Sensei said my aikido sucks…

OKAY…. so he didn’t exactly say that. That is more of my interpretation of his words. HAHA. Yesterdays class wasn’t terribly bad. A good thing was that there was another female in class (3rd Kyu), the bad thing is that she is sort of a frienemy. I must admit though, she is growing on me. Since the new kid wasn’t in class yesterday, we worked with the jo. We did some basic attacks & responses. After a while sensei had one of us put down the jo and one person would grab onto the jo and the other person would throw them. We did one where you end up throwing them into a forward roll and we did another one where they basically end up being thrown via shihonage.

It was actually quite the learning experience because afterwards, we did the same throw without the jo (uke grabbed both wrists). It actually brought an entirely new perspective to the throws. Sensei scolded me on quite a few things. I don’t find his corrections to be discouraging at all. Instead I feel honored that he is even taking the time to correct me. It makes me feel like I have some potential. It seems to me that the less potential they see in you, the more they leave you alone. Don’t get me wrong, everyone gets corrected and receives attention, but some receive more then others. I suppose you could look at it from another point of view and state “The one’s receiving corrections the most have the worst aikido, thus the more attention.” To which I can only admit that it could very well be a possibility. I will admit that my aikido is quite atrocious. HAHA.

A short aside…… One of my professors in graduate school told me point blank that he would only help those that were eager to learn, took what he said and implemented it and whom he felt would actually benefit from his teachings and go somewhere. The students who got the most help were labeled as “favorites” and truly did receive a lot more attention. Since then, I have noticed this in other areas of my life (past and present). Most people do receive advice, instructions, etc, but when someone is truly hopeless it does seem that less effort is put towards them. I have always been under the impression that those are the one’s that need help the most, but I do realize that unfortunately, some people just can’t seem to grasp what it is they are trying to do. Everyone has something that they are naturally gifted at, something that they struggle with but eventually understand and finally, there are things that you struggle with and just can’t seem to digest.

Anywho, back to the point. Sensei has been correcting me quite frequently lately. It leaves me with the conclusion that my aikido is far less then spectacular, but I also find it a humbling experience. In my last style, I picked up on things rather quickly and was told by more then a couple people that I was naturally gifted and was a star pupil in that dojo. To go from being at the top of the ladder to the bottom again can be tough. It is like going from a senior in high school to a freshman in college. You thought you knew everything and then you discover exactly how naive and ignorant you actually are. In my case, I feel as if I have been thrown in the deep end of the pool and I’m treading water. I keep looking for the ladder to find a way out, but I just don’t see anything. At this point, everything around me is just too foggy for me to decipher anything. I hear voices and every now and then I think I see the ladder and then it disappears again. Even though I am lost now, I know that eventually I will find that ladder and will begin to climb my way out of the pool. Will I be tired by the time I find the ladder? Sure. All I know is that I am determined to keep my head above the water. I will not give up and let my head slip down into the dark, murky water of ignorance. Go me!

Iaido class wasn’t half bad either. Sensei had us run through the first 5 kata in the Shoden series. We actually spent a lot of time on these. He wanted us to work on drawing while raising up from seiza or turning from seiza. Then we worked on inyoshintai. I am getting more comfortable with this kata and I seem to be getting stronger so I don’t get as tired as I did when I first learned it.

I won’t be in class Thursday or Saturday. I am bit bummed about missing class, but I am going to see my husband’s sister & brother in law so that is exciting. They are the only family we have here as the rest are about 3,000 miles away!


Things I need to work on:
1.) Keep my back foot planted and strong in iriminage
2.) Don’t stick my butt out or bend over at the end of shihonage
3.) While sitting in seiza (esp for iaido), tilt my pelvis forward just a tad to sit straighter
4.) For inyoshintai, don’t drop to one knee after the second strike until you do chiburi

Injuries:
1.) I have piece of raw skin on the bottom on my big toe. The dry skin peeled and actually went quite deep into “fresh” skin. Ouch.
2.) Some strange bruise on my right hand. Have no idea how that one happened….. HAHA