Steady As She Goes

This week was a decent week for me. A major accomplishment for me was that I managed NOT to get frustrated with myself and it wasn't because I was comfortable with everything because some of the things we did were new to me. Anywho, on to my weekly review

I do not really recall everything we did on Tuesday, but I know we worked on morotedori kaitenage, morotedori ikkyo, morotedori iriminage, tai no henko, I had pretty much done all of the techniques before for this class, but I am by no means completely comfortable with them. I worked with the new girl for kaitenage. I took her just to the point where she would roll so she could begin to get the feeling for the technique. Sensei came over and told me to rotate my hand a bit more as I took her forward towards the mat to help her get her rolling arm in the correct position. When it was time for her to throw me, she was told that she could do the entire throw to me. She didn't do too bad. One thing that I really like about her is that she has the desire to learn and she seems to want help and advice. I help her if I can, but I usually end up calling sensei over because I haven't been around that long myself. Morotedori ikkyo went good too, but I had a little problem with it. Sensei wanted us to keep the hands high for this variation, and I kept dropping them low as I turned. I realized what I was doing and attempted to fix it, but as we had been doing the other variation lately, if I didn't keep my mind on it, my hands would begin to drop. For iriminage I worked with my husband. I have no idea what was going on, but somehow I got twisted up during ukemi and I hurt my back. I don't know if it was something I did to myself or if the hubby did something. By hurt my back I mean like a muscle strain. It wasn't really bothering me at the time and I just made sure to be more careful whenever it was my turn to be uke.

Wednesday I woke up with my back feeling so-so. I went to work and throughout the day, the muscles started to get tighter. By the time I got home from work to get ready for class, my back was a bit worse. I decided to swallow my pride and I put some icy-hot on. I figured that between that and my back loosening up during class I would be alright. As I was changing, sensei's wife came into the room. She looked at me and said "I smell bengay or something." I told her that I had put icy-hot on because my back was bothering me a bit. I then went on to tell her that I hated using the stuff and avoided it at all costs. She told me that if during weapons class my back started to hurt, I could rest a bit and then join back in; turns out that I didn't need to rest at all. The icy-hot worked and the more my body warmed up, the more I felt the icy-hot. My back was quite comfortable actually. After that class, sensei arrived to teach the second class. As we were stretching, sensei's wife popped her head back in and told sensei that my back was bothering me. Sensei looked at me and said "Your back hurts?" I just smiled and looked as his wife and said "You tattled on me!". After warm-ups, sensei wanted to know exactly what was wrong with my back and I told him. He told me that he would avoid anything that required too much back bending. I told him I would be fine with doing them as long as I took my pelvis forward to compensate for it. Sensei called me up as his uke to demonstrate our first technique of the evening: katadori gyaku hanmi ikkyo to nikyo to sankyo to yonkyo. Turns out I never actually got to do them. I gave my partner an extra turn after sensei gave him some advice and I missed out. Evidently there was some confusion, so sensei decided to break it down. We first worked on ikkyo to nikyo. This went pretty well for me as I have done this one before. After that, we did ikkyo to nikyo to sankyo. This all went pretty well for me too. I just had to remember to use my shoulder to keep uke down while I was transitioning from nikyo to sankyo. Finally, sensei added back in yonkyo. I have never been able to get yonkyo and tonight was the same way. First I had a hard time figuring out how to transition my hands and then I just couldn't figure out exactly where my thumb should be. I know to separate the wrist and I know where my hands go, but I just can't figure out how to rotate my hands into the perfect position to find that nerve. We don't do that technique too often and I won't need to know it for a while. I figure that it will eventually come to me sometime. HAHA.

At the end of class, sensei called me up to be his uke again. For this technique we started from katatedori ai hanmi. Sensei did shihonage to me. I went down and sensei held on to my hand and told me to get up. So, I rolled out of it and came to my feet. Sensei then did kotegaeshi to me. I waited for the pin and sensei again held on to my hand and told me to get up. I quickly scrambled to my feet where he responded with iriminage. Once I was back on my feet, sensei asked if that hurt my back. I told him that I was fine since my back was warmed up and loose. Sensei told me to get up if I wasn't being held down. Well, after demonstrating this series a couple more times I was pooped! Sensei then called the other 3 students up one by one so they could be uke for the technique. I think it was partly to give me a rest, but to also show the other students what to do as uke. The secret to this series is switching hands between each move as uke is getting up. I had a bit of a problem switching hands from shihonage to kotegaeshi for some reason. After that, we all reid out of class. I told sensei that the class was a lot of fun. He told me he had originally planned on the ikkyo to nikyo to sankyo to yonkyo as our warm up for the class. I responded with "Until you saw how bad we were doing." Sensei and I both smiled at each other.

I then went and changed into my hakama for iaido class. By the time I had changed and gotten back into the dojo, my back had cooled off and was again beginning to tighten up. Gah. Is this what it is like to get older? For this class, sensei decided to have us work on all of the basic draws and the basic defensive draws. I think part of this was on my behalf. I am one of the few who does the kata from seiza and I don't know if he thought it would be too much for my back. Either way, I enjoyed the class. Every now and then, sensei will step back and watch us do the draws and then give us some feedback. My main focus has been not to shortchange my cuts. Sometimes sensei tells me that I shortcut my shomen.

Yesterday's class went fairly well. We worked on katadori ikkyo, katadori katagatame and katadori sumiotoshi (2 variations). I had never done katagatame from katadori before. For this technique I was working with the new girl and my husband. I was having a bit of trouble at first, but my husband helped me. As long as I remembered to put my hand under their elbow and then brought the elbow up and rotated, I didn't have a problem. Sensei used me as uke to demonstrate katadori sumiotoshi. We did two variations for this technique. Sensei was throwing me around like normal and then as he was throwing me, he started turning my head in strange positions. Before I knew it, I was flipping over and landing in breakfalls. I don't know how he does it. There is absolutely no effort on my part and it doesn't appear as if there is effort on his part. I strive to be that way some day. Sensei then turned to everyone and said "Don't do this to your partner. I am just demonstrating that you should go slowly to give uke the choice of how they want to fall." He used me as uke for the other variation as well. At one point I took a bit of a weird fall and I think I hit sensei as I went down. As I landed I looked up and said "I'm sorry sensei. Are you okay?" He chuckled and said "I'm okay. You are the one being thrown to the mat. Are you okay?" We both smiled and he threw me a couple more times before sending us on our way.

For the second hour there were four of us and we all take iaido. Sensei decided to have us work on the paired form for Ukifune Gaeshi. For this we stuck with the same partners for the entire class. My partner has been doing iaido for less time then me. I thought we did fairly well. Each time sensei added a step, he came over and worked with me and my partner twice (once with each role) and then my partner and I would work together. I think it went fairly good overall. I just need to remember not to slide back so far (when I slide back to swing my bokken up to meet my partners bokken as they attack shomen). Sensei also told me I need to sink further into my front knee when I step off the line for the final cut.

In the end, I think this week has gone pretty good so far. I am hoping that Saturday's class goes just as well.