Saturday..... another day NOT to sleep in!

Today I found it a harder to get out of bed then normal. It just seems wrong to have to get up before 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday. Of course, once I am at the dojo, sleep is the last thing on my mind even if I am a little sleepy.

Our iaido class was bigger then usual as we had 8 people. It was actually nice because I had 4 other people to do kata with who start in seiza like I do. The last couple of classes I was the only one doing them from seiza, so I didn't have anyone else to look at to make sure I was doing it right. We worked on several of the same katas that we have been lately: shohatto, sato, uto, atarito, inyoshintai, ryuto (done this maybe once before), gyakuto (first time doing this one) and batto. I definately need work on ryuto and gyakuto since I have very little experience with them. Inyoshintai was a little better, but I still need work. In fact, anything and everything that has to do with iaito requires a great deal of work on my part. :O) One important thing I need to remember is to keep my feet in line with my knee. My feet tend to be in towards my center as if I am not really moving them after rising from seiza (ex. shohatto)

Aikido went well. Again it was a bit crowded, but it is nice to have so many people there. Everything we worked on were from shomenuchi and we did swariwaza & tachiwaza. We worked on ikkyo, iriminage, kaitenage, sumiotoshi and a few other things may have been done that I don't remember. All in all, it wasn't a bad class. Sensei had us working on being "like a revolving door" and being able to give up our center and turn on one leg to take forward ukemi when being pushed backwards. I got to work with several different people for a change, which is always good for training. Each person is built different, has their own quirks, limitations and a different level of skill. One thing about me being new is everyone I work with has more skill then I do. HAH!

Well, I guess that is all to offer at this moment.

Things to work on/fix:
1.) Keep toes in line with knee, no tilting feet in when down on knee!
2.) When doing gyakuto, draw straight up and block with sword parallel to mat (no cheating!)

Pains & Injuries:
1.) Sore knees from rising and lowering for seiza in iaido & aikido