Saturday at the Dojo 2/17

Aikidokas: Tim, and Rob.

Ukemi: Not bad. Did a couple of tumbleweeds and there was no pinging of the shoulder. Cool! Now to try to repeat it in the future.

The Walk: nothing unusual. Tim tweaked a bit, adjusting our posture with the feet a little further apart.

Releases: Worked with Rob.

Techniques: Worked with Rob.

Owaza Ju Pon : Ushiro-ate : This is what we call one of the "Big Ten". The techniques are similar to those in Ju Nana Hon Kata, but instead of uke's and tori's centers moving in the same direction, in Owaza Ju Pon they are moving in different directions. The techniques tend to generate falls with more air time.

Tim wanted Rob to have some more time working on it, so I was a willing uke. Nailed it pretty much from the start.

I then worked on 11-14 of Ju Nana Hon Kata as tori.

My mind blanked on what Kote-hineri was. Bad brain. No biscuit!

With some prompting, I remembered. Got to get the initial off-balance.

Kote-gaeshi : went well. The throw never happened, but the techniques was on.

Tenkai-kote-hineri : went well. Tim had Rob hide a (rubber) knife and encouraged him to attack me with it on this one. It improved my technique quickly.

Shiho-nage : went well.
It applied to all 5 of the techniques.

Aftermath: Nothing of note. Kim wasn't able to attend as she was at a genealogy workshop for work. Blueberry bushes got planted in the afternoon while she and her parents were off shopping.

Friday Night at the Dojo 2/16

Kim and I stooped by the dojo to do some sheetrock repair. We'd had a leak in the upstairs plumbing a while back. The fix seemed to be working, so the damage needed to be corrected. A little tape, a little mud, a couple of screws and some labor.

Had to try to do it quietly as the Iaido class was in progress.

The bid is in

We received the bid for the add-on apartment and workshop. The cost is
about 150% of what we paid for our existing property in 1991.

Ouch.

But I'm pretty sure we're going to go through with it.

1st step done.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 2/14

Aikidokas: Tim.

Valentine's Day might be the cause for the low turnout.

Ukemi: ok. Took some big falls.

The Walk: blew my mind on the second time through when we started with the right side instead of the usual left side

Releases: Worked with Tim.

It was mainly a theory and discussion night. Insight into how the ladies in the dojo would throw me with Kotegaeshi, among other things.

We stopped a little early because TxDot was shutting down part of the freeway for construction.

Aftermath: None of note.

3-0 in volleyball

New season started up with the same issues as last season. Not enough women for the team. We'll make do, but we'll having changing lineups each week I'd bet.

We won all 3 games of the match fairly easily. We played a team that was new to the league, so they were unsure of some of the rules. They played well, but the uncertainty about rules can play havoc with confidence.

I think I may have served out the last game. 4 or 5 points.

No crown. Not gory.

Dentist was able to fill both of the cavities on the same visit. The big one turned out to be fillable and not need a crown. He said it went deep, but there was enough tooth wall surrounding it to be ok.

Other cavity (or broken old filling) was on the other side of the mouth so I had a completely numb mouth for the rest of the day.

Monday

No aikido. Work was still wanting some more of my time, so I was at the office until 9:30. It looks like Wednesday night will find me at the dojo.

We'll see.

The weekend

As I was leaving work on Friday, my lead came in and said that we needed to correct some defects over the weekend for a build Monday morning. Overtime had been approved.

Only problem was I was committed on Friday night and most of Saturday. So, I had to come in Saturday night and Sunday.

Friday night and most of Saturday I was filming a judo seminar our dojo was sponsoring with Bob Rea (6th Dan) as the instructor. I'm not certain how good the final result from the filming will be. I was extracting the video and a portion of it will be unusable. The camera did not completely overwrite the previous contents of the tapes. I don't know if this is a camera issue or a tape issue. I guess I'll get some new tapes and see.

And then my editing program crashed and I did not manage to save all of the extracted video before the crash. So, I have to go through and extract it all again.

I went in to work for around 10 hours over the weekend. I managed to get the defects I knew about resolved, I think.

In-laws come in this weekend. Kim and I both go to dentists tomorrow.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 2/7

Aikidokas: Tim, Rob, Oliver, Joey and Michael (Rob's step-son and new aikidoka).

Ukemi: ok. Got some comments on the pop-up rolls.

The Walk: per usual

Releases: Worked with Tim.

Techniques: Worked with Rob and Joey.

1-5 with Rob: Continuing our study of working with people our own height. We're getting better. It's taking us less time to recognize that the first off-balances are the key.

1-4 with Joey: It looked like he was doing well with Oliver so, while folks were helping Michael, I uke'd for Joey. He did amazingly well handling the height difference. Rougher on the left side than the right, but that's normal. He threw me on a Gyakugamae-ate that I wasn't expecting and I was close enough to the ground already that I didn't have time to get my chin tucked enough.

Aftermath: None of note. Stopping the Aleve.

That bites!

Went to the dentist today for the semi-annual checkup. Normally, these things go quite well. And this one did go quite well, until the very end.

Apparently, one of my fillings partially chipped off. And, another tooth appears to have a fairly serious cavity. It had it at the last checkup and they didn't catch it.

They can't tell if there will be enough of a tooth wall to support a filling or if it'll have to be crowned.

Filling or temporary crown on Tuesday. The other filling will be fixed shortly thereafter.

Monday Night at the Dojo 2/5

Aikidokas: Randy, Martin, John, Stanley, and Kim.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with John.

Techniques: with Martin.

Kotehineri: went ok.

Kote-gaeshi: Did a couple each side. I'm getting a throw about 50% of the time and figuring out what I did wrong 4 out of 5 times when I don't get the throw.

Tenkai-kote-hineri: Spent a fair bit of time on this one, working on the 3rd off-balance. I need to bend the knees but keep the arms unbendable.

Shiho-nage: Didn't even think about the Randy-knuckle. D'oh. Just did this a couple of times.

Hand Randori: Worked with Martin, Randy and Stanley. I don't realize I'm muscling when folks tell me I'm muscling. Must work lighter. Need a lot more time working on this. Maybe by Sandan I'll be decent. Maybe not.

Aftermath: Still taking an Aleve equivalent for the shoulder.

Saturday at the Dojo 2/3

Aikidokas: Tim, Rob, Keith, and Shiela.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Rob. The theme for the day was "working with someone my own height". It threw changes into everything. Still working on working with someone my height.

Techniques: Worked with Rob.

1-5:

Still working on initial off-balances. It applied to all 5 of the techniques.

Aftermath: I was not able to prepare for the session as I usually do. I normally apply a goodly amount of "Heet" to the shoulder. Unfortunately, I had to stand out in the cold for a couple of hours waiting for a plant sale. The "Heet" would have worn off before I got to the dojo and I didn't want to carry it around with me. I just don't want to do that too often.

Picked up 4 blueberry bushes and 1 avocado plant at the sale. Maybe they'll produce.

Thursday Night at the Dojo - 2/1

Aikidokas: Just me

I went to the dojo just in case someone else showed up and wanted to work. Since no one did, I spent some time helping Sensei with his choir project and then the rest of the time reading "How to be your Dog's Best Friend."

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 1/31

Aikidokas: Tim, Keith, and Shiela

Back on the mat as the shoulder seems to be ok.

Ukemi: ok.

The Walk: we did one normal and then Tim had me do one with eyes closed. He then proceeded to wander around me while counting. That was strange. And, of course, it threw off my ability to return to my starting position by the end of it. I ended up about 90 degrees counter-clockwise from where I started.

Releases: Worked with Tim.

Techniques: Worked with Tim and Shiela.

Shihonage: Ran a couple of repetitions with Tim.

Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate: Worked with Shiela. Mainly to give her a chance to deal with someone a foot and a half taller. And to give me a chance to figure out what she needed to do to accomplish it. Sensei Ray was called on for expertise when we were not quite figuring it out.

Aftermath: Fingers are a little numb this morning, but not bad. I think I'm at the point where I need the stretching and the exercise to improve, but only time will tell.

Monday Night at the Dojo 1/29

Aikidokas: John, Keith, Martin, Shiela, Kim, and Leonard.

I stayed off the mat tonight. I was tempted to get on it, but decided not to. I wondering if getting on the mat, doing the stretching, etc. would speed up the healing. If I don't get on the mat Wednesday, it'll be Monday before it happens. I've got to go to a Master Gardener Plant Sale Saturday morning to get some blueberry bushes.

So, since I wasn't on the mat, I videotaped the session. If I'm not on the mat Wednesday, I'll do the same. I'm kind of hoping to make a "what to expect from a night at our dojo" video. We'll see what happens.

Aftermath: Almost got my brown belt tonight, but it was the wrong size. :(

Geocaching

The day was gorgeous enough, and the cabin fever was high enough, that we went out caching. I had to reload my Palm completely before our venture as it had been without battery power for a good couple of months.

The weather was great, but the ground was still fairly soggy. We didn't expect Jack to be much interested in getting his paws wet, but he was quite enthusiastic about getting out in the wide, wet world.

We found 5 caches: One Degree of Separation - DocDean, The cache at San Joaquin, Spicy Pepper 1, B&B's Great Reception, and B&B's Prairie Dog Park. This was a nice turnaround to our previous poor showing the last time we went out.

Got home and Kim gave the boys baths. They'd gleefully tromped through the water and were very likely to start smelling soon. They promptly sacked out for the rest of the day. It's good to be able to tire out pups.

Saturday at the Dojo 1/27

Aikidokas: Tim and Rob.

I just went to photograph any happenings since I'm staying off the mat for a bit.

The results can be found here.

Cinnamon rolls

I tried to make cinnamon rolls a couple of time this week, but had had no luck. Testing the yeast revealed that it needed to be replaced. I use instant yeast, not the active dry stuff that most recipes call for. My usual cookbook, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, uses that in its recipes so that's what I buy. It comes in bricks similar to what you can get coffee in, so there's a fair amount and it lasts a while, so I've gotten used to buying it.

Anyway. I picked up a new brick after aikido on Wednesday and made the rolls last night. I'm, glad that the dough was just rising when my in-laws' car wreck occurred or it would have been another failed attempt.

They completed baking around 10:15 pm and we each had one. Everyone enjoyed them. I even thought they were half-decent. The dough was good. I probably should have put in more cinnamon-sugar and raisins would have been nice. I couldn't find any raisins while rolling them out, though.

I didn't try one this morning to see how they hold up. I guess I'll have to see if anyone had one this morning and get their opinions. I'd hoped to get a picture of the entire batch to put up here, but the wreck threw off my thinking.

At least they're not hurt.

My in-laws came into town yesterday for a 3 day stay to visit the dentist and join us at a meeting with the builder for the apartment. About the time I would normally head out to aikido, they were on their way to a local furniture store and then the grocery store.

While sitting in a center left turn lane to go to the furniture store, someone came along and ran into them head-on. My in-laws were stopped and the other vehicle was just getting started, so the impact was not high speed. Even so, their car will need, at least: a new front passenger door, right front fender, front bumper, radiator.

They, thank goodness, were not seriously hurt. The airbags did not deploy, so there are no related injuries. The only thing they complained about last night were one sore knee each. I hope today brings no further aches.

The lady that ran into them said she hadn't been in an accident since 2 months after she got her license which was probably about 20 years ago.

I'm glad I was at home and not at aikido so I could go pick them up and help them finish their shopping.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 1/24

Aikidokas: Tim, John, Raj, Keith, Oliver, Shiela, and Joey. Not sure what brought Raj out of the woodwork again. Had to check a couple of times and make certain I was in the right place.

Ukemi: ok.

The Walk: we did one normal and then we did one where we went right side then left side instead of the normal left side then right side. It wasn't too bad until the last couple of stones. My mind blew at that point.

Releases: Worked with John.

Techniques: Worked with John. We worked at 3-step distance tonight. That made a huge difference in the techniques. My entries went to hell in a handbasket, throwing the rest of the technique off as well. On my entries I'd run into John's fingers, I didn't get around them for the butterfly. I think this was affecting my ability to "commit" to techniques.

Kotegaeshi: went ok. I need to lean on uke more as I make my pivot. Also need to push for gake, not yank.

Kotehineri: ran this once. Entry was bad, but the rest of the technique improved.

Tenkai-kote-hineri: Need to work on reduce the floweriness of the takedown pivot. And the transition from getting uke on his toes to the takedown pivot.

Shihonage: I had a tendency to do San-honage. Shihonage is a four-step technique. I need to complete all four steps.

Randori: John and I then worked on randori for a little while. It went ok until the end. John was using a lot of force and trying to get me to realize that and counter it by letting the force flow. I was using muscle. He then thought to "teach a lesson" by counter my muscle with his muscle. He got me into a bit of a wrist crank that got me to yell out.

I stepped off the mat to assess the damage. I guessed that I probably wouldn't know until this morning. And that's the case. Last night the wrist was a little sore. This morning the shoulder, arm and wrist are a little sore. The pinky and ring fingers on my left hand are a little numb. That indicates a re-aggravation of my long-time shoulder weakness. I had managed to avoid a repeat of this little injury for about 6 or 7 months.

Aftermath: I'll be off the mat for a few days. I'll guess that Monday looks like a good return day. It'd be nice to make it on Saturday, but the in-laws are in town so I might stay off the mat. Ibuprofen will make an appearance in my life for the next couple of days.

At least I'll be able to work on web pages and baking bread for a couple of days.

Tuesday Night at the Dojo 1/23

No aikidokas.

The weather was bad, but I went anyway, just in case one of the white belts showed up. Nobody showed up, so I used the time to organize and inventory the gis, belts, etc. that we have in the back.

Need to get some more rubber bands to tie up the belts.

At the movies : THX-1138

THX-1138: 3

George Lucas' first major film, I think.

It barely made a 3.

The story of a man trying to escape a very insulated, controlled, underground society.

Minimalist sets in some areas. I was impressed with some of the vehicles he used. They looked like high dollar sports cars.

I never felt I really connected with the plot. Robert Duvall had very little dialogue as the lead actor. I'm sure the minimalist dialogue was related to the fact that the society was very rigidly controlled - even speech did not happen very freely.

I was amazed that the society let children play in the one scene that they show of children.

Kim would not have enjoyed it. I can't really say I *enjoyed* it, but I'm glad I watched it.

Monday Night at the Dojo 1/22

Aikidokas: Randy, Martin, Oliver, Shiela, Kim, and Leonard.

Ukemi: Not bad. Worked on popping up. Improve on this a bit and I'll work on tumbleweeds some more.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Oliver.

Techniques: with Oliver.

We had a visitor in the dojo from Connecticut. He'd moved down recently and is looking for a dojo. Sensei Raymond asked Oliver and I to demonstrate 1-10 for him. I tori'd and Oliver uke'd. It went ok.

We then moved on to 11-14.

Kotehineri: went ok. Not confident in it yet, but that will come.

Kote-gaeshi: Not tonight.

Tenkai-kote-hineri: Spent a fair bit of time on this one, working the entry. I'm not certain the transition to the pin is correct yet.

Shiho-nage: Neither of us are getting a good transition out of the initial off-balance. Somehow our working hand position is not generating a "crank" on uke before the pivot to gake. Randy demonstrated this quite a bit, but we were being addle-headed and not capable of grasping.

Aftermath: Back home for an episode of Studio 60. Finally, a new episode.

Can you see me now?

After getting our house re-roofed in December, the reception on our TV went South. Way South.

This was due to getting the decking replaced with some thermal shielding decking. It's essentially aluminum-backed plywood. I looked up the stuff prior to getting the roof done and saw that there were occurrences of people getting much worse TV reception from in-attic antennas once the new stuff was up.

I'd hoped that we would not be subjected to that result. Alas, 'twas not to be.

I've had it on my list of things to do for a couple of weeks to move the antenna from the house attic to the garage attic. The garage did not get re-roofed and has plain plywood decking.

Steps to accomplish the task:

1. See if the garage had a spot for the antenna
2. Remove antenna/pole/wire from house
3. Install antenna/pole in garage
4. Wire up the antenna

It all went well until step 4. The prospect of threading coax from the garage through a very long, tight space into the house was not good. Kim was up in the attic, examining the very tight space to thread wire, and we determined it was not do-able.

I then remembered that the house had been wired for cable when we bought it. Cable uses coax. Cable has been run from outside to the attic of the house. Therefore, there will be cable running from the outside, likely through the garage, into the house.

Step 4a. Find cable wiring in attic
Step 4b. Find cable wiring in garage
Step 4c. Get cable wiring in garage disconnected from cable connections and ready for antenna
Step 4d. Buy cable coupling device
Step 4f. Install coupling device in attic
Step 4g. Test the two cable wires in the attic and see which provides a good picture
Step 5. Enjoy the AFC Champoinship Football game in HiDef.

Sweet.

Total cost: 2.5 hours of work. $3.56 for a pair of coax couplers.

Saturday at the Dojo 1/20

Aikidokas: Tim, Rob, Keith, Oliver, Kim, Joey, TJ, Leonard, and Michelle.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Rob. The theme for the day was "working with someone my own height". It threw changes into everything.

Techniques: Worked with Rob.

1-5:

The main tweak was on our first off-balances. We had to adjust our off-balances by about 2 inches to get uke broken down. I also noticed on Gyakugamea-ate that my center was pointing a little in toward uke and not straight ahead. Those two little tweaks, if we'd discovered them early on, would have made all of the techniques work well. That we came across them at all was a good thing.

Aftermath: Meeting about the Nov. Judo tournament later. On-line registration discussion, etc.

At the movies : Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle: 3

Adaptation of a Diana Wynn Jones book, and one I had on my list for a while.

The only problems I had with it were the occasional problem of the lips not matching the speaking. Drives me nuts. Also, we have no indication as to why Merkl is working with Howl. No backstory for the boy.

Even Kim enjoyed it.

Thursday Night at the Dojo 1/18

Aikidokas: Oliver.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: did it once normally and then once doing the "stones" in reverse order. That was really strange. We stopped at one point and thought for about 10 seconds as to which one was next in reverse order. Good mental challenge.

Releases: Trying to get 90 degrees to line of force and allow uke to rotate me around as opposed to making the pivot part of my action.

Techniques:

Kote-gaeshi: spent some time working through it. With just us, it was a bit of a struggle. We tried to keep from calling Sensei out on the mat as his doctor has ordered him to stay off the mat for at least 3 weeks. We did have to call him out a couple of times. I needed help in ukeing and we both needed help as tori. We pushed it to just before gake. Neither of us felt like taking it to the actual fall, as we're both relatively inexperienced at it.

Tenkai-kote-hineri: Footwork, footwork and more footwork. Gotta use the correct feet to get the off balances. Interesting possibility if you end up beyond parallel to uke: just drop their arm to the ground and the follow it, willingly. Bizarre.

Aftermath: none, of note.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 1/17

Aikidokas: Tim, John, Martin, and Shiela.

Ukemi: Got some help from John on pop-up ukemi.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with John. Really tried to work on getting off-line. The additional distance John supplies as uke really helps. We both had issues, fixes were simple, but will probably need to be relearned next time. :) Let uke take you around, don't force the pivots. The forced pivots come into play later in Yon Kata.

Techniques: Worked with John and Martin.

Kotehineri: Worked with John. He did some explaining of hand positions, etc. that helped.

Tenkai Kotehineri: Worked with John. Worked on timing and feeling when my next step needs to happen. I have a tendency to think I'm early when I'm just barely not late.

Kotegaeshi: spent a lot of time working on it with Martin. About 30 minutes, I think. I made some progress and am now getting a throw on about 50% of attempts. Key factors to prevent me from getting the throw: being early going from first off-balance to second off-balance, grabbing uke's wrist instead of letting it flow into my hands as we transition from first off-balance to second off-balance. Must also remember to extend out and not down for the throw.

Aftermath: nothing of note

At the movies : Fearless

Since the dojo was closed due to weather:

Jet Li's Fearless: 3

The movie starts out trying to make the protagonist to be fairly shallow. It becomes apparent he's going to have to go through some sort of transformation in order to be a likable character. That happens when his family gets killed.

The film does not really cover any of the training that Huo Yuanjia (historically, at least) gets from his dad.

It does cover some of his more famous combats, but seems to take a little license with his famous last battle. It does not mention his battle with TB or the fact that some of the treatments for TB back then could likely have poisoned him.

All in all, not a bad flick.

Monday Night at the Dojo 1/15

Aikidokas: Randy, Martin, Keith, Shiela, Leonard, and TJ.

Cold mat. Cold dojo. At least for Texas. 56 degrees when we started. Last time I checked, after the heater'd been on for a while, it was 60. A majority of folks wore socks while on the mat. It made life bearable even though the footing was a little less certain.

Ukemi: Slightly off tonight. No discernable reason.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Martin. Minor tweaks.

Techniques: with Martin

Kote-gaeshi: Managed to get some throws on this one. And my follow-up improved. Randy suggested getting uke's arm *outside* the working leg as opposed to between the legs to improve the tension and speed up the lock.

Mae-otoshi: Got a couple of throws right-sided. Left-sided the brain was happily doing a butterfly-dance instead of aikido.

Randori: We did a little hand randori for a while. Good stuff.


Aftermath: TJ's got some amazing joints. We're going to have to be careful with armlocks on him as you can practically spin his arm out of socket without causing a pain reaction. Rain, sleet predicted for overnight did not occur.

Friday Night at the Dojo 1/12

Aikidokas: Tim, Keith, Rob, Robert, Oliver, Shiela, and Kim.

Shiela and Kim were off on the side getting in final repetitions before Shiela's demonstration.

Robert and I did the walk and releases together.

I then went scouring the dojo looking for the green belts that Sensei's had around for Shiela. I had no luck. They may have disappeared when we had the dojo cleanup party.

The demonstration went well. She seemed to have everything well in hand. I was watching Kim to see how she was handling being an uke, so was not completely attentive to Shiela.

She got awarded her Yonkyu. Go Shiela!

Aftermath: Nothing of note

Thursday Night at the Dojo

Aikidokas: Oliver and Shiela.

Was the only aikidoka for a while so I spent 15 - 20 minutes each on ukemi and the Walk.

Ukemi: Not bad. Working on popping up smoothly after the falls as opposed to just landing on the mat. It seems I ping my shoulders more often if I'm trying to pop up. Not sure why. It was nice having the time to just roll around.

The Walk: repetition, repetition, repetition. Did it a number of times. Did it some more when Oliver and Shiela arrived.

I sat as joseki for Oliver and Shiela to practice the demonstration.

Aftermath: Back to the dojo tonight for the actual demonstration. Might take Saturday off.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 1/10

Aikidokas: Tim, John, Raj, Keith, Martin, Oliver, Shiela, Joey, Michelle, and TJ ( a new student). Wow, a big crowd. Not sure what the reason was. Not sure what brought Raj out of the woodwork.

Ukemi: I was introducing TJ to the joys of ukemi. It's good to learn how to teach the stuff.

The Walk: nothing unusual. Tim made Raj do the counting on the second iteration. Raj has a reputation (somewhat legitimately earned) of being an non-rhythmic counter and, occasionally, forgetting the Japanese numbers. He did fine this time.

Releases: Worked with Martin.

Techniques: Worked with Martin.

Kotegaeshi: spent a lot of time working on it and managed to get some throws from it. It's still very raw, but I managed to get throws on left and right sides. I started off with confused active hands and feet. I'd been doing the footwork at work when I was heating lunch or water for tea, but I wasn't incorporating the hands. So, I had the footwork down for a right-sided techniques, but my brain thought it needed to be a left-hand technique at the same time. I think I've got that straightened out now and I know the adjustment I need to make for the off-mat repetition.

Kotehineri: this is just Oshi-taoshi with a slightly altered hand position. Instead fo a push with the hand at the wrist, you place your thumb on the inside of uke's wrist and 3 fingers on the back of uke's hand (Sensei likes to have the index finger be pointing in the direction of the push). Footwork is king on this technique.

Aftermath: Another new student. Cool! When I started, I was the only white belt. We currently have 6, 1 of whom has not been seen since the start of the Christmas shopping season because of her job. It may mean more time is spent teaching than training, but I'm cool with that if it means the dojo is a livelier place.

Took a couple of Aleve before going to bed. Joints seem to be complaining a little after 9 sessions of aikido in the past 10 days. Probably 3 more sessions of aikido this week. And my right wrist was a little wonky. I think I tweaked it helping Kim at the library a while ago, and maybe an upcoming weather change is affecting it.

My left wrist was a reliable weather change indicator for a few years about 20 years ago. I've had two surgeries on it and until it completely "healed" it could senses barometric pressure changes.

Tuesday Night at the Dojo 1/9

Aikidokas: Oliver, and Shiela.

Ukemi: Not bad. Tumbleweed rolls need help.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Worked with Shiela and Oliver on getting her ready for her demonstration. Kim had to work so was unable to uke. Oliver uke'd instead as he's closer to Shiela's height than I am. She's looking ready.

Aftermath: Pinged shoulder from warm-up ukemi. Nothing serious.

At the movies : Memoirs of a Geisha

From sometime during the Christmas break:

Memoirs of a Geisha: 4

Loved the cinematography.

Monday Night at the Dojo 1/8

Aikidokas: Randy, Martin, Oliver, Shiela, Kim, and Leonard.

Ukemi: Not bad. Tumbleweed rolls need help.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Oliver.

Watched Shiela and Kim work on demonstration stuff. It's tough for me to find faults watching currently. Even tougher when it's my wife.

Aftermath: None of note.

At the movies (American Splendor,A Scanner Darkly,Triplets of Bellville, Amelie)

This will be an occasional topic with movies seen either at the theatre or newly viewed on DVD. Don't know if I'll be commenting on the movies much or not, but I'll be keeping track of the movies I see.

So, to recap some movies seen in the past few weeks for the first time (that eliminates PotC2).

Rating system: 4 (I'd be happy to see it again), 3 (glad I saw it), 2 (wasted my time), 1 (they wasted their time making the movie).

American Splendor: 3
A Scanner Darkly: 3
Triplets of Bellville: 1
Amelie: 3

I was really expecting better from Triplets. Just a little too bizarre for me and the meal scene in the Triplets apartment went on faaaaaaaaaar too long.

Saturday Morning at the Dojo 1/6

Aikidokas: Tim, Martin, Keith, Rob, Shiela, Kim, and Michelle.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Techniques: Worked with Keith and Martin. We did a little work on Tenkai-kote-hineri and Sumi-otoshi. Went to completion on Tenkai, but just worked on the entry for Sumi. I had a heck of a time on Martin's left arm getting Tenkai back after he took the fall. It turns out his left side is much less flexible than his right. Lots of folks said that Tenkai on the arm-bar is just icing. Mainly they're looking for control on the arm bar.

Aftermath: Looking forward to a day off from aikido. Determined that the techniques for the Nikkyu test are Kote-hineri, Kote-gaeshi, Tenkai-kote-hineri and Shiho-nage. Don't have to worry about that for quite some time, though.

Friday Night at the Dojo 1/5

Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, John, Raj, Keith, Shiela, and Kim.

I helped Shiela and Kim work through their demonstration some more.

Aftermath: Dinner with Shiela and Keith. Sensei was interested in having me join him and the other black belts at their usual Friday Night haunt, but Shiela can't handle the smoke there, so we went elsewhere.

Thursday Night at the Dojo 1/4

Aikidokas: Martin, Shiela, and Kim.

Ukemi: Not bad. Big fall on the left side I'm doing more garuma than not. I need to fix that. Tried some tumbleweeds. Ugly! Need help.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Martin and I sat as joseki so that Kim and Shiela could get some experience demonstrating in front of an audience. They did all right. They did fall over laughing a couple of times.

Techniques: Worked with Martin. We did a little work on Shihonage and Maetoshi. I need to make certain I've got a decent crank on the wrist.

Aftermath: Probably back to the dojo tonight and tomorrow for more practice for Kim and Shiela. Aikido 6 days in a row. Wow.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 1/3

Aikidokas: Raymond, Tim, Keith, Martin, Rob, Shiela, Kim, and Leonard.

Ukemi: Not bad. Big fall on the left side I'm doing more garuma than not. I need to fix that.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Martin. He had some tweaks for me that I can't remember at the moment. I wasn't getting completely around on a couple of them, made an adjustment and they worked better.

Techniques: Worked with Martin and Keith. We did some seiza work. Just one technique, I don't know what it's called so I'll describe it. Uke comes up with a foot near your knee. He grabs your nearest shoulder and pulls tore up off the ground. Tore's response is to rise up, moving the hand nearest uke's leg to just above uke's knee on the inside. As tore rises up, pressure on uke's leg increases and uke falls. Very neat.

We tried it with two attackers as well. It works in that situation, too. You just dealer with the attacker who is exerting more force first, remembering to drop back to seiza to improve the technique.

I also worked on shihonage with Keith and Martin. A nice session of intensive work. Hand positioning on the first off-balance and at the wrist pin are important. My first attempt was for the "big 10" version of shihonage as I didn't realize the Ju Nana Han Kata version was a wrist pin.

The wrist pin seems to work best if tore's thumb/forefinger webbing is just a little closer to uke's fingertips as opposed to being right in the wrist joint. The last two fingers on tore's hand need to be involved as well. If I can get leverage on the hand joint of uke's middle finger a large amount of control occurs. Also, it is better the closer uke's hand is pinned to his shoulder as opposed to his neck.

Aftermath: Shiela will be testing for green belt on the 12th. She and Kim will be working together over the next few nights to get her ready.

Tuesday Night at the Dojo 1/2

Aikidokas: Shiela, and Kim

I spent the evening working with the ladies on their releases and techniques. My pacing of the class was a little slow. I didn't get through the first 5 techniques with them.

Aftermath: none of note

Back at the grind

The winter vacation is over. I had a couple of days in which to get things accomplished, but most of the time was predestined for getting ready, taking part in, or recovering from family events.

The tree, 3 types of cookies and gifts all needed to be prepared before Christmas day. We'd done precious little baking in the preceding weeks, so I did a rash of baking on one day to get me partially in the mood for the holiday. I did some late night package wrapping and some constant "hope the item arrives in time for Christmas" worrying.

We had Christmas at our place and then at my sister's place. The next day I helped my in-laws figure out how to work one of their gifts and dropped the truck off for some more repair work.

I think I had Wed., Thurs., and Fri. to do some stuff not really scheduled. I got some work on taxes done, some entering of books into my database and some filing of books into their proper shelves. Did some more shopping and watched the completely forgettable "Triplets of Bellville". Also went to aikido on Tues., Wed., and Thurs.

Saturday was up to Plano for the big family Christmas. Sunday: drive back home with a stop at the in-laws for more consultation on their new VCR/DVD device.

Monday was the dojo New Years and then trying to help Kim get rid of her fever. Chicken broth and a bunch of afghans seemed to do the trick.

I'd like another week of time off. Please?

Monday Afternoon at the Dojo 1/1

Aikidokas: Raymond, Tim, Randy, Jeff, Gail, Keith, Loreta(?), Leonard, Joey, Sheila, Michelle and Kim.

New Year's Party brought out a bunch of folks.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Kim.

Techniques: Worked with Kim. Uke'd for #1 and #2.

Aftermath: Good food. Good friends. Good aikido. What more could you ask for to start off the year? Sake? Got that too. Good stuff.

Thursday Night at the Dojo 12/28

Aikidokas: Michelle

I spent the evening working with Michelle on backfalls, ukemi, the walk and releases.

Aftermath: none of note

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 12/27

Aikidokas: Leonardo, Michelle

I spent the evening working with Leonardo and Michelle (a new student) on backfalls, ukemi, the walk and releases.

Aftermath: none of note

Tuesday Night at the Dojo 12/26

Aikidokas: Leonardo

I spent the evening working with Leonardo (a new student) on backfalls, ukemi, the walk and releases.

Aftermath: none of note

Sankyu. Sankyu, very much.

Aikidokas: Tim, Randy, Fred, Marty, Keith, and Oliver.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: We probably wouldn't have done the walk tonight if some of us hadn't needed a refresher.

The rest of the evening was spent working with Oliver getting ready for my demonstration. We went through releases twice and through the techniques once. Sensei Raymond recommended we take a breather before going through techniques a second time. We never got back on the mat for the second practice.

The first practice run went ok except for forgetting which technique I was supposed to do on left side Gedan-ate. I got to the first off-balance and froze. I'm starting to develop a routine when running through a consecutive set of techniques.

I recite, internally, the technique number (I really ought to start reciting technique name instead), which side we're performing the technique and which foot the tsugi ashi starts with. I then take a breath and am ready to proceed.

The Demonstration:

The walk went ok.

The releases stunk. My pivots were horrible.

Techniques:

Shomen-ate: went well.

Aigamae-ate: went well.

Gyakugamea-ate: went well.

Gedan-ate: It didn't rock, but it did go well. :)

Ushiro-ate: I did not manage to get the hook with the working hand very well.

Oshi-taoshi: went ok.

Ude-gaeshi: went ok on the right side. Was a complete and unmitigated footwork disaster on the left side. I took about 73 small steps after the pivot when it should have just been one.

Ude-hineri : went ok.

Hiki-taoshi: went ok. Spent some time making certain of the hand positions. I think I ended up with them being correct. At least on the right side. I have no memory of the left side.

Waki-gatame : went well. I don't think I raised my arms out of center. I think I controlled the elbow with the non-working hand. This is a technique that I am well-suited to with my height, so I hope I'm getting it right.

After much discussion, the review board (6 black belts) gave me the brown belt. Actually, it's more of a latte belt. Sensei did not have a brown belt in my size in the dojo, so he made do with a latte belt just one size too small. I'll still be wearing my green belt on the mat since it fits, but the certificate of Sankyu is in my hot little hands.

We then adjourned to off-mat discussions and consumption of the beer I brought. Sensei was surprised as beer is apparently only a "requirement" for dan-grade promotions. I didn't want to be caught unprepared.

And the beer was good. Pilsner Urquell. My local liquor store didn't have any, so I had to go to the local grocery store to get some. That just seems wrong somehow.

Must go collapse now.

Tuesday Night at the Dojo 12/19

Aikidokas: Stanley, and Oliver.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Oliver and Stanley.

Techniques: Worked with Oliver and Stanley. I wanted to work on 5 and 9. Oliver had some comments on 7. Then I did two run throughs of all 10. Sensei Raymond had some comments after the first one. Demonstration is still scheduled for today!

Ushiro-ate: I wanted to work on the "hook". I think it improved. I had some problems adjusting to Stanley on this one.

Ude-gaeshi: Oliver saw that my footwork was not quite right on this one. I need to step through with the working foot after the pivot. I managed this quickly and Oliver was impressed with the difference it made.

Hiki-taoshi: Worked on hand position before the hip switch.

Comments after the demonstration that Sensei Raymond watched:

Hiki-taoshi: I got it right on one side, not the other.

Waki-gatame: Operate at your shoulder level, no higher.

Aftermath: Mentally out of it. At one point during releases I had about a 1 minute brain flatline. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do on the next release. I hope that doesn't happen tonight.

Got to remember to bring beer for joseki. I think two 6 packs of Pilsner Urquell is what I'll try to pick up.

Monday Night at the Dojo 12/18

Aikidokas: Randy, Martin, Oliver, Sheila, and Kim.

Ukemi: Not bad. Didn't do the tumbleweed rolls. Took some big falls and landed not-so-hot on one rightside. Made my calf muscle tense up somehow. Stretched it out and experienced no aftereffects.

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Oliver.

Techniques: Worked with Oliver. Did 3 sets of 1-10 with Sensei Raymond watching and critiquing. I may be testing for Sankyu on Wednesday! :0

Gedan-ate: Propel uke off-balance with the off-hand above your head, not just above your shoulder. Return to neutral posture before moving away from uke.

Ushiro-ate: I'm getting the entry well, I think. I'm not "hooking" uke with the acting hand on his should. That need to improve.

Oshi-taoshi and Ude-gaeshi: Make certain uke's hand is in a vertical line with his elbow before you push the elbow through his ear.

Ude-hineri: Small steps. Get out of uke's way in a hurry so he doesn't fall onto your shin.

Hiki-taoshi: Small steps. Hand position before the throw. Make certain your off hand is able to handle uke's friends if necessary. Don't have it trapped by the acting hand.

Waki-gatame: Operate at your shoulder level, no higher.

Aftermath: I was beat. Mentally and physically tired. Going back tonight for more run-throughs with Oliver.

Thursday Night at the Dojo 12/14

Aikidokas: Stanley.

Releases: That's what Stanley wanted to work on and I was happy to oblige. It'd been a couple of months since he'd spent much time at the dojo and we knocked a little rust off. We got some input from Sensei Raymond on #7 and he pointed on some things that need tweaking on my releases.

Stanley did a number 6 release that resulted in a throw. Shocked the heck out of both of us. We couldn't figure out how it happened, but it did. I'm guessing that he was moving a lot more quickly than I was and it added extra oomph to me moving backwards. My feet couldn't keep up with my upper body, so I just took the fall.

We also had some discussion on figuring out, on the fly, transfers from one technique to another. Practice, practice, practice was the main recommendation. The terminal technique that Sensei was able to achieve an amazing, to me, number of times was Ushiro-ate. It was a mind blowing discussion.

Aftermath: None of note.

Shop talk

Troublesome vehicles over the past month or so.

Taurus SHO ("Blizzard"): Four new tires, new a/c control panel, new fan motor.

F-150 ("Mat Burns"): New clutch, new clutch slave cylinder, new flywheel.

At least they're paid for. The repairs are cheaper than having to buy a new car. But, at over 100K miles each, I don't know how much longer they'll last.

We've asked our local shop if there's a limit to the number of times we're allowed to visit them in a month. :)

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 12/13

Aikidokas: Tim, Fred, Marty, Keith, Oliver, and Joey.

Ukemi: Tim had some corrections to the footwork for the regular forward rolls. I was leaving my trailing foot behind. I need to bring it up near the leading foot to simulate a near-trip.

The Walk: I managed to count, do the walk, and kind of listen to Sensei Raymond talk on the phone. It was tough, but someone's got to do it.

Releases: Worked with Oliver. Went ok.

Techniques:

Worked with Oliver.

Shomen-ate: went well.

Aigamae-ate: went well.

Gyakugamea-ate: went well.

Gedan-ate: It didn't rock, but it did go well. :)

Ushiro-ate: first attempt was a little off. Went well after that.

Oshi-taoshi: push through the ear, don't row uke's arm. Remember to do the foot switch after the first off-balance.

Ude-gaeshi: went ok.

Ude-hineri : went ok. I think I'm still getting a big step on the first off-balance. Staying closer to uke generates a better reaction on the eye-flash.

Hiki-taoshi: I think this one went well. I'm doing better on floating the foot waiting for uke to pull me in. Also, my spacing seems to be better.

Waki-gatame : went well. I think I hit it on both sides, first try.

Spent some time working on 1-10 as Oliver's uke. We got up to 6. We spent a lot of time trying to get his off-balances correct. I asked Keith to throw me with #6 to try to figure out what's going on. We made some progress, but still need to make some more. Marty also tried #6 with me and was far more aggressive than I'm used to.

Aftermath: No new pains from this session. John came through surgery well (that's what Sensei Raymond was discussing during the walk). Fred is a longtime student who's been off for a while. I don't know if he'll be back consistently or not.

In-laws come in today. I might try to "sneak out" to the dojo to work with Oliver on my demonstration.

Monday Night at the Dojo 12/11

Aikidokas: Randy, Martin, Stanley, and Kim.

Ukemi: Not bad. Didn't do the tumbleweed rolls, but everything else went well. Kim took her first big falls and did great!

The Walk: nothing unusual.

Releases: Worked with Martin. It'd been a while since he been in our dojo for a regular session, so we refreshed his memory.

Techniques: Worked with Martin on my 1-5 and his 1-5. He's spent time with a JAA dojo, so the approach he's used to is different from ours.

We spent a fair amount of time working on Ushiro-ate for both of us.

Aftermath: None of any note. Radiator on the car may have died. At least a hose sprang a vicious leak. So it'll be going in to the shop. We got the truck out of the shop just before heading to the dojo.

Saturday at the Dojo 12/9

Aikidokas: Tim, Keith, Greg, and Oliver.

I got there a little later than I should so warm-up was a strange mish-mash. I also spent a good bit of time on the phone with a prospective student, so that cut in even more.

Ukemi: Just slaps. Didn't have time for rolls. :(

The Walk: joined in the middle.

Releases: Worked with Greg.

Techniques:

Worked with Keith, 1-10.

Shomen-ate: ok.

Gyakugamea-ate: ok.

Gedan-ate: better than Thursday.

Ushiro-ate: we spent some time on this, exploring how to get your hand out of uke's way and maintain it in center. The key is the step off-line. You maintain your hand in your center, but you've got a minor fall off-line that gets the hand out of the way. That seems to make a huge amount of difference.

Oshi-taoshi: ok.

Ude-hineri : ok

Waki-gatame : don't let hands rise out of center.

Worked with Greg on 1-10 and then on as many of his as we could get through.

We spent some time transferring the information Keith and I had worked on for Ushiro-ate over to Greg. I hope it helped.

Aftermath: We folded up the mat to clear some floor space for the party. Went home and made pralines and pecan pies for the party.

More logos

More versions of the ATAA logo are available at my flickr account

Logo rev 2

Borders added. Spacing adjusted.

Thursday Night at the Dojo 12/7

Aikidokas: Oliver and Joey.

Ukemi: A little work on the new rotator roll. Improving, little by little.

The Walk: Counted for the group. Once in Japanese and once in Czech. Got some of the numbers wrong for a while in Czech and then corrected them when my brain corrected the verbal rhythm

Releases: Worked with Joey. He's now worked on 1-5. Good improvement.

Techniques:

Worked with Oliver

Shomen-ate: First off-balance was better.

Gyakugamea-ate: went ok.

Gedan-ate: Not as good as last night, my continuation of intent of eye flash was faulty.

Ushiro-ate: what a bloody disaster. I need to continue through and not try to continue up. Pivot around mid-humerus.

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 had too much distance between myself and uke after the pivot.

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. Sensei Raymond was mildly surprised to hear that Oliver and I were working toward my demonstration. He'd heard nothing. *puzzlement*

ATAA logo

First attempt at a logo. I've got some slight mods in work, mainly borders around the outer circle and the inner circle.

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.

Monday Night at the Dojo 12/4

Aikidokas: Randy, and Keith.

Ukemi: A number of big falls tonight. I think the main problem, that results in garuma-ish endings, is I look towards tori's center when taking the fall. If I look to my center I'd bet I correct the issue.

The Walk: Not tonight.

Releases: Not tonight.

Techniques: Since it was just Keith and me, we worked on my 1-10 to start prepping for my demonstration.

Shomen-ate ::: ok

Aigamae-ate ::: ok

Gyakugamea-ate ::: ok

Gedan-ate ::: ok

Ushiro-ate ::: need more intent when meeting uke

Oshi-taoshi ::: as usual my first attempt for the night the first off-balance was lacking. Footwork needed tweaking.

Ude-gaeshi ::: Footwork needed tweaking to enable the pivot required

Ude-hineri ::: more flowery. Extend uke's arm above his head and not to his side after the takedown

Hiki-taoshi ::: allow uke to pull me through. Continue pushing throughout. Get hand position, but don't force uke to bend his elbow

Waki-gatame ::: maintain shoulder level

Aftermath: None of any note. Ankle is still bruised/swollen. Might be next Monday before I try the evil rolls again.

Random haiku

Surfing the 'net, I was inspired to try haiku.

Charge in to attack
Tori sees, moves my center
Gracefully, I fall

Rotten tomatoes welcome.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 11/29

Aikidokas: Tim, John, Keith, Oliver, and Joey.

Ukemi: A little work on a new roll: rotator. At least thats what I'll call it. Stand facing a near wall, go up on your toes and rotate on them so that you're now facing the opposite wall. Now you just take a nice forward roll. I did one decent one on the right side, a bomb on the left, and then a not so great one on the right. Practice, practice, practice. Gonna have to work on these, they're not intuitive.

The Walk: as usual. Facing into a circle this time. Then, at Sensei Raymond's suggestion we did another round of the Walk, left side only. That wasn't too bad until we got to the parts that, after doing only half of that movement, had us facing 180 deg from starting position. That was weird.

Big falls went ok. The one that everyone liked, technically, is the one that was least comfortable to me.

Releases: Worked with John. Some tweaking on 7th release

Techniques:

Worked with John on 6-10, right side only.

Sensei Raymond had some improvements on Oshi-taoshi for me: move like a scared rabbit when you have the final upright kazushi on uke.

Ude-gaeshi was ok, need to look out for uke's minions while exerting control over uke.

My first attempt on Ude-hineri for a night seems to result in me not getting the first off-balance.

Waki-gatame needs to have uke's elbow going through the space between his shoulder and his ear for folks my size and smaller. I attempted to get more off-line for John after being uke for Keith on this technique in the past. Apparently, the height relation between John and I is within the nominal working range.

Did a test run of Kote-hineri and it went ok. I can't remember the entry this morning. That's the main difference between it and Oshi-taoshi.

Spent the rest of the evening on Kote-gaeshi. My main problem, as far as I'm concerned, is the entry footwork. The off foot needs to circle behind the anchor foot and then extend down the line of uke's momentum. Short-changing that motion eliminates any chance at kazushi. I did manage to throw John on it once and came close, by his admission, several times.

Watched Keith work with John on Kote-gaeshi. I was concentrating on his footwork and it appears he has some of the same issues.

Aftermath: No new pains from this session. Ankle is still bruised and swollen.

Dojo looks properly festive for the season.

There's a possibility we may try to be a stop on a Japanese Sensei's potential U.S. tour. That would be fabulous if the stars align for it to happen. More on this I will not say.

Monday Night at the Dojo 11/27

No aikido.

Instead, we spent the evening getting the dojo ready for the Christmas season. Garland, lights, decorations ad whatnot all spread about the joint.

Some of the stuff is hanging in John's way and, since he's blind, he'll be running into it and possibly making rude comments about it. ;)

It looked pretty good when I left and that was with most folks still working on it.

Aftermath: Ankle is still sore and bruised. It actually hurts to tie the laces of my normal shoes on that foot as the tongue presses down on the bruise. I must have really whacked it good.

Saturday at the Dojo 11/25

Aikidokas: Tim, Keith, Robert, Oliver and Joey.

Ukemi: Ankle is still not happy, so no cross-legged ukemi. Other than that, ok

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Oliver. He's working at making his attacks more obvious and I'm still late. Sheesh.

Techniques:

Worked with Oliver. I ran through 6-10. Got lots of tweaks on #9 for the eye flash. Got some tweaks on the wrist lock for #7. Overall went pretty well.

Uked for Oliver on #6. Spent some time allowing him to get used to someone of my height.

Uked for Keith on #6 in an extra-curricular session. It's really not a technique likely to be used on an uke of substantially greater height.

Aftermath: Bruised and swollen ankle. V. pretty bruise.

A&M won

We beat t.u.! 'nuff said.

Close game. I lost a bet on the outcome, and boy am I glad I did. No BCS for tu.

Turkey day

At my mom's. My sister and her family, with the niece's fiance. Kim's parents and Keith and Sheila from the dojo, as well.

Cornish hens, spinach casserole, sweet potatoes, dressing, etc. Pumpkin, pecan and fudge pecan pies.

My fudge pecan pie was a little runny. I don't know if it needed to cook more or if the extra butter I added made that much of a difference.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 11/22

Aikidokas: Tim, John, Raj, Keith, Oliver, Sheila and Joey. 4 Dan grade, 4 Kyu grade.

Ukemi: A little work on the new rolls. Messed up one of them somehow and have a nice 4"x4" bruise on my left ankle to show for it. I was doing a cross-legged roll to the left and my ankles slammed into each other as I was going over. Ouch.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with John.

Techniques:

Worked with John on 6-10. Worked with Oliver on Shihonage. His knees were a little off, so I said throwing me from vertical was ok instead of ending up in the wrist control posture.

Aftermath: Bruised and swollen ankle.

Monday Night at the Dojo 11/20

Attendees: Raymond, Randy, John, Keith, Robert (yay!), Sheila, and Kim.

Ukemi: Worked on adding more varieties to my repertoire. Still haven't added what I call the pivot rolls. Need to do that soon. No big falls tonight. I just need to find some open mat time and just work on rolls. Rest a bit after I ding a shoulder and do some more.

The Walk: as usual. Got called on by John to do the counting. He called out "Zrubek". I responded with: "There are two of us. Which one?"

Releases: Worked with John. We got through his releases and he wanted to go on to whatever was next. I had to remind him that I hadn't had a chance to practice mine yet. :D

Randy asked Raymond to come out and teach a little hand randori. So, we spent an hour working through some rules for randori: never more than two consecutive steps along the same line, if you're caught try a release motion, and a couple more I've forgotten.

I worked with Randy all evening, feeling pretty incompetent. My brain wasn't all there.

Aftermath: Kim and I stayed a little bit to apply some Killz to the sheetrock repair she did on Saturday.

Also, a couple of months back I didn't just tweak Keith's shoulder, I cranked, wrenched or destroyed it. I'm not sure what I did to it, but he's not happy with the description of tweak, so I will overstate the case here.

We also turned the heat on for the first time this winter in the dojo. It was down to freezing overnight and the added warmth was welcome.

Aftermath: Took naproxen sodium as a precaution.

Saturday at the Dojo 11/18

No aikido, but the semi-occasional dojo cleanup.

It started around 9 am. I wasn't able to get there at that time as I was babysitting to roofers at home. Kim was able to get there and managed to complete some sheetrock repairs that needed to be done after some plumbing issues were resolved.

Mat repairs were abundant. Lots of nick and cuts in the top of the mat that needed to be sealed so that they don't turn into rips and tears.

Washing, scrubbing, tidying, organizing.

I spent a good portion of the day reaching toward the 20'-ish ceiling trying to sweep away the spider webs. I also climbed on the roof of the bathroom to sweep and clean up there.

We called it a day around 5pm. The dojo looks better than it has in years, according to Sensei. And it's a little more insulated.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 11/15

Aikidokas: Tim, Keith, Oliver, Sheila and Joey.

Ukemi: No real issues. A little more work on the new rolls. Big falls went fine.

The Walk: as usual. Did a partial run-through with Joey and Sheila to give Joey more reps.

Releases: Worked with Keith. I was using a lot of power this evening. Maybe a holdover from last night's volleyball?

Techniques:

Worked with Keith on 6-10 and then 1-5. Hiki-taoshi needs to have a little better entry. Gedan-ate as well. Did some tweaking on Ushiro-ate. Avoided mucking up his shoulder on Ude-gaeshi.


Aftermath: Nothing major. Took pictures of sheetrock work to do at this weekend's dojo cleanup.

Volleyball season done.

Well, we lost 2 out of 3 against the number one team this week. They even brought in a player from past seasons who is a big hitter. They only had 5 players though.

I did ok. Took a spike right in the left eye. Left my arms too far apart on a block. I had a couple of nice blocks, a couple of nice spikes.

Next season doesn't start until February. I might fill the time until then with aikido. Just have to see what happens.

Monday Night at the Dojo 11/13

Attendees: Randy, Keith, Oliver, Sheila, and Kim.

Ukemi: Worked on adding more varieties to my repertoire. Minor ping on one shoulder that had no lasting effect.

I'm still looking for ukemi bipolar meds.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Oliver. As usual I had a tough time figuring out when he's moving.

Techniques: Ran through 1-10 with Oliver.

Aigamae-ate: A little late on hip switch.

Gedan-ate: Stay controlled. Don't rush.

Oshi-taoshi: No grabbing. Push.

After working on techniques we did some "chicken-in-the-middle." At least, that's what I call it. Tori stands in the center of the mat and everyone else on the mat gets to randomly choose to be uke. Only one uke at a time, but a second uke can start an attack as soon as the first uke has broken ma'ai.

The goal of uke is to tap tori on the head. The goal of tori is to not let uke tap him on the head and to disrupt as many attacks as possible by redirecting uke or executing a technique on uke.

Aftermath: Took naproxen sodium as a precaution.

Houston Open Judo Tournament

Occurred this past weekend.

I'd been in training for scorekeeping, so I was scheduled to help. I was also scheduled to move mats from Pasadena up to Conroe so that the players would have something kind of soft to fall onto.

I managed to get out of work early Friday by working later on Tuesday. I got to my dojo around noon and waited for the guy whose trailer I'd be using to show up. I think it showed up around 1. Hooked up the trailer and took off to Pasadena. Sensei Raymond and Oliver ran some errands on the way to Pasadena, so I got there early and waited for folks to arrive so we could get into the dojo and start loading.

Loading didn't take too long and then it was time to hit the road with a well-weighted truck and trailer. My truck didn't particularly like the extra weight, but it managed to pull it. If I got the speed up to 60 mph, the whole combination got a little unsteady. Travelling at 55mph was good though. The amount of room I needed for braking was a little scary though. Fools would cut in front of me and start braking. There were a couple of close calls on the way up. Oliver rode up with me. He was mostly just baggage. :) He caught up on some sleep.

The directions I'd written down for the convention center were a little sketchy, so we had fun driving around Conroe, eventually finding the spot. We dropped off the trailer. Oliver then joined Sensei for the drive to College Station to pick up more mats for use in the tournament.

I went over to the hotel and stated helping with registration. Kim joined me shortly thereafter. We were up until around 11 working registration. We set our wake-up call for 4:30 am so we could help set up mats and set up registration at the convention center.

After that, the tournament began. I chose the less exciting of the two mats to work. I worked the juniors and masters. The seniors had a lot more cheering and near-injuries.

My mat did have one guy pass out from a choke hold, one near pass out and one who had too bloody of a nose to continue.

I think the matches wrapped up around 5pm. My truck was loaded and on the road by 6. I made to Champion Judo around 7pm. We unloaded most of the mats there and then went to Buck's (Sensei for Champion Judo) to unload the rest. Made it to Clear Lake Aikido to drop off the trailer around 8 and then back home by 8:30.

In bed by 9. Up Sunday morning at 9, back to bed at noon. Up again at 3 and then back to bed at 7.

I think I may be caught up on sleep for this weekend and the previous weekend at WFC.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 11/8

Attendees: Tim, John, Keith, Oliver, Sheila and Joey.

Ukemi: No real issues. Need to expand my repertoire of rolls by a couple. Wish I'd known earlier.


The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Keith and his brand spankin' new black belt. I need to use less muscle.

Techniques:

Worked with Keith and Oliver on 6, 8 and 10. Did some work at 1-step distance at Tim's suggestion.

Aftermath: General annoyance. Wasn't sure I'd be in a good mental state for the evening. It wasn't as bad as I was afraid it might be.

WFC 2006

I left for Austin Wednesday afternoon.

I planned my route so I could stop by Berdoll's pecan stand on the way up and pick up a supply of pecans for Christmas. I got there shortly before they closed and picked up 10 pounds of pecans: 5 lbs. halves, 5 lbs. pieces.

Arrived in Austin in time to check into the hotel and talk to my roommate for the weekend: John Picacio. We then went to Iron Cactus with guests and committee members for dinner. Ok Mexican food, but not great.

After that we assembled the Art Show panels. We didn't hang any art as it was too late and we weren't able to completely assemble the show. We had to allow passage for the Dealers to move their stuff and that required them to move through the art show space.

Thursday morning up bright and early for breakfast in the hotel and then to the art show. We did some hanging in the moorning and helped the artist's hang their art as well. I got to say hi to Gary Gianni, Charles Vess, Gregory Manchess, John Jude Palencar, Mark Rogers, David Deen, Thomas Bishop, Vincent Villafranca and a bunch of others.

Thursday afternoon I was making copies of some paperwork in Con Ops. I see one of the staff chatting with a lady who is clearly upset at the quality of the art show.

She states that she talked to someone associated with the con earlier in the year when she mas making a decision whether to attend WFC or NASFic(?). she had asked which art show was the better fantasy art show. The unknown person responded that WFC was far and away the better one for her interests.

The irate fan had arrived at the hotel, checked in, checked in to the convention and gone straight to the Art Show (her husband and not yet checked into the hotel for some reason). She was displeased with the preponderence of black and white items and with the large number of horror pieces. We attempted to tell her to give the show time as it had not been completely set up yet, but she was steadfast in her opinion.

She demanded her money back. She had planned her vacation for the express purpose of seeing a fabulous fantasy art show at WFC. Since she wasn't going to be able to do that, she wanted some compensation for her trouble. Unfortunately, policy beyond our control forbade us from giving a refund.

As far as I know she, and her husband, left to go home that afternoon and were not seen at the con again.

Art show stuff kept me busy for quite some time and I ended up going to Amy's ice cream for dinner at around 10 pm. Mexican Vanilla with strawberries as mix'ns. Gooooood.

I think I managed to stay up until around 2 am, somehow.

Friday morning had me at the art show around 9 to get it up and running with Kimm. the day passed in a blur of folks stopping by and handling bidding and whatnot. We closed up a little after 6 and I ran off for a solo dinner at Threadgill's. Shortly after I arrived, a bunch of dealerfolk took a big table nearby for dinner. I got out of there in short order and made it back in time for the mass autographing and reopening the art show for the artist's reception.

I managed to get most of the signatures I was after, but a couple did escape me. With the large number of authors and artists in attendance, it's not surprising.

The reception ended around 11 pm. I wondered the halls for a while (trying to avoid my hotel room because next door to it was the DelRey party) and stumbled across Sharon Shinn, Renee Babcock, and Gary Gianni in conversation. I joined them for another hour of fun chat. Ask Sharon about scurvy, swaying and sharonshinn. I dare you.

Up again too early on Saturday for breakfast where John and I were joined by Greg Manchess and Irene Gallo. Good company and good food. Who could ask for more?

The day went by in a blur of art show stuff. We had enough volunteers that I was able to get around the con and take pictures for the first time in a long time. However bidding did end today, so we had to handle the last minute stuff that that created. Some folks were flying out the next so they had to pay for and pick up their art. It didn't take too long. I was out of there by around 7, I think.

Dinner was a quick dash across the street to TGIFriday's. I had to get back and take pictures during the awards banquet.

The awards ceremony was great. Brad Denton had a fabulous intro. You really should have been there.

Sunday up again too early on Saturday for breakfast where John and I were joined by Greg Manchess and Irene Gallo. Good company and good food. Who could ask for more? Well we got more. Irene picked up the tab!

Final day of the con. Handle all transactions for people picking up art. Art show tear down. Dinner at County Line Bar-B-Q. Early to bed.

Monday morning up again early so I can get on the road by 9. Home around noon. Asleep by 1.

A fun con!

Pictures at: http://www.itmm.com/Conventions/WFC2006/

Volleyball. Sigh.

Well, we lost all 3 this week. :(

That said, we played decently, just not well enough to win.

It annoys me when teams bring in guys from other teams to fill out their roster for an evening. Ringers, as it were. We still probably would have lost if they hadn't had the ringers playing, but it's annoying.

Solidly in last place.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/30

Attendees: Randy, Raj, Marty, Keith, Sheila, Kim and James (a returning beginning student).

Ukemi: More tweaks again this evening. Everyone seems to think I collapse as my legs reach their highest point. Nothing hurts, but I need to keep tweaking.

Took some big falls this evening, getting a very minor ping on one shoulder that had no lasting effect.

I'm still looking for ukemi bipolar meds.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Keith. Tweaks to 3rd, 7th and 8th. I was dipping my shoulder on some and not extending uke softly on others.

Techniques: Worked with Keith.

Gyakugamea-ate: Rmember to push at the elbow and allow uke to walk into the eye flash.

Oshi-taoshi: Small off-balances. In order words: small steps. Move _slightly_ off-line. Hands in center.

Ude-hineri: Tweak uke's attacking arm by tensioning it right after the pivot. It really improves the reaction to the eye flash.

Waki-gatame: This is a "something's gone wrong" technique. Uke is within ma'ai so you're not going to be able intercept uke's attack at the wrist. You have to deal with mid-forearm or elbow.

Aftermath: Nothing of note.

I'm going to be out of town when Keith demonstrates for his Shodan this weekend, so good luck to him!

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/25

I joined Sensei Raymond again at a Champion Judo in Pasa-get down-dena for another training session on scoring/keeping time for a judo tournament.

Sensei spent most of the evening in a meeting for the tournament, but two guys from Champion Judo helped out. they did the timing while I did the scoring. The timing was not really necesary as almost all of the matches ended with "Ippon" before the time limit.

Another dojo brought some of their players in to get some experience, so it was a fun night watching a wide variety of folks throw each other around. A couple of guys I'm looking forward to watching at the tournament.

Volleyball, again

Well, we didn't lose all 3 this week. We had two matches. Six games. We lost all six. :(

That said, we played decently, just not well enough to win.

To top it all off I tweaked two muscles and jammed 3 fingers on a block. Becuase of the slight swelling, I'm not able to wear my wedding ring.

Just a winner all around.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/23

Attendees: Randy, Keith and Kim.

Ukemi: Kim was there to take some of the eyes off of me. I'm not certain I'm doing much different, but Sensei Randy and Sensei Raymond had fewer tweaks for me this evening. Keep legs extended. Try to reduce twisting.

Took some big falls this evening with no issues.

Anyone got any bipolar meds for my ukemi?

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Randy. He has a more dynamic style for working releases and it seems easier to get the timing right.

Techniques: Worked with Keith. I offered to uke, but I ended up tori for most of the evening. We worked on Ude-hineri, Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate. I wanted to work on getting my hand threatening the elbow when taking down uke on Ude-hineri. Worked on the pivot after the initial off-balance, trying not to settle my weight on my back foot. Don't give up ground when you make the pivot.

Shomen-ate: Don't give up ground when you make the pivot. *Push* with your hands on the initial off-balance. Allow uke to almost recover before gake.

Aigamae-ate: Initial off-balance should have you in a weak strong position. Almost neutral position. This allows the pivot that is the essence of the technique to come much more easily.

Aftermath: Knees a little achy.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/18

Attendees: John, Rob, and Keith.

Ukemi: I wasn't hurting myself, but apparently my ukemi stinks. All three guys on the mat and Sensei Raymond were working on improving my ukemi. Apparent problems: twisting during the roll, forcing my legs over instead of letting them flow, hands to close to feet where they meet the mat.

Ukemi seems to be the roadblock for my next demonstration. sigh.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Rob. Took the time to work on adjusting my balance a little bit forward of what I'm used to. Still a little bit late from time to time.

Techniques:

Worked with Rob on 1-10. Was a little grabby on some techniques and that, of course, caused any off-balances to disappear. the techniques that were most troubled by that were: Oshi-taoshi, Ude-hineri (left side), and Hiki-taoshi (left side)

Aftermath: Annoyance at ukemi. Slightly stiff, but no joint making obnoxious complaints.

Rain ramifications

Leaks. In the roof.

They weren't too bad considering the amount of rain we got. They still need to be fixed. And, since the roof is about 17 years old, that likely means a completely new roof.

Ouch. After some extensive car repair and Vlad's surgery.

I hear the bank account screaming : Uncle!

Vlad

We took Vlad to the vet Monday afternoon, driving through an absolutely torrential downpour to get there. Unfortunately, the vet was not able to spot anything while there using either ultrasound or x-ray.

She wanted to keep him overnight.

Kim had told me, in no uncertain terms, that Vlad was not to stay overnight. Rock. Hard place. Annoy the heck outta Kim or help Vlad? Vlad won. He stayed overnight.

Turns out he had bladder stones and surgery was required. Turns out he had 15 stones in his bladder. Ouch!

I picked him up before volleyball yesterday and brought him home. He was not terribly happy and not moving well last night.

This morning he ate fairly well, so we were able to give him his pain medication and his antibiotics. He also wanted to get his outdoor time, but the vet tld us not to let him out for the next week or so.

I hope to come home to a happier cat this afternoon.

Victory

in volleyball against "Way Out"!

We won 2 out of 3 games. We lost the first one. We won the third one 16-14, I think. We played a 6-2 rotation and it went ok.

We're still in last place, but a playoff spot is achievable.

Monday Not at the Dojo 10/16

Too much rain. 12 inches over two days.

Sensei sent out a note and told everyone to stay home at home.

Bummer.

To add to the bummer, one of our cats was peeing blood. Vet appointment time.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/11

Attendees: Randy, John, Keith, and Oliver.

Ukemi: Not bad. Need to take big falls again soon.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with John. Worked on getting centered properly. It's tough taking some extra time before each release since John is essentially blind. Need to slow down some too. And need to move on time.

Techniques:

Worked with John on the 14 two-handed grab techniques.

Worked with John on Bhakwas. Eeek was I rusty on it.

Worked with John on shihonage. A fun technique for when you screw up Shomen-ate. Not bad for a first time.

Aftermath: Sweat, sweat and more sweat.

Volleyball disappointment

We lost all three again. Damn.

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/9

Attendees: Rob, and Keith.

Ukemi: Not bad. Haven't taken big falls recently.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Keith and Rob. All evening. That's all we did. Tweak after tweak after tweak.

My timing is off. I need to be more centered. I think my weight tends to be more on my back foot.

Concentrate on getting off-line, the rest can take care of itself.

Aftermath: Nothing of note.

Geocaching ramble

The library hosted a geocaching ramble on Saturday. What's a ramble? Well, we decided it was an opportunity to get geocachers to meet at the library as an event and to then go find the 4 caches we'd hidden around the city.

We had a handout with the coordinates of the four caches printed on it. Also on the sheet were 4 questions that had to be answered if you wanted to get additional prizes. Each of the caches started out with a supply of goodies as well.

It turned out to be a far better attended event than we expected. We were expecting around 20 folks and from our calculations 48 people attended. The supplies in the caches were not sufficient to keep up with the number of cachers. When we went to collect the caches, they were all pretty much empty.

This event turned out to be the best attended event that the library has sponsored. We may do it again next year.

Friday Night at the Dojo 10/6

Attendees: Randy, John, Raj, Keith, Oliver, Sheila and Kim

Kim and I zipped off to the dojo in case we could squeeze some space for some work on the mat.

We did manage to grab some space. Keith and Oliver were working Shodan stuff and Raj and John were working together. Kim, Sheila and I did the walk and worked on releases.

We got through all 8 with Sheila as tori. We made it through 5 with Kim as tori beforee had to get off the mat and let the iaido folks on.

Thursday Night at the Dojo 10/5

Attendees: Mainly judo folks. No other aikidokas showed up until late, when Keith and Oliver arrived, so I was on the sidelines watching.

I brought the camera along in case this occurred. I managed to get some good pictures of K and O while they were working on Keith's Shodan stuff.

One really good one of Oliver taking a big fall, but the lighting was iffy. I need to see if I can tweak it on the computer and make it look good. I got some other good ones in black and white that I'll probably post to my flickr account.

Wednesday Night at the Dojo 10/4

I joined Sensei Raymond again at a Champion Judo in Pasa-get down-dena for another training session on scoring/keeping time for a judo tournament.

A number of the adults were suffering from some sort of gut bug, so they didn't not want to have a mock tournament. We just officiated for the juniors.

And Buck wants to be able to spend more time working on techniques before the tournamentso we're not going to have mock tournaments for the next couple of weeks.

That means I get to go to aikido on Wednesdays. Cool.

Another volleyball loss

And the hits just keep on coming.

"Fandango" trashed us, as expected. First game was a disaster. I think we won 5 points. Second game was better and third game was ok.

We're now in last place. At least we're not alone in last. We play the other last place team this week, so it's got playoff implications. :D

Sensei Williams doing foot sweeps

Sensei Williams doing foot sweeps with our youngest judoka

A review of Salt Lick BBQ

A review of Salt Lick BBQ in Dripping Springs. 3MB around 3 minutes long

The trip back from the Salt Lick, back in August

The trip back to Austin from the Salt Lick BBQ in Dripping Springs. 15MB around 9 minutes long

Dinner at Joe's

Kim's parents were in town this weekend and, as usual, one of our meals was at Joe's Bar-B-Q in Alvin. I don't know why, but we hadn't eaten there in quite some time. Good stuff. I had the stuffed baked potato. So far I've had 3 meals off of it and will have one more tomorrow.

At the restaurant I ate a good portion of the thing. I had to save room for the blackberry cobbler that was available. Blackberry cobbler and Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. Fantastic!

Monday Night at the Dojo 10/2

Attendees: Randy, Rob, Keith, Stanley and Kim.

Ukemi: Not bad. Didn't get around to big falls.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Rob. He's almost my height, and the tallest person I've worked with, so there were some adjustments on the off-balances for both of us. It'd been a while since he'd done any aikido so adding my height to the mix was an added challenge

Techniques: Worked with Rob. Tori'd for 6-10. They went well overall. I'm taking too big of a step on the entries to a number of techniques.

Had to do some adjustment for waki-gatame as Rob is too tall for my elbow to go straight over his shoulder as I normally do. I have to get off-line and get his posture broken down enough so that my elbow can slip over his upper arm and then my elbow can slide up to his shoulder to control it. The rest of the technique follows from there easily.

Uke'd for Rob on Ude-hineri and Waki-gatame. Sensei Raymond gave us the approach to use for the technique against taller opponents.

Uke'd for Oliver (he showed up late to work with Keith on his Shodan demonstration) on Waki-gatame. Luckily the aforementioned tips had already been dispensed.

It was pointed out to me that my big toe is "flinching" as uke approaches. This is a big problem on the one-step entry for techniques as it makes me late. It causes my weight to rock back. Then I have to rock forward before I can fall into the right spot. I have to try to remember to correct this.

Aftermath: The bruises are sooo nice to look at.

Saturday at the Dojo 9/30

Attendees: Tim, Greg, Oliver and Kim.

Normal class.

Ukemi: Felt off enough that I didn't take any big falls. Just didn't feel like risking it.

I spent the day working with Greg: releases and techniques. I don't remember much of my work as tori, but I spent a lot of time ukeing for Ushiro-ate. So much so that I developed bruises on both arms. The cause was my gi bunching up and twisting on my upper arm when Greg made contact on the initial off-balance. It felt like we worked on the technique for about 30 minutes.

Aftermath: Two nice bruises. One on each arm just above the biceps.