Ryotedori all day long

Sensei is gone so we have had a couple different sempais teaching class. I'm not really going to discuss Thursday's class (especially since I don't really remember too much of it!) Me and another student were the only one's to show up for iaido class. We did all 12 forms in the shoden series. That was the first time I did all of the forms. There were a few kata that I had never done before. Anway, the twelve kata were: shohatto, sato, uto, atarito, inyoshintai, ryuto, jyunto, gyakuo, seijyuto, koranto, gyakutei-inyoshintai and finished wih batto. After that, we had 10 minutes of free practice, where I worked on drawing and a few other things.

Things to fix:
1.) Draw back strongly with the left hand when drawing the bokken. (You are supposed to have a saya!)
2.) Keep tip of sword down lower when finishing chiburi.

Aikido class went alright. No surprise, but there were three students again. I have yet to figure out the significance of this number (if you believe in such things). After our warm up and our ukemi practice we began working on he motions for ryotedori. Turns out, then entire class was based around ryotedori. A few of the techniques were kokyunage, iriminage, shihonage (ai hanmi and gyaku hanmi), ushiro tenkan & then put them into a roll, step back & go forward to put them in a roll and a few other techniques. We did a few different throws from two people grabbing your wrist with two hands on each wrist. Those were some interesting throws! One was where the two uke's did forward rolls behind you, another was where the uke's ended up forward rolling away from you (to your front) and the last thing we did did, you end up tangling the two uke's together and then throw them via an iriminage type throw. A little hard to get, but once I got it, I began to understand it.

It was so hot in the dojo and I was really sweatin' up a storm. At one point, we all took a mini breather. It is amazing how after doing so many forward rolls you can be a little winded. I am proud to say that it appeared like I was the one in the best shape. Go me! One guy had to sit down to rest and the other was breathing pretty hard. I'm not going to say I didn't need a rest, but I wasn't sucking wind, which means I am not in horrendous shape. All in all, I thought it was a fun and challenging class. I probably won’t do a few of those techniques again anytime soon, so I am glad for the opportunity.

Things to fix:
1.) Keep toes active when falling or when coming up from forward rolls
2.) Move with your center with you (for ushiro tenkan, don’t worry about turning your arm to move, turn your hips/center and your arms will then move)

Pains/Injuries:
1.) Numerous bruises on both of my forearms. (to the point I get looks because people think I am abused)
2.) Right wrist is a bit sore from Wednesday’s class
3.) Mat burn on my right heel is heeling slowly but surely
4.) Sore thighs
5.) Sore shoulder area (may or may not be related to aikido)
6.) Headache (had before going to aikido)