Monday Night at the Dojo 3/19

Aikidokas: Randy, John, Greg, and Kim. Midway through a visitor, Michael S. (black belt of some degree) joined us.

Ukemi: Not bad. Greg and I did some work on big falls with each other.

The Walk: threats were made to make Kim count for the first time, but I got to count instead. Tried to concentrate on widening my posture just a bit, dragging the big toe of the working foot and snapping my hips under me.

Releases: Worked with Greg.

Techniques: with Greg and Michael.

Shiho-nage: I uked for Greg on this for a while.

John and Michael broke in to our practice. John took Greg off and Michael grabbed me.

Michael and I did techniques and randori for the rest of the evening. Michael 's style was much softer than what we usually practice in our dojo. He comes from the same lineage we do (Tomiki-ryu), I believe, but his style is much different and very interesting.

We would each get a left side and a right side attack and then switch tori/uke.

Most of the time I was working on shihonage, just to get the practice. I also found some Oshi-taoshi, Shomen-ate, Aigamae-ate, Gyakugamea-ate, Ushiro-ate, Waki-gatame, Tenkai-kote-hineri and Kote-gaeshi.

I flubbed up on several techniques and attempted to stop. Michael said that failure is just the beginning, keep working until you find something. It's something I need to continue to work on.

The Tenkai-kote-hineri that I achieved, Michael turned into a big fall. I was stunned. I had his arm positioned on my chest and, suddenly, he was flying through the air. I had to react quickly and give him some support as he landed. I think I did ok, but I definitely did not end up with control at the end. My feet were stumbling around.

I got one good Kote-gaeshi, apparently. Sensei Raymond, from the sidelines, said it was a "Kote-gaeshi from hell". He said I blasted Michael (I think in a good way) and that he'd never seen me do one like that. I was mildly chuffed.

Randori was interesting as well. He has a different approach to that. Whoever has their hands on top (or on bottom, I can't remember) is the "active" party. Our usual approach is that it is joint action, with both parties looking to find off-balances and techniques. From the brief time I worked with Michael , it appears his style has more of an assigned uke/tori roles. In ours, the roles seem to fluctuate with each step.

It was definitely an enlightening evening and I was a puddle of sweat at the end.

Thank you, Michael , if you happen to find this post.

Aftermath: I received my brown belt just before the end of class. I got to do a little bit of randori with Michael as an "official" brown belt before we bowed out for the evening.