Aikido Friday Night - 9/18/09

Aikidokas: Tim, and Trey.

Ukemi: I did a little warm-up of my own.

The Walk: None.

Releases: None.

Techniques:

Trey and I worked on Owaza Ju Pon all night, since we were the only folks around.

Aikinage, Kata Otoshi, Shihonage, Ushiro Kubi Gatama and the off-balances for the Gurumas.

We spent a large amount of time on the off-balances for the Gurumas and Trey made marked improvements as the night wore on. You need to direct uke out and around to get the otoshi and the guruma. The otoshi is very similar to the entry for a blown shomen-ate if you extend uke too far.

We also spent a large amount of time on aikinage. At the end of the work I made a bit of an improvement in my approach by getting the non-working hand much further over uke's shoulder. This allows me to get aikinage and Ushiro Kubi Gatame more reliably. A nice light bulb moment.

I spent a bit of time on Shihonage. It seems my problem with this technique stems from the third off-balance, or lack thereof. If my timing and distance are cool, it is the "up" off-balance that, if it fails, destroys my technique.

I don't remember much of our work on Kata Otoshi.

Aftermath: The hip joint issue is still in play. Nothing affected the right elbow or right middle finger tonight.