2nd Aikido session

I remember it as if it was 9/20/08...
My 2nd Aikido class began with Ukemi, then moved to the tegatana no kata. Pat explained that not only should the weight be on the balls of the feet, but also on the first 2 toes. He explained that those are the toes that are actually designed to bear our weight. The other toes are pretty much there to push our weight onto the big toes and the toes next to them.
Next we practiced the Aiki brush-off from release #1. We worked on blending with uke until there is an opportunity to send him on his way, and create distance. This can be done by looking for uke to take a step, and time your push to take advantage of that step’s momentum. Try to remember to change “feeler” hands so that you keep “same hand, same foot” principle.

We played with “Circle of Death” (multiple attackers), focusing on brushing-off, and keeping our eyes on our “current uke” and using him to keep the other attackers in view.

Neat quote I heard from Pat today: “Warriors have the option of pacifism. Everyone else is compelled to it.”