Aikido Saturday Afternoon - 7/14/2012

Aikido players: Tim, Jeff, Gail, Nathan, Brian (from Jeff's dojo) Troy, Marvin, Charlse, Liz, and Hussein

Ukemi:

None by anyone.

The Walk:

Not today.

Releases:

Not today

Techniques:

Jeff came down from Killeen with his crew and we worked on what he called bases of a throw and the triangle of your center and your feet.

The bases of a throw are: your feet, your waist, or your shoulders. Essentially, the axis about which the throw occurs. Most of the techniques in the Ju Nana Han Kata are 3rd base (or shoulder) throws. Some of them, though, are multiple base throws. They start with one base and end with another.

Mostly shoulder-based throws: Shomen-ate, Ushiro-ate, Oshitaoshi, Ude-gaeshi, Hiki-toshi, Ude-hineri, Kote-hineri, Kote-gaeshi, Tenkai kote-hineri, Shihonage, and Hiki otoshi

Mostly waist-based throws: Gedan-ate

There aren't any mostly foot based throws, but there are some that at least start with the inability to move the foot for recovery: Aigamae-ate, Gyaku gamae-ate, Sumi otoshi, Hiki otoshi

Aigamae-ate, Gyaku gamae-ate, in my opinion, are foot and waist based. The shoulders do get moving, but they have to over take the waist that leads the fall.

Mae-otoshi is a shoulder and waist based throw. It's similar to Gedan-ate with an additional shoulder element.

Gail and I sat around and worked throw most of these verbally. We were both a little hampered by aches and pains so we did not work through them physically.

The triangle is another way of presenting what we call the holes in a person's balance. If you take a person's balance there is a triangle formed between their feet and their center. The sides of the triangle, other than the one between the two feet, are spots that you can thrown the person. I think the smaller side, while being tougher to find, will be the better one to throw the person over.

So, as you're working with uke, figure out where their triangle is and that will lead you to where you need to drive your center to accomplish a throw.

Aftermath:

Lunch at Cajun Craven with most of the crew.