The musings of a weary mind. Conversations on aikido, gardening, cooking, travel and, maybe, woodworking.
Aikido players:
Willie, and Laura
Ukemi:
Usual slaps and falls
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Laura and Willie did 5-8.
Techniques:
Laura and Willie uke'd for me for the offensive jo portion of Koryu Dai San.
They then worked on the following techniques: 5, 4, 6, and 3.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Willie
Ukemi:
Usual slaps and falls
The Walk:
Once.
Releases:
I ran through Willie's with him.
Techniques:
Willie and I worked on 13. Worked on the basics and then did some tweaking of the off-balances and the arm bar. Found out that the students swap information about how to deal with "Condor-Man" amongst themselves.
Commentary:
None of note.
No students, so no class.
I did drop off my mats that have been inaccessible for the past 9 months. Yay!
Aikido players:
John, Adam, Willie, and Laura
Ukemi:
Usual slaps and falls
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
None for me tonight.
Techniques:
Adam's leg was still questionable so we worked on the double-bokken set of Koryu Dai San. There are no falls in it, so it was safe for him.
We made it through the first 5 of the set. At the end of class, Laura videoed us using Adam's phone. He's going to use it as a reference when he's up in Stillwater.
Commentary:
One more class down here for Adam, then he's off to Stillwater.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, Willie, and Laura
Ukemi:
Usual slaps and falls
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
I ran through Laura's with her. Adam and Willie worked through theirs.
Techniques:
Laura and I worked on 1, 2, and 3 until Willie and Adam got done with their releases.
Adam and I did a little work on Koryu Dai Yon until he tweaked a leg muscle. From then on, we supervised Laura and Willie.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Laura
Ukemi:
Stretches, slaps, and rolls. I actually did a fair amount of my preferred set of rolls to start the night.
The Walk:
Once.
Releases:
Laura and I each worked through our sets. I had to repeat one. I think it was a fifth release
Techniques:
We worked our way down from 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, and 7. She did really well, and I took about 100 falls. I expect to be sore on Sunday.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John, Adam and Laura
Ukemi:
Self-directed warm-up. We then did a bunch of throws of Laura for her to work on her big falls.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
We worked on the offensive jo portion of Koryu Dai San. We spent a bit of time playing with the footwork for Oshi Taoshi and concluded that, shock of shocks, the working foot needs to move, not the non-working foot.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam and Laura
Ukemi:
Self-directed warm-up
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Adam and Laura ran through theirs tonight. A few major issues for both.
Techniques:
Adam and Laura worked on: 14, 13, 11, and 10. We skipped 12 because we'd already put a fair amount of stress on Adam's wrist with multiple attempts at 13.
A
bunch of tweaks and adjustments to both folks techniques. Just a
little for Adam. Laura is actually looking pretty good.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John and Adam.
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
I worked on the next portion of Koryu Dai Yon No Kata. #s 15-20.
The techniques:
Migi-gyaku-gamae-ate
Hidari-gyaku-gamae-ate
Uchi-kaiten-nage
Sukui-naga
Ushiro-waza-kote-gaeshi
Jyugi-garami-nage
Tentai-oshi-taoshi
Tentai-hiji-garami
Tentai-sukui-nage
Ryote-mochi-uki-otoshi
Tenkai-kote-kugiki
So, these 11 finish off Koryu Dai Yon. Still have lots of reps working with these and exploring them before I'm anywhere near where I want to be.
The last one was funky for both me and Adam. We're used to the normal kote-kugiki. The change in the hand position by tori throws off uke's thought process and willingness to take the fall. As tori, it has me feeling like my hand is too far outside of my shoulder to want to throw this technique. I'm sure this will be overcome at some point.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam and Willie
Ukemi:
Self-directed warm-up
The Walk:
Once.
Releases:
Adam and Willie ran through theirs tonight. A few major issues for both.
Techniques:
Adam and Willie worked on: 3, 4, and 14.
A
bunch of tweaks and adjustments to both folks techniques. Just a
little for Adam. Still trying to get Willie to lighten up
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Laura
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Laura and I worked on the following techniques: 1, 2, 3, 13, and 14.
At the end, we did some more big fall practicing on the crash pad.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John and Adam.
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
I worked on the next portion of Koryu Dai Yon No Kata. #s 15-20.
I had lots of issue, mainly with #20 (Jyuji-garami-nage). I never got the hang of properly intercepting uke's hand when I should with my right hand. Adam's hand always got caught between my right shoulder and my neck. Working with John, I managed to get the technique. So, it's working with Adam that I have the issue. Gong to have to work on that a bit more.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam and Laura
Ukemi:
Self-directed warm-up
The Walk:
Once.
Releases:
Adam and Laura ran through theirs tonight
Techniques:
Adam and Laura worked backwards from 5 down to 1 tonight. Adam tori'd all 5 first and then Laura did the same.
A bunch of tweaks and adjustments to both folks techniques. Just a little for Adam. For Laura, I swore I saw smoke coming out of her ears.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Willie and Laura
Ukemi:
Self-directed warm-up
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
I worked with Laura a little on Ude Hineri before Willie showed up.
Laura and Willie then worked from 9 down to 5: Ude Hineri, Hiki Taoshi, Ude Gaeshi, Oshi Taoshi, Ushiro Ate. It went pretty well.
Laura was interested in learning the names of the techniques in addition to the numbers by which we usually refer to them, so I'd quiz them between attempts of a technique and when we switched from one to another technique.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam and Laura
Ukemi:
Self-directed warm-up
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
I ran through the offensive jo with Adam and Laura as uke. For Laura,who wanted to protect her left side tonight, we had to play with the jo techniques to see if the would work to throw her on her right side only. They all did, and it was an interesting exercise.
I had a small epiphany related to two of the techniques. There are tow throws that send uke rolling on their left side. The first one in the kata is direct down the horizontal plane of thrust of the jo and is about 30 degrees off of the initial vector of thrust in that plane. The second one has a bit of a vertical vector to it (maybe 45 degrees or so?) and the horizontal vector is about 60 degrees off of the initial line.
There's another technique in the kata that I'd like to experiment with in that vein. Technique number 5 (what we're currently calling the single pivot). That technique, as we've played with it so far, requires that the jo be as near to horizontal as possible. I'd like to try to see if we change the angle of the jo and the direction of the throw if it will still work. My guess is that it will not.
Adam went through his defensive jo work and then Laura worked on number 8 and 9.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Laura and a potential new student, Thomas, who sat and watched
Ukemi:
Some warm-up slaps and rolls
The Walk:
Once.
Releases:
Laura did hers.
Techniques:
We worked on numbers 13, 12, 11, and 10
Ended the evening throwing Laura with some big falls.
Commentary:
Thomas is a soon-to-be transplant from Killeen. I told him about Full Circle Aikido in Killeen and he was dismayed that there was a dojo he could have worked out with at his current post. Since he's going to be going up there on weekends until the school year ends, he might be able to catch some classes.
Aikido players:
Willie and Laura
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
I was uke or supervisor for the entire evening.
Laura did about 70 repetitions of Shihonage before Willie arrived. Willie served as uke for a bit and then he got to attempt the technique for a bit. And then we switched over to left side.
From there, we moved on to Tenkai Kotehineri. Laura and Willie both got some work on the right-sided version of the technique.
At the end, I had them play with reactions that uke could attempt depending on where tori was in relationship to uke (in front, even with, behind). If tori was in front of uke, it opened up a number of counters that uke could attempt/achieve. When tori is even with, or slightly behind, tori has a better position and can more readily counter uke's attempts.
Ended the evening throwing Laura with some big falls.
Commentary:
Our first Friday night class. We got a lot of work in on the desired techniques.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
I worked as tori on the entire run of Kroyu Dai San offensive jo techniques (1 thru 8).
I went through them, working with Adam, to explore my problems and solve them. One of them I kept wanting to rotate counterclockwise to start, but it has to be clockwise. I eventually figured it out.
Then I ran through them, attempting to go straight through. Still a few issues, but really just minor tweaks.
Laura then ran through the set as tori.
Adam ran through the set as tori with first Laura and then me as uke.
Commentary:
No class on the previous Tuesday due to icing in the area.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Willie
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
I worked as tori on the entire run of Kroyu Dai San offensive jo techniques (1 thru 8).
Adam
then ran through them all with Willie as uke. We spent a lot of time working on both players to try to get them in sync. Willie's a 3rd brown and has not seen any of these techniques before. With both folks relatively new at it, we were able to explore problems and approaches to teaching these techniques that might not be necessary/visible at higher levels.
I ran through all 8 again at the end of class with Adam as uke again.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
Adam and I worked on the first 5 of the offensive jo portion of Koryu Dai San. It was quite enlightening how quickly the tables turned if tori attempted to use force in these techniques, especially number 5.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, Laura, Willie, and Matt (new student)
Ukemi:
Simple slaps
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
Adam and I did work on the next 4 techniques of Koryu Dai Yon and the first 4 techniques of the offensive Jo portion of Koryu Dai San. These are part of the set I need to work on for my next and final demonstration.
A nice demo. I hope to have the video up in a while
Commentary:
Thursday night is going to be our Black Belt night going forward. We plan on adding a Friday night class that I will be running. John will be scaling back a bit as he will be helping his wife get her fledgling business off of the ground.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 4
I really enjoyed this installment and I'll be happy to see it again when my wife gets some time in her schedule. Some of the dialogue really felt natural and one of the reveals in the battle was unexpected, but foreshadowed.
This might be number two on my list of favorite SW films, behind Empire.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Not for me tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
Adam
uked for Laura on 1-14. They only got through 1-3.
Commentary:
Last night of aikido for the year. I just watched, did not even dress out, after the heavy rotyation of ukeing.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Not tonight.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
Adam
had his Sandan demonstration and it went well. There was one jo technique that he missed some hand positions on, but after the demo he tried it again and nailed it.
A nice demo. I hope to have the video up in a while
Commentary:
John's mom and wife were there as well as Adam's parents.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and rolls.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Sandan demonstration material. It went really well.
Laura and I did some hand randori.
Commentary:
Adam's demonstration for Sandan is Thursday.
Thor: Ragnarok - 3
I'm not sorry I paid money to see it, but I wold not pay money to see it again.
Jeff Goldblum's character annoyed me to bits. It might have worked with a different actor.
Does Jeff have too much baggage from previous movies for me? From apartment commercials? Probably.
The rest of the movie was ok.
Coco - 4
I really enjoyed this movie and would gladly see it again. As long as the Frozen "short" could be skipped.
A very enjoyable movie, but I got dragged down by the long (21 minute) visit to the world of Frozen.
Bladerunner 2049 - 4
I really enjoyed this movie and would gladly see it again. With earplugs.
Really.
There were times that my wife and I had to cover our ears the sound level was so high. I don't know if it was the theatre's fault, or the movies.
I enjoyed the follow-up to the original storyline and quickly fell back into the milieu.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Light warm-up
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai Yon. No major issues.
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. This was a very rough session. We blamed it on the fact that he was wearing a white gi instead of his normal blue. The blue gi is being altered for the upcoming demo.
Really, there were a number of issues throughout the run-through. Some of them were "where did that come from". Stuff he'd never messed up or weird ways of messing up.
We chalked it up to pre-demo jitters and we'll see how Tuesday goes.
Commentary:
Adam's demo is set for Thursday, Dec. 14.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and rolls.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
Not tonight.
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. It was pretty good, with the usual suspects being problems: kneeling kote gaeshi, kneeling shihonage.
Laura then uked for Koryu Dai Yon.
Commentary:
Had a bit of an issue with some precursors to migraines. I was afraid I would not be able to make it through class. I made it through one rep of the techniques and then went to the sidelines.
Aikido players:
Adam, Laura, Willie, and Tabitha
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and rolls.
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Willie and Tabitha worked together.
Techniques:
Willie and Tabitha worked together.
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. We did not really have too many
issue. Adam took it easy on my wrist on the troublesome techniques, so
the techniques were not as solid as they could have been, but they were
close enough that I took the throws to save my joints.
Adam and I then supervised the rest of W&T's workout.
Commentary:
None of note
Aikido players:
Adam, Laura, Willie, and James
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and rolls.
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Laura, Willie, and James worked together.
Techniques:
Laura, Willie, and James worked together.
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. We did not really have too many issue. Adam took it eay on my wrist on the troublesome techniques, so the techniques were not as solid as they could have been, but they were close enough that I took the throws to save my joints.
Commentary:
Prior to class, I went and visited another dojo. This dojo had a 9th dan in my style as the instructor. I didn't realize someone of that stature was in our area. He started with Karl in '64 with judo and then came back in '77 to work on aikido.
Unfortunately. the class times are inconvenient given my other class.
Aikido players:
Adam, Laura, and Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and rolls.
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Laura
and Willie worked together.
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. We had issues with: kneeling
shihonage and knife kote gaeshi. We did enough of these two techniques that my wrist complained for a couple of days. I really do need to continue to police the number of reps I do on these specific techniques as uke.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, Laura, Willie, and James
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and rolls.
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Laura, Willie,
and James worked together.
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San with both of us in hakamas. His was a different style than mine, so the method I use to tie mine does not really work for him.
We had issues with:
kneeling
shihonage
#2 standing
#3 tanto
#6 tanto
#8 tanto
no major issues with any jo or bokken work other than issues caused by working in a hakama.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, Laura, and James
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and rolls.
The Walk:
Twice.
Releases:
Laura
and Jame worked together.
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. We had issues with: kneeling shihonage, knife kote gaeshi, standing kote kajiki, and the two standing mae otoshis. No real issues with bokken work. Not eonugh time to get the jo work in.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam, Laura, Willie, and James (a new student)
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and introduced James to rolls.
The Walk:
Twice, and then Laura and Willie worked with James.
Releases:
Laura
and Willie worked with James. Adam and I did some demonstrations at
the end, but we ended up doing Yon Kata releases instead of normal ones.
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. We had issues with: kneeling shihonage, #3 from tanto section, Kote gaeshi from tanto, and #1 from bokken. Not many issues, but some of them were severe. My guess is this was a big learning night for his brain. Usually, if someone has severe issues with a technique that he can normally do, the next time will be much improved.
Commentary:
A very similar class to Tuesday.
Aikido players:
Adam, Laura, Willie, and James (a new student)
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and introduced James to rolls.
The Walk:
Twice, and then Laura and Willie worked with James.
Releases:
Laura and Willie worked with James. Adam and I did some demonstrations at the end, but we ended up doing Yon Kata releases instead of normal ones.
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. We had issues with: kneeling shihonage, and I think that's it.
I did some punch-the-dummy work with James and the other three.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few rolls.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. It went pretty well, especially kneeling kote gaeshi. We then did a few reps on some of his trouble spots and stopped class. I need to get home to the World Series.
This far into the past, this is just a placeholder post.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam and Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few rolls.
The Walk:
Had Willie do the walk while Adam and I ran through his stuff quickly.
Releases:
Willie and Adam
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San.
Adam workd with Willie on something, I don't remember what.
This far into the past, this is just a placeholder post.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few rolls.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San.
This far into the past, this is just a placeholder post.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Adam and Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few rolls.
The Walk:
Willie worked by himself
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. Had some issues with kneeling Kote Gaeshi and knife Kote Gaeshi. Also did the bit of Koryu Dain Yon, and that went well.
Willie and Adam worked on Willie's Kote Gaeshi. He's getting close.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Anna
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few rolls.
The Walk:
Anna worked on it with John
Releases:
Anna worked on them with John
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. Had some issues with kneeling Kote Gaeshi and 3rd knife technique.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John, Adam, Laura and Willie. No Anna?
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few rolls.
The Walk:
Not tonight.
Releases:
I worked with Willie
Techniques:
Adam and I worked on his Koryu Dai San. Kind of rusty after about two weeks off. Issues with: kneeling Kote gaeshi, knife kote gaeshi. Bokken, and Jo work were pretty good.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Laura, and Anna ( a new student )
Ukemi:
Normal slaps plus intro to falling for Anna.
The Walk:
Multiple times. I experimented with calling out different things instead of just numbers when doing the walk ("strong", "neutral", "left", "right", etc.) to help out the new student.
Releases:
Laura and Anna worked on this.
Techniques:
Laura worked with Anna on Shomenate.
Commentary:
She came back for a second night. Good stuff
Aikido players:
Laura, Willie, and Anna ( a new student )
Ukemi:
Normal slaps plus intro to falling for Anna.
The Walk:
Twice with the full group. I then did some work with Anna on the first six stones of the walk, just the footwork. Came back to this at the end of class
Releases:
Laura and Willie worked on this. Anna did not
Techniques:
Laura and Willie worked on a bunch of techniques and joined in with me on "punch the dummy" drills
Commentary:
A new student! And we might have another one on Tuesday.
Aikido players:
Laura and Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps.
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
Laura and Willie worked with each other. Took us until about 20 minutes left in the class to get through them.
Techniques:
Laura worked on Shihonage and Willie worked on Tenkai Kote Hineri
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
John, Adam and Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slaps.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam and I both worked on our Yon Kata.
Then,
we did another dry run of Adam's Sandan demonstration. Then Laura ran through portions of the katas to give Adam another, much different, uke to work with.
Commentary:
None of note.
Aikido players:
Randy, John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slap.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam and I both worked on our Yon Kata.
Then,
we did a dry run of Adam's Sandan demonstration. And it was pretty good. Since Randy was there, we knew it would not be as good as last week's. Still, about an 82% or so.
I made some comments as we ran through it and had him repeat some techniques.
Then we ran through it again.
I got some pointers on improving my attack on one technique. I was over-committing and it was not allowing Adam to do the technique properly.
The technique is shown starting at 1:41 in the below video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1z3LlqEoc.
Commentary:
This is the last class that Randy will be at for the foreseeable future. He's moving to the Fort Worth area. One of my 3 "foundation" senseis.
Aikido players:
John and Adam
Ukemi:
Normal slap.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam and I both worked on our Yon Kata.
Then, we did a dry run of Adam's Sandan demonstration. And it was quite nice. John said if it had not been for one instance when Adam forgot the technique he was supposed to be doing and froze, he would have promoted him.
I agreed with John. We both gave him a 90% grade on the set of techniques.
We then went through and improved things.
No changes on Yon Kata
On the kneeling portion of San Kata, we worked on Shihonage.
On the standing portion, I had comments on the first technique, the fifth technique, the sixth (which is the one he froze on), and the eighth.
On the tanto portion, the fifth technique.
On the bokken portion, the fifth technique.
On the jo portion, no techniques.
Commentary:
With a trip to DisneyWorld coming up, it looks like his demo will happen around the beginning of November.
Friday:
First day after layoff from Dynamic CAFM
Not certain what else
Saturday:
Up early to head to San Antonio for WFC meeting
Stop in Luling at Buc-ee's
WFC meeting
Tested ramp for dealer's access to ballroom
Stored ramp in storage unit
Dinner at Arcena's
Sunday:
Up and on the road by 7
Home a little after 10
Rest
Football
Aikido players:
John, Adam, and Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few of my usual falls
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam and I both worked through our Yon Kata. We then had Willie uke for both of us on selected techniques.
Next up: San Kata Tanto. I uked for Adam and then Willie uked for him.
Next up: San Kata Bokken. I uked for Adam and then Willie uked for him.
Commentary:
None of note..
Aikido players:
Randy, John, Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few of my usual falls
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
Randy worked with Laura
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked through his: Yon Kata. Laura then took over as uke and we had all sorts of teaching to do for both uke and tori
Commentary:
None of note..
Aikido players:
John and Adam
Ukemi:
Just a couple of my usual falls.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked through my: Yon Kat. john thought it was the nicest version of it that he;'s seen me do. So, it went ok.
Adam
and I worked through his: Yon Kata, Kneeling, Standing, and Bokken portions of the San Kata.
We did do some breakdowns of a few of the techniques. Kneeling - Kote gaeshi, Shihonage, Tenkai Kote Hineri. Standing - Kote Mawashi, Gyakugamae Ate, Kote Kajiki,, Mae Otoshi (no.2). Bokken - Mae Otoshi.
Still, pretty nice set of work.
Commentary:
None of note..
Friday:
Work on roadie case
Lunch with K at Habanero's
Lots of time on the phone tracking down replacement oven or part for our current one.
Drove to other side of Houston for part. Found that they were not the people that called me about said part.
Mowed yard
Saturday:
Finished mowing yard
Took chain saw to Gill's
Work on roadie case
Football
2 hours of edging the yard
Sunday:
Work on WFC
Work on roadie case
Nap
Football
Baked pumpkin cake
Posted by Scott Zrubek at 8:28 AM 0 comments
Labels: baking, football, gardening, weekend, woodworking
Aikido players:
Randy, Adam, Tabitha, and Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few of my usual falls
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
Willie worked with Tabitha
Techniques:
Adam and I worked through his: Yon Kata, Kneeling, Standing, Tanto, Bokken, and Jo San Kata. It went pretty well, except for the first technique of the bokken section of San Kata. For some reason (full moon?) he was just having real issues. Out of about 30 attempts, he managed to get it about 6 times, and not consistently.
We'll see how it goes next week.
Commentary:
None of note..
Aikido players:
John, Adam, Laura, and Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and a few of my usual falls
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
Willie worked through his releases with me
Techniques:
Adam and I worked through his: Yon Kata, Kneeling, Standing, Tanto, Bokken, and Jo San Kata
Commentary:
None of note..
Friday:
Stopped by the folks that took over MyDojo's space
2 hours of yard work - cleaned trash from creek, mowed side and front yard
Saturday:
2 hours of edging the yard
Nap
Dinner at Habanero's
Sunday:
2 hours of bow saw, clipping, and chainsaw work on the fallen trees
Nap
Aggie football - Argh!
Monday:
Tried to replace bulb in security fixture - fixture appears to be toast
More trash cleanup
Nap
Friday:
Tidied up the porch, moved all loose items into the shop.
Stopped by the library to pick up some videos for the weekend
Watched "Chef" - a pretty good movie, if somewhat predictable.
Saturday:
Cleared out trash from drainage ditches during lulls
Rain
Wind
Sunday:
Watched 6 episodes of "Boardwalk Empire"
Water got within 1" of coming into the house around 2:30 a.m. - 3:30 a.m.
Didn't get any sleep until maybe 7:30 a.m.
Rain
Wind
Watched "Cloud Atlas"
Monday:
Went in to work in the morning. They sent us home around 10:30 a.m. Had to find an alternate route home as the straight route was flooded more than when I went in.
More wind, rain
Slept very little
Tuesday:
Storm still around, did not go in to work
Aikido players:
Randy, John, Adam and Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slaps.
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Adam and Laura worked on theirs
Techniques:
I ran through Yon Kata as uke once. Laura then worked as uke with Adam for a while.
Commentary:
Adam was not up to falling this evening, so we worked with him as tori.
Aikido players:
Willie
Ukemi:
Normal slaps.
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
Willie worked through his releases with me
Techniques:
We worked on Aigamae-ate and Ushiro-ate
Commentary:
None of note..
Aikido players:
Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slaps and I got in a full set of ukemi. My first in quite a while
The Walk:
Not tonight
Releases:
Laura worked through her releases with me
Techniques:
We worked on Shomen-ate and Aigamae-ate
Commentary:
None of note..
Aikido players:
Adam, and Laura
Ukemi:
Normal slaps
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
Adam and Laura
Techniques:
I had the two of them work on 14 through 8 and then back up again.
Commentary:
None of note..
Opponent: uncertain
We did ok, but still got slammed. 10-21, 11-21, and ?-15. Our last match of the season, Probably ended up in next to last place.
Friday:
Stopped by and picked up the riding mower.
Refreshed the sourdough starter
Paid bills
Balanced checkbooks (8 months worth)
Saturday:
Stopped by the bank to order checks/registers and deposit
ArmadilloCon emails
World Fantasy email,buttons, and registrations
Entered in books from ArmadilloCon
Worked on roadie case
Dinner with K at El Centinela
Sunday:
Mowed
Baked sourdough and sourdough croissants
Re-inventoried the pens and put string tags on them all
Posted by Scott Zrubek at 11:34 AM 0 comments
Labels: baking, conventions, gardening, weekend, woodworking
Aikido players:
Randy, John, Adam, Laura, Willie, and Tabitha
Ukemi:
Normal slaps
The Walk:
Twice
Releases:
Not tonight
Techniques:
Adam
and I worked through the following: Yon Kata 1-14, San Kata (kneeling), San Kata (standing). We both worked on them as uke and tori. Adam had some really good work on Yon Kata. There were some improvements made to kneeling (3, 4, 6, 7, and 8). We worked on uke issues for standing 2 and tori issues for standing 4.
Commentary:
None of note..
Thursday:
Up bright and early to be on the road by 6:30. No pit stops along the way (after stopping by Shipley's down the street for breakfast). Made it to the hotel by around 9:30 or so, unloaded the truck (5 or 6 trips) and then chilled watching SportsCenter until about 11:05.
Headed off to Aikido of Austin for their 11:45 class. I got there a little later than I liked, but managed to get on the mat before class started.
Headed back to the hotel, went for a swim, and then waited for dinner at Fonda San Miguel with the staff and guests of the convention. I think this will be the last time I go to FSM with the group. The meal takes forever, the enchiladas are at least $18, and the parking is atrocious. The camaraderie is great, but I don't think it outweighs the rest. I'll be hitting a dive close to the hotel instead.
After dinner, we set up the Art Show. It went up in about an hour, so we were done by 11.
Friday:
Up early for breakfast at Kerbey Lane on Lamar, then back to the hotel and into the Art Show room to set up computer, printer, etc. and hang art. Opened up the room a little later than I liked, but had good traffic.
Shut the room down for dinner at a local Tex-Mex joint and then back to the Art Show to be open during the meet the pros.
Saturday:
Up early for breakfast in the hotel, back to the Art Show and the grind. Closed the art show at 6, had the auction at 7 (all 5 pieces), and opened the art show back up for a while to handle transactions for people not sticking around much on Sunday.
Laura and I went to Wholly Cow for burgers. They were quite good, and the combination burger shop/convenience store provided and interesting vibe during the meal.
Sunday:
Breakfast at Magnolia Cafe and then back to the Art Show for close out and disassembly.
Dinner was the traditional meal at County Line BBQ. Not worth the money for the food, but for chatting with folks from the convention. I think I'll continue to go to this.
Monday:
Up later than I should have been. Loaded the truck and left the hotel. I attempted to ship out all of the mailin art before leaving town, but the rain and the hours of the shipping places (and the fact the Office Depot no longer does UPS) caused me to rethink that idea.
As a change of plans, I decided to ship the stuff out when I got home.
The drive home was 3+ hours of non-stop rain. Occasionally, I had to slow down to 45 mph on the interstate due to the heavy rain. Once, even with the heavy load my truck had, I did a little hydroplaning (as did the car in front of me). So, the drive was not the calm, quick trip it normally is.
My wife was worried about me as I'd texted her from Buc-ee's in Bastrop around 9 and I was not home by noon. I was almost home at that time, I was dropping off packages at the Post Office and the UPS store for shipping.
Then home. Unloading the truck before the skies opened up (I'd outpaced the rain at the very end of the trip), and then a nap.
I'll be doing something very similar in November.
I normally hit this dojo's midday class on the Thursday before ArmadilloCon. Laura D., one of my assistants in the Art Show at ArmadilloCon is a student here.
It's interesting going to a place with a completely different style of aikido. I'm a complete beginner in this style and it causes my brain to really work to grasp the general basics, much less the finer points, of their techniques. It's a good dose of humility, as well.
A nice hour-long class, and then back to the hotel for pre-convention stuff.
Opponent: uncertain
We did very well for this match. My serves were on. In the third game we won 10 straight points on my serve. I think we around 6 straight on my serve in the second game.
Check out directly from here. Fast. Secure. Simple.
