Weekend update 2/22-24

Let's see.

Aikido on Friday and Saturday.

Shoveling dirt for the vegetable garden Saturday morning. Vegetable mix is a lot tougher to shovel than sand for some reason. I need to get a yard of pine bark mulch for the blueberries as soon as the ground is hard enough for me to drive the truck out to the bushes.

Saturday evening: dinner with a friend at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Then we went out and did some washing machine shopping with her. Hers had just given up the ghost.

Sunday: work out in the shop getting the shelves for the glass used in stained glass creation made. Also looked at replacing the casters for the lathe stand. Took off the old ones and started preparing for installing new ones.

Then watched most of the Oscars. I was afraid Regis Philbin was going to be the host, so I wasn't planning on watching the show. When I found out Jon Stewart was the host, I changed my plans.

Saturday Afternoon at the Dojo 2/23/08

Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Kim, and Trey

Ukemi: Ukemi went well.

The Walk: as usual

Releases: With Kim and Trey

Techniques:

I was tackling dummy for the day. I served as uke for Richard, Kim and Trey. Trey had some of his family in the audience and Tim wanted to give them a good flavor of the capabilities of aikido. So, everyone got to throw the big man.

We spent a lot of time on Oshi-taoshi. Trey is learning it now that he's a green belt and Kim needs it for her next demo, as well. Richard got to see the changes we've made in the techniques recently.

All in all, I got to fall a lot. A good day.

Aftermath: Still have a tight left calf muscle.

Update:

Forgot to talk about the "Name No Waza" (I think that's the spelling). The Way of the Wave. I think it's what Pat of Mokuren Dojo calls his "chains". You take a release, say number 1, and continue it beyond it's normal ending. Uke decides he wants to get back into the fight and it turns into techniques #6, Oshi-taoshi. Uke doesn't like that, pushes out of it, and it turns into Ude-gaeshi. Uke reacts out of that and it turns into Ude-hineri. Uke sees the face strike coming and reacts, turning it into Hiki-taoshi, which is a terminal technique.

Anyway, I was uke for all 3 folks on this. We worked on it for quite a bit. I was the only one who'd seen it much before, so it made sense for me to show folks what happens. Uke's response really drives the whole chain of events.

Friday Night at the Dojo 2/22/08

Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Larry, Greg, and Trey.

New mats, new mats, new mats. We replaced the mats that have been around since the dawn of martial arts in this area with some brand new ones. We purchased the puzzle-type mats. I think they're 1-5/8" mats from greatmats.com, but I'm not sure.

The benefits to the new mats? They get to stay in place. We don't have to put them down and pick them up around each session.

The bad side? They're a little firmer for falling. I haven't tried a big fall. On the plus side, they do make popping up a little easier after a front fall.

Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Getting pleasant reviews on the big falls

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: With Larry. We explored his body drop entrance and added more off-line, as he was going too deep

Techniques:

Larry and I worked on 10, 11, 12, and 13. Left-sided.

Need to remember that there is an initial off-balance for #10.

Need to keep good posture on the arm bar finish for #11.

Need to stay behind uke's elbow for Kote-gaeshi

Need to wait for uke to recover after the first off-balance on Tenkai-kote-hineri.

Aftermath: A tight left calf muscle. Not sure of the cause.

Blast from the past

I received a phone call from a previous business partner the other night. I though it was in response to an email I'd sent him earlier that day, out of the blue. After we got off the phone, a couple of hours later, I receive an email from him saying that he'd called me out of the blue. A weird coincidence.

Anyway, he said he's getting on his feet, business-wise, and will be paying me the money due me in our contract. I really hope he comes through. He said he was mailing off the first check tomorrow, which, with my delay in posting, was yesterday. He also said he hopes to have me completely paid off in May.

This would be a goodness. Should the money go to paying off more of the mortgage, into equipment for the shop, or into savings?

Now, can I get my web work client to pay up? Lord, it's annoying.

New volleyball season, 0-3

What a wonderful start to a new season, losing the entire match. :(

We haven't played in about 2 months, so we were rusty. My serves were off, but I got a couple of good digs and one stellar block.

We had some teams in the Open division that really don't belong there. The people in charge are going to rearrange the teams and adjust the schedules to account for the team changes. Or, so we've been told.

Saturday Afternoon at the Dojo 2/16/08

Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Jeff, Gail, Richard, Trey, and Wellington

Ukemi: Ukemi went well.

The Walk: as usual

Releases: None

First order of business, after The Walk, was a dry-run of Trey's demonstration. He had the choice of either me or Richard as uke and chose me. Little did he know that this was not a dry run demonstration, but the real thing.

We went through The Walk, releas4es for both him and me and then the first 5 techniques. He did very well. I don't think I screwed him up on too many things.

Techniques:

Trey and Wellington served as my ukes as I worked my way down from 17 to 13 left-sided. We did some playing with off-balances and compared them with the ones with which Larry feels comfortable. There are differences. We need to get with Larry and see if they work for him or not.

Aftermath: No new mats, yet. They are supposedly in town and due to be delivered Monday (yesterday, as I'm posting this on Tuesday).

Friday Night at the Dojo 2/15/08

Aikidokas: Tim, and Randy. I had two Nanadans all to myself.

Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Getting pleasant reviews on the big falls

The Walk: Not tonight.

Releases: Not tonight.

Techniques:

I wanted some work on 17, Hiki-otoshi, left-sided. So, we spent some time working through the entry and getting up to gake.

After that, we spent the rest of the evening on hand randori. There are times I feel I'll never get the hang of it. And, when working with the Senseis, it's more likely to feel that way than not. They're just so damn good at it.

Whenever I manage to get the upper hand, I know it's because they're letting it occur. Still, it's a learning tool. And, I supposedly need to be somewhat competent at demonstration-time. They don't do any on-mat review of hand randori capabilities during the demonstration.

Aftermath: None of note

Winter Gardening

After some resting of the sore muscles, it was time for some light gardening. No sod moving. No sand shoveling.

Just some pruning and prepping plants for movement around the yard. The plum tree, Crepe Myrtles, grapes, blackberries and Blood Oranges all got a little trim.

As a benefit, while trimming the Blood Orange, I found I fruit I'd missed when I harvested the rest of them in December. A nice, sweet treat.

Saturday Afternoon at the Dojo 2/9/08

Aikidokas: Tim, Richard, Kim, Trey, and Brad

Ukemi: Ukemi went well.

The Walk: as usual

Releases: with Trey. It was good to work with someone shorter than Larry. Break me out of ruts.

Techniques:

I worked with Brad on Shomen-ate. He'd been away for a while, so we started from the ground floor. He got a couple of throws.

We also had Trey take some pictures of Kim throwing me with Shomen-ate. We're going to add those to the website when Trey gets them to me.

Aftermath: Beat from gardening combined with aikido. Need a drink and/or some ibuprofen. It turns out we're supposed to get new mats for the dojo this weekend. The ones we're falling on at the moment are about 30 years old.

Winter Gardening

According to the calendar it's still winter. According to the weather on Saturday, it was Spring.

We got out and put down two pallets of St. Augustine. During that exercise, we also dug out some clay deposits left behind by the construction folks. Those clay deposits formed a hill on the side of the yard that would cause water to stay near the shop.

With little concern for our muscles, we then spread out a yard of sand in the dog yard. We need to get another yard of sand for the spots we didn't get to with just one yard. We also need a yard of pine bark mulch to give the blueberry plants enough acid.

Much soreness of muscles ensued.

Friday Night at the Dojo 2/8/08

Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Larry, Greg, Kim and Trey Sensei Raymond was on the sidelines.

Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Completely freaked out on first warm-up roll. I landed safely, but merely by chance, I think. Big falls were cool.

The Walk: as usual

Releases: with Larry. We played around with only left-sided and with tori starting with hands in a neutral position. Weird. Got chided for improper posture from Sensei Raymond.

Techniques:

Larry and I spent the evening working on 17, 16, 15, 14 and 13. In that order. With me as tori.

We spent a lot of time working seeing Larry's reaction to the off-balances and seeing his recovery steps. I need to extend him to a corner on the initial off-balances for the last 4.

For Hiki, the second off-balance needs to continue along the line of the first off balance. Then I disappear.

For Sumi, the second off-balance is about 90 from the first and gake is about 180 degrees from the second off-balance.

Mae-otoshi seems to fall in place after the first off-balance.

The first off-balance for Shiho is the same as the other three.

Aftermath: None of note

I am Greebo

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Greebo You are Greebo! The most evil cat in the entire Disc! Due to an old spell, your morphogenic field is a little mixed up, so you sometimes turn into a man. You enjoy killing, raping, torturing, playing with yarn and inspiring fear. When bored, you like to look for wolves to “play" with. Greebo 81% The Librarian 69% Carrot Ironfounderson 63% Death 44% Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 44% Commander Samuel Vimes 38% Lord Havelock Vetinari 25% Cohen The Barbarian 25% Rincewind 19% Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 19%

Saturday Afternoon at the Dojo 2/2/08

Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Jeff, Gail, and Larry

Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Left side big falls are still weird. The end result is good, but the way I'm getting there is strange.

Techniques:

I went through reps of 14-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata, some of 3 & 4, and 8, 9 & 10. Working with Larry again. He opened my eyes up to initial off-balances on some of the later techniques.

On Hiki-otoshi, after meeting at ma-ai, I need to take a step to the back corner for the initial off-balance. After that improvement, the technique started flowing.

He also suggested some tweaks for the initial off-balance for 8 and 9. For these techniques, the second off-balance needs to be to a back corner. Actually, it does for #8. For #9 it's the lack of a dramatic second off-blaance that allows uke to recover and react in to Hiki-taoshi.

We discovered something I needed to do to complete Waki-gatamae. After the entry, and the arm-lock, I need to extend the off-balance a bit with a step out. Then I can breathe out and get the tap-out from uke.

Then Larry did some work on 1-5 of Owaza Ju Pon. And I uked for those techniques for the first time. They went well, except for #2. This technique should be a simple front roll for uke. Larry somehow managed to hook the arm onto which I would roll. I ended up taking a big fall, but without any support from tori. I landed on my ribs on the near side to tori, instead of getting further around and landing on the far side. I almost had the wind knocked out of me. Jeff took my place for the rest of Larry's practice.

Aftermath: Sore legs and arms. A couple of bruises. Sore ribs. A good session, though.

Friday Night at the Dojo 2/1/08

Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, and Larry

Ukemi: Ukemi went well. Left side big falls are still weird. The end result is good, but the way I'm getting there is strange.

Techniques:

Larry is going to be demonstrating for his Shodan in March and I'm doing the same for my Ikkyu. We're probably going to uke for each other.

So, the goal was to run through 1-17 of Ju Nana Hon Kata. Actually, it was to run through a dry run of the demonatration. So, we went through the Walk and then the Releases and then the techniques.

I think I tori'd first and, according to the Senseis, did ok. I need work on Sumi-otoshi and Hiki-otoshi. Also Waki-gatamae.

Aftermath: None of note

Tagged with a Meme

Pat over at Mokuren Dojo tagged me with a meme. The rules: "Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!) Find Page 123. Find the first 5 sentences. Post the next 3 sentences. Tag 5 people."

We'll see if I can come up with 5 folks to tag.

The nearest book, here at work is Tad Williams' "Shadowmarch"

"He's a god, afterall."
"You say that so strangely, Qin. Are you feeling ill?"


Who knows if they read here, but what the heck.
Berry at Berry's weblog
Kim at Kim
Melanie at Hoosier-red
Poxbox at Poxbox's Aikido Blog
aikilass2006 at So, you want to start aikido