Ai7ido

10/25/08 Aikido lesson with Pat. That brings my total sessions to 7.
We began the lesson by practicing shomenate, with emphasis on staying in the “sweet spot” (square to uke’s weakness). Also practiced continuously walking with uke. When those two things happen, I don’t have to bust uke – he busts himself when he tries to stop what’s happening. It's really amazing how this works!

We worked on the Nijusan #2 off-balance. For that off-balance, tori directs uke into an imaginary hole just in front of his line of weakness. A brush-off or technique will come out of that depending on how well it goes and what uke’s reaction is.

Pat then introduced Chain #2, which begins with release #2. We explored how release #2 could go wrong and different reactions (and counters to reactions) that come out of it.

Next we talked about randori basics. This is an odd thing for me, because it's done quite differently here than in my previous experience...and I wasn't that great at it the old way either.
Things for me to remember:
1) Be the good guy. When you try to do something, you give your opponent control.
2) When a hand is free, it should go to your opponent’s face.