Experiments in Woolgathering

The Internet is a funny place. Perhaps funny isn’t the right word, but it will do for now. With the exception of people I’m met through Aikido and work (directly or via them), pretty much everyone else I know I met online. Technically, the net covers those too: I was contacted about my current job via e-mail and the person who told me about the dojo I go to was someone I learned about online.

I suppose some people might say this is sad. I would argue against that of course.

Because of my job and my little moonlightling work I spend a lot of time at a computer. I would not argue with anyone who said it’s too much time and that I do need strike a better balance, but this is the situation I’m currently in, so I think it’s rather nice that I have met these people online, and become friends, lovers, learned, collaborated, and so on.

What’s ‘funny’ about all this is in a way that is much magnified from meeting people offline you really never know who you will meet – or who is reading your blog.

Case in point, the last comment as of this writing in my previous entry is from someone from Norway. I’m pretty sure I don’t know this person (massive apologies if I do!). I am curious how he found me, though as he practices Budo I am guessing it was the ol’ martial arts connection.

This in and of itself isn’t very remarkable, I was far more touched by Kris’ comment itself than the circumstances of its author. But a connection exists now, however tenuous; who knows where it might lead, and it did give me something to ramble about in this post.

Although I haven’t been blogging much about Aikido, I have actually been going reasonably regularly since the beginning of October – minus a week plus around an almost week long trip to New York City. Since we were in town for the holiday weekend I when to all three weekend classes. (more…)

... I finally dragged my ass back to the dojo. It was very nice to be on the mat again.

There were 4 new faces, not counting a nidan who was in there from out of town. Steve Sensei taught and we mostly worked on lower rank kyu techniques, with a couple of other techniques thrown in to keep us honest or something.

3 of the new people were really new, like only a few classes new, the 4th had clearly been around for a couple months, I think I was just going so infrequently I never happened to be there at the same time he was, or I just forgot him.

Anyhow, I’m not too sore, except for my right butt cheek, which probably just means I took a break fall a bit wrong – hardly surprising.

Now, to just keep going regularly…

Since R’s folks where here over the weekend I didn’t make it to class, but I promised myself I’d go to most of the evening classes this week (we have class on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday during the week).

One of the nidans taught last night and it was a fairly advanced class. We started off with some basic rolling and then moved up to practicing breakfalls. Then shomenuchi ikkyo (which is a 6th kyu technique, so fairly basic – you can see an example here though we were not letting the person back up after the initial take down, but instead going into a pin). After that we did two koshinage defenses for shomenuchi (here and here but prefaced by the chop to the head attack of shomenuchi). The ukemi for koshinage requires a breakfall so we got a good bit of advanced ukemi in, which is nice, since we haven’t much lately.

After that we when through kume tachi (sword forms) #6 to #9, in descending order (no idea why, but heh). I hadn’t ever practice #7 or #8, and #9 only once before, so it was definitely a learning experience. I’m starting to feel pretty comfortable with #6 though.

It was definitely a class where I left remembering what I’d learned, which was nice. Sometimes you just aren’t able to absorb much and you leave remembering having done class, but without much ability to give the details of what you got out of it.

So, I’ve made it to class two days in a row, which, for this year so far, is a rarity. I seemed to hold up better tonight, which I’m sure is mostly because I’m over the Crohn’s flare from last week, but I’m sure having a made it to a few classes hasn’t hurt either. Either way, I just hope I can go consistently for more than a couple weeks, like maybe for a couple months.

We spent the beginning of class doing some kuzushi (balance breaking) exercises. After that a few yokomenuchi (strike to the side of the head) and mentsuki (punch to the face) defenses and finally an ushiro tekubitori (grabbing both wrists from behind) defense. Oh… hah, not lastly yet.. we did just a basic block of a yokomenuchi using shinai (leather padding bamboo swords) – which was particularly nice for the few beginners who were there.

There are a couple of tests coming up. Tom and Randy are both testing for 2nd Kyu this Saturday, should be a nice pair of tests. Also, over the next month or two, there are probably 4 of us (i.e. including me) who’ll be testing for 3rd. I’m actually feeling pretty good about my open hand techniques, but I really need to get the first 5 kumi-tachi and kumi-jo down. I’ve got probably a month before I’ll have all my hours (I have the time and then som) so I’ve got plenty of time.

Mostly though, I just want to have a sane enough life that I can get back into going regularly – that’s more important than when I test to me.

Well, the last two weeks at work have been pretty hellishly busy. Because I ended up working 30 hours over Easter weekend, I didn’t make to the dojo, so needless to say I was definitely ready to get rid of some stress by April Fools’ day. (more…)

I haven’t had much to say about aikido lately. This is mainly because I got very busy and wasn’t going. So, after I noticed how much weight I’d gained back and that I didn’t have as much energry as usual, I finally dragged my self back to the dojo. (Note to self, keep Aikido high on priority list!)

Luckily I came back in time to be reminded of the seminar with Choate Sensei from Chicago Aikikai March 18th to 20th.

I got a few classes in before the seminar, which was good. For the most part all was okay, but it was nice to get back into the swing of things before diving into a seminar.

Choate Sensei is great. Great sense of humor, awesome aikido, patient and with a nice philosophical side. We mainly worked on blending and working the connection to take our opponent’s balance.

When we do stuff like this, it’s important to work with your partner to maintain the connection. In many cases this means you’re going to get into awkward and usually low positions – which means your legs and butt get a hell of a work out. (And Sensei was thoughtful enough to point out that we’d all have tighter butts if we kept this sort of practice up.)

Well, tighter or not, my legs and butt are definitely sore. It’s a good sore though, and I definitely learned a lot, despite being baffled at times as well. Add onto to all this that I dropped 8 pounds in a week and a half and I’m pretty damn pleased.

It’s good to be back.

Well, heinous Thanksgiving weekend traffic notwithstanding, I am back from the Aikido seminar in Chicago with Saotome Shihan in one piece. This was my first time seeing our master instructor, and to put it simply, he is amazing.

He’s on another plane of reality when it comes to aikido. Even our sensei, who is a 5th dan and been in Aikido for 30 years, is baffled by him at times, so you can imagine what those of us who have only been doing this for a few years or less go through at times.

It was a very martial seminar, lots of atemi (strikes) after the blend with the initial attacks. Strikes to the solar plexus, ribs, leg, any of which might be exposed after a committed attack. Each time we started with one strike and then he would sometimes show combinations of strikes.

Sensei Saotome explain that, despite its reputation, Aikido is not gentle, we, the practioners of Aikido are, or rather we have a moral obligation to be. In any situation, any level of escalation could be appropriate, what matters is that we start as low on that scale as possible.

Listening to him requires you to concentrate because his English is fairly broken and accent thick. However that seemed to just make me understand better, as paradoxical as that sounds.

I finally tested for 4th kyu this past weekend. The weekend before didn’t work out for a combination of reasons, but it was probably for the better; I got a chance to refine a few things. The test went well. Sensei has an amazing ability to judge people’s stamina, he’ll take you right to the limit when he tests you (at least once you are past 6th kyu – there isn’t enough on the 6th kyu test to wear the majority of people out).

I discovered that the full court (so to speak) 4 on 1 randori is significantly more difficult than the 3 on 1 on. I only got seriously jammed up once. I was a little nervous about trying to do technique (it’s the first rank test where you are asked to do more than just evade), but once I started it was actually a bit easier, since I could usually throw the person I was doing technique on intothe path of someone else. Two birds with one stone indeed.

Funny anecdote from the night before. Jeremy was teaching, as he usually does now on Fridays. At the end of class he called one of the Jasons (we have 3, two unranked) up for a practice 6th kyu test. I went out and was uke for the whole thing. No big deal really, as I said above, it’s not a long test and he didn’t even have us do all the techniques.

What I didn’t think about is that he was going to practice test me too. Stupid, since I was closer to testing than Jason 3 was. Needless to say, I was pretty worn out by the end of it all!

Anyhow, it’s nice to have it behind me. I definitely feel back in the groove as far as my aikido goes. I’m sure Rachel will be happy that I’m not going to 4-5 classes a week anymore.

I mentioned the seminar over the weekend of Sept 18th in a previous entry and have been meaning to write a bit about it since. Well, now I finally have the time and inclination.

The sensei who taught the seminar, which was at our dojo, was Kevin Choate of Chicago Aikikai who is a 6th Dan. We followed the apparently standard 1 class Friday evening, two Saturday during the day and one Sunday morning format for ASU weekend seminars.

Frankly, Choate Sensei is amazing. Some of the stuff he was showing us confused our senseis (and one of them is a 5th dan), so you can imagine how we were doing! That said, he was very willing to help us understand, frequently stopping class to answer a question or demonstrate a particular facet of the technique we were fumbling through.

Eventually, gradually, I’d gain a measure of understanding, either intellectually or physically of what we were doing. Occasionally though, for some reason, my body and mind would both grasp what we were doing… and that was pretty amazing.

There were two things that he emphasized that really stuck with me. The first was to be aware of possible second attacks after dealing with the first (or conversely to follow through an initial attack with a second one). The second was to economize your movements – every move you take should affect your attacker, if it doesn’t it’s pretty likely you moved for no reason.

So, I’m pretty much back in the swing of Aikido after my 2 months off for the surgery.

Sensei asked me about testing for 4th Kyu last Saturday (I was close to being ready before I went under the knife). It was nice in less obvious way: we’d been working a lot on 4th kyu techniques since there are a couple other people close to testing for that rank as well, so apparently I was doing well enough that he thought I was close to being ready again.

I’m not going to be ready this weekend (even if I’d gone Monday night, which I didn’t) and the next weekend is a seminar, so maybe the weekend after. We shall see.

Before the surgery thing I’d hoped I’d make 3rd Kyu by the end of the year, but that’s obviously not going to happen, too bad at one level, but hardly something that was within my control. I’m just glad I’m back on the mat!