Stop trying to be so small

Wednesday's class went well. It was nice because there were only three of us. I always feel like I get more out of a class like that because sensei is watching your every move. We worked on a lot of different things from shomenuchi and katatedori. We worked on ikkyo, sankyo, kotegaeshi, iriminage.... and I believe a few other things as well. The one I had the most problems with was ikkyo from gyaku hanmi from katatedori. We did a variation that I had never done before. You tenkan around and then lead uke's arm up in an turning arc (spinning them around to face you like you do in tai no henko) and then drop it down and pull their arm towards your center and then do ikkyo from there. For some reason I just could NOT get the stupid arc to work right. I think I got it right once out of 8 tries. It was quite pathetic. HAHA.

While working with my husband (I don't remember what technique) he threw me a little strange and I wasn't able to get out of my own way. Somehow I managed to land on my knee and it hurt quite a bit. Every time I got up the rest of the night I felt this shooting pain. I ignored it and trained away. :O)

NOTE: The other guy in class (one of the people I mentioned who will be testing for black belt next summer) had an injured knee from that class as well. I told my husband of this and thought nothing more of it. Just that both of us happened to land wrong. My husband said "Maybe I threw both of you wrong.". Hhm... could be but that thought never once occured to me. Bias I tell you.... bias!

Iaido class went well. One of the girls had her husband and her cousins I believe come and watch our class. Luckily, I knew most of the kata that we did, so I felt like I wasn't looking like a complete idiot to these people. HAHA. We did do a couple of kata that I hadn't done before, but I was able to follow rather easily. I was the only one with good knees in class I had to do the first 7 or 8 kata from seiza. My left knee did hurt from aikido class, but not to the point where I thought about quiting. We did the kata I seem to struggle with the most (Inyoshintai) about 5 times and my legs were beat by the end. Each time my technique just got sloppier and sloppier. I think part of it was due to the injury, but who knows.

Well, yesterday's class went alright. The first hour we worked on a few different things. We started off with tai no henko (like usual). I always enjoy this exerise because as of lately, I have noticed that I am improving. I just have to make sure to slide in a bit so that when I am finished, I am more behind uke. Some other things that we worked on were all from katatedori. We did reverse kotegaeshi, iriminage and something else which I can't remember at this given moment. It was nice because for once we had an even number of students. Always makes things easier. As I mentioned before, we have a new person in our class, so things have been going a little slower, which I am actually loving at the moment. My technique is so sloppy I could use the slow and more focused training. :O)

At one point, sempai had us line up and nage's put their hands out to offer for iriminage. After our turn and before stepping back and lifting our arms, he had us stay where we were. He came around to ensure that our hips and shoulders were turned 180 from where we started, that we were balanced, that uke was off balance and that we were maintaining contact with uke. For the most part I seemed to have everything more or less. Sempai came over at one point after my balance was wobbly from sitting there for a bit. He said that I was already shorter then my uke and that I didn't need to lower myself that far. He told me to be tall. He said keeping uke's hand on my knee will help stretch him out (down really) to help pull him off balance. He stood there as I tried again. What a difference that made! Here I was focusing on lowering uke so much that I was lowering myself even more and getting off balance! At the end of class we worked on suwariwaza kokyuho. At one point in time I felt more or less comfortable with it, but as of lately, I have seemed to digress and now I am struggling. Blah.

Second hour went alright as well. We worked with the jo. Again there was an even number, so things worked out rather nice. I couldn't tell you the names of anything we did though. :O( We started off with so jo exercises to warm up and then partnered up for drills. Although I had a difficult time with some things, I enjoyed it over all. I think my hate for the jo is beginning to fade away to a love-hate relationship at this moment. Haha.

Things to work on:
1.) Stay tall!
2.) Keep uke's hand on thigh when doing iriminage
3.) Don't attack with jo until they offer
4.) Wring the jo & extend jo out towards uke when swinging towards head
5.) Be patient and wait for them to attack you. DON'T ANTICIPATE!
6.) When striking down on opponent's bo, drop whole body & curl your back to get your body weight behind it. Also keep tip higher then the end where you are holding the jo

Aches & pains:
1.) Yonkyo bruising
2.) Sore left knee from Wednesday's class.
3.) Shoulders are a bit sore... but from what I have no idea!
4.) Sore thigh's from iaido class Wednesday