technique of the evening

I ran through the following with Randy while Trey watched.

Kote-hineri: I ran through a couple of attempts trying to grasp the new version. I tended to go "around the mountain" instead of "up and over the mountain". Still, it worked.

Kote-gaeshi: Several attempts on the new version of this. Nailed it once, timing was off on several other attempts.

Tenkai-kote-hineri: Got it the time I tried it. Forgot to keep the tenkai grip on the armbar at the finish.

Shiho-nage: One nice attempt and completion.

Mae-otoshi: One attempt that went fairly well.

Aftermath: none of note.

Construction update 10/29

Let's see. Where are we on the construction?

My projected date for completion, back when we started this, was Sept. 15. Uh. We're not done yet. My new guess at a date for completion is Thanksgiving. Kim's guess is Jan. 1.

Status:

Exterior still needs:
x - final paint
light fixtures
ceiling fans
speakers
new driveway

Shop still needs:
Sink
Outlets
Light fixtures
x - roll-up doors

Apartment still needs:
x - Final coats of paint
x - floorboards
x - linoleum
x - cabinet doors
x - countertops
x - cabinet stain
appliances
lights
outlets
x - door hardware
x - closet shelves
A/C
Sewer connection
speakers

Garage still needs:
x - water heater
washer
dryer
ramps to doorways
garage door opener

A lot of this will change this week. They're working on the sewer tap now. The electrician is due in tomorrow. The garage door opener should be installed on Friday, I hope.

Saturday Morning at the Dojo 10/27

Aikidokas: Randy, Brad, and Trey

The Walk: as usual.

Ukemi: I think I'm setting Nov. 12 for resuming forward rolls.

Releases: worked with Trey.

Techniques:

We worked on Shomen-ate, Aigamae-ate, and Ushiro-ate with Trey

I spent some time playing with the initial off-balances. I was trying to determine if I was not getting them properly or I was not getting a committed attack from Trey. I've not had the opportunity to explore that in the past, or else I've not noticed the opportunity. It was interesting.

I was made an example of, again, as being one of the more difficult ukes in the dojo, because of my size.

Aftermath: none of note.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/24

Aikidokas: Randy Trey

The Walk: Arm's slowly improving on the previously troublesome second arm "stone". We did one rep per usual and one rep elevated on the balls of our feet. Very strange and it had my body continue to stay up on the balls of my feet for quite some time.

Ukemi: Still no rolls.

Releases: as usual

Bokken: I brought some newspaper, so we did some cuts on sheets of newspaper. My forearms were quite sore from Monday's experiment. I didn't realize it until I attempted to end the cuts during our exercises.

Techniques:

I worked on Shomen-ate, Gyakugamae-ate, Aigamae-ate, and Ushiro-ate with Trey as tori and uke. Randy filled in as uke from time-to-time.

I then worked on Hikiotoshi for a bit with Randy as uke. We did the roll-out finish instead of the big fall finish. We'll continue that path until my uke's are confident of my ability and think it's safe to do the big fall.

Aftermath: sore legs and arms.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/22

Aikidokas: Randy and Trey

The Walk: as usual.

Ukemi: Holding off on the rolls for a few more weeks. I'm guessing Nov. 12 or so at the moment.

Releases: None this evening

Bokken: We did some very, very introductory work with the bokken.

Techniques:

Aigamae-ate. Trey and I both worked on this technique. I knocked off a bit more rust and Trey got introduced to it. I found myself overdriving on occasion, but improved over Friday.

Aftermath: none of note.

Friday Night at the Dojo 10/19

Aikidokas: Randy, John, and Kim

The Walk: one rep only

Ukemi: Still no rolls.

Releases: no tonight

Techniques:

Kim wanted to be thrown around this evening, so I spent the evening as tori. Friday is "black belt" night - usually reserved for shodan and above. Randy said it was okay and, since no black belts were going to be around to run class on Saturday, we decided to get some mat time in.

Since it'd been so long since I'd had a lot of work, I wanted a complete refresher. We worked on 1-9 and then kote-gaeshi. We skipped Gedan-ate since I did not want to subject my arm to that movement.

I've not worked with someone as light as Kim for some time, so I was constantly over-driving. This caused her to react far more than she should. I didn't realize this until very late. I wonder if the change to correct this would be a good tweak for working with Trey at the moment?

We spent a lot of time on Ude-hineri and Hiki-taoshi and uke's reaction to the two techniques. I think that was the most productive time of the evening.

I did attempt the new method of kote a couple of times. Kim took the fall well and I managed to do a decent job of getting her to fall. I've got to remember that the entry is similar to Ushiro-ate.

Aftermath: We were beat. The muscles complained a lot.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/17

Aikidokas: Randy, Brad and Trey

The Walk: as usual. Arm's less painful on the previously troublesome second arm "stone".

Ukemi: Still no rolls.

Releases: Still late when working with Trey. Either he's moving more quickly than I expect, or I'm not picking up on his attack. I think I had this issue with Oliver early on.

Techniques:

I worked on Shihonage, Kotehineri and Tenkai-Kotehineri with Trey as uke. Ugh. I think I'm not reacting well to his attack. Randy was able to handle him well, so it's not likely ot be an issue with Trey's attack, but my technique.

I worked on Shomen-ate, Gyakugamae-ate, and Ushiro-ate with Trey as tori. He's improving nicely.

Aftermath: none of note.

Packin' my bags

To travel to a second home. Anyone want to come along?

Volleyball, 1-2

My first match back after the injury. I was quite concerned about how the shoulder would stand up to making blocks. It stood up fairly well. No pain during a block. There was some slight wonkiness (highly technical term there), but it performed far better than I expected.

As a team, we performed under expectations. Probably due to my inclusion into the lineup and getting the rotations adjusted properly.

I did ok. A number of kills and a number of blocks. Some decent serves, as well.

The result eliminated us from post-season competition, so I've got a week or two break before the next session starts.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/15

Aikidokas: Randy, Oliver, Kim, and Trey

The Walk: as usual.

Ukemi: No rolls yet. Watched Trey and offered a few comments.

Releases: more work with Trey. I was a fair bit off this evening on just about everything

Techniques:

with Trey: Shomen-ate, Gyakugamae-ate, and Ushiro-ate. Iffy on Shomen and Gyaku. He did well on Ushiro. I had the same results.

As tori with Oliver: Mae-otoshi, Hiki-otoshi

Did ok. I've got some hand positioning issues on hiki and I need to let uke go when we're doing the roll-out version. Mae was the same as Monday night. Pretty decent.

As uke with Oliver: Shiho-nage, and Aigamae-ate

We did left-sided Shiho (to protect my right shoulder) and he did ok. Initial off-balances were tough to come by on Aigamae.

We did some knife attack and collar grab drills, very introductory. I did poorly.

Aftermath: none of note.

Saturday Morning at the Dojo 10/13

Aikidokas: Randy and Trey

The Walk: as usual.

Ukemi: No rolls yet. A little more knee-walking instead.

Releases: worked with Trey. He's picking them up quite quickly.

Techniques:

We worked on Shomen-ate, Gyakugamea-ate, and Ushiro-ate with Trey

I got to work on Mae-otoshi with Randy as uke. I had one really sweet instance where it just happened and I flowed with Randy and threw him where he was already headed.

Aftermath: none of note. Hanging out in the off-balance for Gyakugamea-ate it was very noticeable that my arm doesn't like being there for long.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/10

Aikidokas: Randy, Oliver, Brad and Trey

The Walk: as usual. Arm's a little iffy doing some of the motions, mainly the second one in which it is involved. My brain's a little frazzled, too. I forget where I am early in the steps involving the hands. Weird.

Ukemi: No rolls yet. I'm taking the time to do a little knee-walking instead.

Releases: round-robin with Oliver and Trey. I find I'm late when working with Trey. I'm not certain why that is.

Techniques:

We did some round-robin stuff. Oliver and I would do some reps on a technique and theyn Trey would get to tori.

Oliver and I worked on Gedan-ate and Ushiro-ate. It was great fun to actually work on learning the new method on one of our techniques.

We worked on Shomen-ate with Trey. He had several nice reps, it was great to see.

Aftermath: none of note.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/8

Aikidokas: Randy, and Trey

The Walk: as usual. Trey's catching on pretty quickly.

Ukemi: No rolls yet.

Releases: more work with Trey. I'm a little iffy on being uke on a couple of them, right-sided. They stretch out the offending ligament quickly, and it's not too happy sometimes.

Techniques:

We did more work on shomen-ate. I actually tori'd a couple of times and it went ok. Trey's making improvements. It usually takes a couple of sessions to actually achieve gake on this technique, but he's getting close.

Aftermath: none of note. Shoulder is very quirky from time-to-time, so it may be longer than I'd hope to start rolls again.

It was my wedding anniversary, but Kim told me to go to the dojo.

Saturday Morning at the Dojo 10/6

Aikidokas: Rob, Trey, and Brad

The Walk: as usual, more work on getting Brad and Trey up to speed

Ukemi: No rolls yet.

Releases: more work with Brad. I'd forgotten how much there is to introducing them to new students, Or, maybe, I've never taught them to new folks.

Techniques:

We did a little work on Shomen-ate, teaching them the new approach we're using.

Aftermath: none of note. Maybe a week until rolls?

My Nikkyu demonstration

Well, I tried to upload the video of my demo to youtube. Unfortunately, it looks like a 12 minute video is too long for them to allow. I have uploaded it to the internet archive, but that gets you an uncompressed version.

Let's see if I can get a link to it.

Whoa! They've improved stuff and I should be able to embed it from there and it looks like it's pretty quick.

Here goes.

Jeff's Nidan demonstration

Layout changes

I've added some items to the sidebar and I'm looking around for new templates for the blog. I might change it to 3 column, not quite sure, or I might leave it as is.

If the new widgets slow the load down let me know and I'll think about removing them.

One of the widgets I've added is a photo widget from goodwidgets. I've used two of their widgets on the site at the moment, one for aikido photos and one for wildflower photos. They were a breeze to set up and, if you know how to copy/paste into blog templates, add them to the blog. They've got a section in the configure widget screen that is supposed to make it easy to add a widget to a blog/facebook site, but the times I tried it it just sat there spinning and never came up with a selection of sites to choose from.

Still they've got some nice stuff for free and low cost. They've got a promotion going to get upgrades to the pro versions of two of the widgets if you write a review. That's what inspired this post. I wouldn't write this, or use the widgets, if I didn't like them. They've got an aspect to improve that I don't need, but other folks probably will.

Take my recommendation for what you will.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/3

Aikidokas: Sensei Randy, and Trey

Ukemi: Just backfalls for me. The mat was calling to me for forward rolls. It's damn tough to resist the siren's call.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: I worked with Trey on releases all evening. We made it through all 8 releases. Randy had me doing instructing. I'm not terribly confident, but I'm trying to pick up instructional tidbits Randy throws in from time to time.

Aftermath: None of note. 3 therapy sessions to go. One today.

John's Yondan demonstration

Gail's Nidan demonstration

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/1

Aikidokas: Sensei Randy, Oliver, Kim, and Trey

Ukemi: Just backfalls for me

The Walk: as usual. Trey's catching on quickly

Releases: I worked with Trey on releases all evening. 1 through 4 are shaping up. I didn't introduce #5 as it's a bit different.

Aftermath: None of note. I've got a bunch of stretches I have to do for therapy. 4 more therapy sessions to go. Then I decide how soon ukemi starts back up.