Wednesday Night at the Dojo 12/6

Aikidokas: Tim, Keith, Oliver, and Joey.

Ukemi: A little work on the new rotator roll. Rolled once over the wrong arm and, while ugly, it did not hurt. Spent a lot of time mentally prepping before each roll and, after the wrong arm one, they went really well. Didn't do many, but the initial mental freakout has subsided, so the count should increase. Still holding out on the tumbleweed rolls as the ankle is not happy.

The Walk: what a disaster. The first rev through was a mess. Keith and I got lost on, I think, the third stone. My excuse is I was counting the rhythm, listening to Sensei Raymond in the background introducing a new student to judo and trying to remember all of the stones. I'm good at doing two things at once, but throwing in the third item sent things all higgledy-piggledy.

Releases: Worked with Keith. We then did a little exercise of attacking tori and tori has to counter with a release and turn it into a technique. I did a lot of pre-thought before being attacked each time, but it ended up being ok.

Techniques:

Worked with Oliver, who has agreed to be my uke for my demonstration. Thanks, Oliver!

We spent some time adjusting our separation for three-step approach. We're pretty close. Sensei Tim wants us a little closer than our tendency in order to get a far more fluid technique. I think we got the distance right a couple of times and it worked well.

Shomen-ate: went well, but need to reduce the first off-balance to a flicker of an off-balance. I was doing too much.

Gyakugamea-ate: must remember to continue to slide with uke and be at his shoulder level after he hits the ground. Being near his legs is a *bad thing*.

Gedan-ate: I was really pleased with this. Don't know what Sensei thought, but I thought it rocked.

Ushiro-ate: went ok. It felt a little strange, but gake happened.

Oshi-taoshi: push through the ear, don't row uke's arm.

Ude-hineri : went ok. Need to apply pressure to uke's elbow to encourage the fall. I also think I'm letting up on uke's arm, not extending as I make the eye flash.

Waki-gatame : went well. On left side I raised my arms out of center and it was not nearly as smooth as it should be.

Aftermath: No new pains from this session. Ankle is mildly displeased with the world. Party on Saturday. WooHoo! Need to get my proposed logo for ATAA up here for folks to look at. I have some tweaks to make to improve its look when embroidered as a patch.