Catch up

Tonight's blog will be a homogenate of this week. :O) Tuesday's class was interesting. We mainly worked on 3 techniques from katadori. Is that still what is is called when they grab both shoulders? Meh, I am not sure, but now you know what I am talking about. :O) I will just have to describe the techniques because I really don't know the names of them either. HAH! The first one we did you both start off in ai hanmi and then uke grabs both of your shoulders. You take your right arm under uke's left arm and grab the elbow area of their right arm. Then you tenkan around and as you do, you take then down into a forward roll. If any of you know what I am talking about, please comment if you know the name. :O) I really enjoyed this technique and it came quite naturally to me. It reminds me a lot of my old style. ::sighs:: Fond memories of something I could actually do. Those days are gone though... and back to the present.
The second technique we did started from the same position as before. This time, you slid back at an angle (almost like you would do if you wanted to stretch them out to go into ikkyo) and you threw up an atemi at their face. You then kept your hand in their face and stepped in towards them until they fell. This one I wasn't too crazy about. For some reason it just didn't quite feel right. Alas, it went.... that is all I can say.
The final technique was one that I felt fairly comfortable with. For this, we started off in gyakyu hanmi (my right foot is forward for this explanation). You irimi'd yoru way closer and then put your right arm under uke's left elbow & sort of roll it a bit, then your left hand goes over uke's right elbow bend. Then, you turn your hips and bring your arm's around. This put uke into a forward roll.
Well, at the end of the class, sempai had us work in groups of three. One person would be in the center and two would take turns attacking. This was pretty fun. I tried to do all three techniques, but I tended to use the two that put uke into a forward roll. At the end of class, sempai called four of us up. He had one of us in the middle and three attacking. This was the first time that I had ever done anyhing like this. I think I did alright considering it was the first time that I did anything like that. With that said, I also have to say that I need work.
Wednesday's class went alright. We worked on attacks from a sword. One of them was from a shomen attack. As they struck, you irimi-tenkaned around to end up beside them. You then grabbed the wrist closest to you to prepare for kotegaishi. Then you irimi-tenkaned back around. You did kotegaishi with one hand as you brought up your sword with the other (either towards the neck or stomach) to give them something else to make them want to go down. We then did this technique with uke using a katana length bokken and I had a wakizashi length bokken. Finally, we went to uke having a bokken and me being empty handed. I really began to feel comfortable with this technique by the end of this.
We also worked on rokyo. Uke attacked shomen (we were emtpy handed). We tenkaned out of the way and then went into rokyo. I had never done this before, but after a couple times of doing it, I was beginning to feel comfortable with it. I kind of like taking them straight down to the mat. Can you say "Hello mat, it's me, uke." :O)
One other thing we worked on; as uke attacked shomen, you irimi and bring the bokken up and block. You let the attack slide off your bokken and tenkan around about half way. Then you go for the neck. Whoot. I did alright on this thanks to iaido class.
For iaido, we did kata that I hadn't really done before. We worked on the Okuden series. For the most part, I really enjoyed them. I don't know when I will be doing these kata again, so I tried to absorb as much as I could.
Today's class went alright. We worked on things from katadori. We worked on ikkyo, katagatame, kotegaishi and sankyo. Out of all of those, I was most comfortable with kotegaishi and I felt the least comfortable with sankyo. I had the rough movements of sankyo down, but my uke was very kind to me.
Today's weapons class was alright. I mean, the class was great, I am the one that was alright. HAH! Two sempai's were taking turns teaching and it was just me and my husband for this class. I like the semi-private lesson! I got a lot of tips and I hope to be at least half as good as they are with the jo. It amazes me what they can do. I try my best to do what they show, but I know it looks NOTHING like theirs. I'm hoping that each time I pick it up I am getting a tad bit less worse then the time before. Only time will tell if this is true or not.


Things to fix:

1.) Really slide back or to the side to extend uke
2.) Keep pressure (via your shoulder or arm) on uke's arm while attempting to gain sankyo from ikkyo
3.) When striking the top of your opponents jo with yours, drop your whole body into it
4.) There are tons more, but my brain is completely fried from work.....


Pains/ Injuries:

1.) The ball of my left foot and the big toe of my right foot both have sores on them. My tough skin dried and cracked (despite my nightly lotion ritual!) and now raw skin is eposed. OUCH! I've tried bandaides, tape and moleskin and none of them hold up through training. So it ends up falling off, I throw it in the trash can and I just keep aggravating it because I just keep on training.
2.) Sore right wrist. Been this way for about a week now and not sure why
3.) Bruises on my right hand from the jo today.
4.) Sore right calf muscle (I think from walking differently because of the toe)5.) Still very sleepy. I can't wait to sleep in Sunday!