Killeen Seminar - Saturday 3/15/08

We were scheduled to get going at 9:00 a.m. We managed to get past a bunch of tasks and get onto the mat at around 10:30.

We reviewed the 12 double-hand grabs that we'd worked on Friday and then moved on to the final 2. It seems like we must have done more in the morning, but I can't remember what it might have been.

We broke for lunch around 12:30 and got back on the mat around 1:30.

The first order of business after lunch was demonstrations. I was demonstrating for Ikkyu, Larry was demonstrating for Shodan, and Jeff was demonstrating for Nidan.

Larry and I were serving as each other's uke, so we got good workouts.

I messed up on the walk. Larry gave me a few issues on the releases. We gave each other some issues on his demonstration of Oshi-taoshi. Neither of us could remember what technique we were supposed to be doing, so I attacked and he just came up with something. He thinks it was Shomen-ate. I think it was Aigamae-ate. Only the video tape can say for certain.

To save time, we each had to demonstrate on only one side. For Ju Nana Hon Kata, we both got to demonstrate on right-side. For the Owaza Ju Pon, Larry had to demonstrate the techniques from the left side. This would not have been so bad, but I had never uke'd for him left side. I had never seen him do the techniques left side.

I was in a bit of a panic, because the falls are garumas and I've had my neck twinged on those from time to time. And this time was no exception. On the first technique, things were a little off. I landed and my neck complained. I did a head-to-toe system check and all lights came back green, so I got up and we continued on.

My techniques: I know I messed up on the three I had to learn for this belt: Mae-otoshi, Sumi-otoshi and Hiki-otoshi. They were decent, but were imperfect.

We then got to sit down and recuperate while Jeff ran through his demonstration.

The technical board got together and pow-wowed for a few minutes, called us up, and awarded us our new ranks. Actually, Jeff already had his Nidan, so he just got additional acclaim.

After congratulations were passed around, we all got back on the mat for more seminar time.

The subject of the afternoon's session was Nami no Waza ("Way of the Wave"). This is a stringing of techniques together, starting from a release.

For instance, the first release falls into the 6, 7, 8 and 9 techniques.

The second release flows into the fifth release which then flows into T6, 7, 8 and 9

The second release, when uke drops all of his weight on the hand, flows into a hip switch and then into T15, 14, 17, and 16.

From here on is likely poor memory.

The third release -> T10, 12

Fourth release -> seventh release, T6,7,8,9

Fourth release -> locked -> hip switch -> T11

Ok. Beyond this I've forgotten the transitions. After a couple of hours of this work, my brain was full and I bowed off the mat. The rest of the seminar ended shortly thereafter.

A great dinner of spaghetti was dished out shortly. We spent a couple of hours chatting with everyone and then returned to the hotel. We got an early start Sunday morning and made it back to Houston in good time.