Back in the Saddle (Partially)

This weekend I finally got to make it back out to Pat's for some Aikido (an extended Aikido session, no less)! It's been way too long. Sicknesses (on both sides of the state line), honey-do lists, tire blowouts, and the FDIC have all conspired together to make me miss about 4 consecutive weekends. I say I'm "partially" back in the saddle, because I know of a couple more weekends coming up in May that I'll have to miss, but I should be able to get back to my regular schedule after that.

Every part of class was an exercise in shaking cobwebs out of my mind. We started with tegatana, and did that a couple of times. The first "wrong-footed" turn screwed me up both times. Pat talked at length about otoshi motions and garuma motions, and we tried tegatana while mentally counting "otoshi, garuma, otoshi, garuma..." and so on instead of "1, 2, 3, 4" etc. I've assigned that to myself as a long-term homework project. I still have a problem with otoshi and garuma "clicking" in my head.

We went through releases 1-8 (more cobwebs). The we played with getting a gedanate out of a release 5 or 7. I need to remember to keep my shoulder relaxed so I don't interfere with uke's natural garuma motion if and when I miss the timing for the otoshi motion. I commented to Pat that it seems to me the higher numbered techniques are not the advanced Aikido material - the subtle principles (such as otoshi/garuma), and the ability to use them, are the real advanced stuff. I also need to remember to close the distance before trying gedanate, so more of my body acts as a "feeler" rather than just my hand. Easier to find the right timing to execute the technique that way.

Lastly, we played with the first three or four techniques from Owaza Ju Pon. Super slick, super cool stuff. Magic-looking stuff. I can't wait to be able to do those well! I love the way so many Aikido techniques come out problems with other techniques. It's a brilliantly fault-tolerant system.

It was really nice being back. I needed that.

Friday Night Videos, 4/10/09

Courtesy of my friend Ryan - one of the silliest and strangest "martial arts" videos I've ever seen.

A Blogging Break

Unfortunately, I need to take a short break from blogging - I will be too busy with work to organize many thoughts for the next 2 or 3 weeks (FDIC Audit at our bank). I will still try to post training logs (when I have a chance to train - I've been sick the last few days, so I didn't get to train yesterday again...grrr...), but don't look for any "What-I'm-Reading Wednesdays", "Thursday Thoughts", or "Friday Night Videos" for a little while.

If I make it through the next few weeks with any mental faculty remaining, I'll see ya'll on the other side.

Friday Night Videos, 4/3/09

Here's a comedian my buddy Ryan just showed me. I love the following 3 bits:

Wednesday Weirdness

I'm not really reading any martial arts books this week, so I don't have a "What-I'm-Reading Wednesday" this week. But I thought I'd relate something strange that happened this morning:

I was driving to work and had my iPod playing my "Pop" playlist, and it was set to shuffle the songs randomly. I was listening to the song "Don't Drink the Water" by The Dave Matthews Band, and the very next song was "Drink the Water" by Jack Johnson.

I was so confused. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to rush home and climb back in bed until the world made sense again.

Shifts

No training log per se this week. I didn't go to class today, for a handful of reasons. I decided to sleep in, and spend a lazy morning with the wife and baby. I did however, pratice tegatana no kata 6 or 8 times, focusing on different things throughout. I can't be sure, but I think I've been making more of the first turning motions than they need to be (not the goblet step, but the first 180 degree turns). I also played with "linking" some of the steps like Pat and I discussed a few weeks back.

I practiced releases 1-8, but had to do them with my imaginary friend. He's a good uke, but he whines incessantly! Just kidding. Sometimes I find visualization/imaginary uke helpful, but it does lack that crucial element of feedback, no matter how disciplined I try to make my mind so that I imagine what my motions would be doing to a real person. It's tough! Release 8 was bothering me more than any others today.

Back at the beginning of this year, I wrote a post about how Judo was replacing Aikido as my favorite art. At the time, I was willing to all but abandon Aikido to devote more time to Judo. It's funny how things change from time to time. For the past few weeks, the pendulum has been swinging back the other direction. Maybe I was excited about Judo because I found that I liked it more than I originally thought I would. I don't know. In any case, I am just so in love with Aikido these days. I feel like I'm settling back into my original areas of interest, with a slight modification. My affections lie pretty much like this now:

58% Aikido
20% Judo
10% Karate-do
7% Jodo, as it relates to improving my aikido
5% Jodo, as budo/koryu in and of itself

So I'm feeling more like "majoring" in Aikido with a "minor" in Judo, and special studies in the rest. I can be fickle at times, so these numbers may be different another 3 months from now, but right now, I've got Aiki-fever.

Friday Night Videos, 3/27/09

A couple of neat counters from the guys at Windsong Dojo:



And...

Thursday Thoughts, 3/26/09

"It is essential to make your natural bearing the bearing you use in martial arts, and the bearing you use in martial arts your natural bearing."

- Kenji Tomiki

I've been doing better at this lately. A couple of examples: Our dojo's "theme of the month" for February was "posture". Some ideas from that have really stuck with me, particularly imagining a line to a balloon pulling up from the top of my head coupled with a line from my center drawing me down like the keel of a boat. I've begun using this idea as I walk anywhere, and I find it helps me feel more alert...more prepared...and like I have a more confident bearing (which may in turn reduce my chances of becoming a target). I've also noticed motions from tegatana no kata bleeding over into my day-to-day habits. For example, we have a narrow hallway at work, and now when I pass someone in it, I find I unconsciously do the "goblet step" (the 3rd motion) in tegatana, just as my coworker breaks ma-ai.

What-I've-Read Wednesday 3/25/09

I'm not reading any martial arts book this week, so I'm doing a mini-review of one I read in the past. Sgt. Rory Miller's Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence. I was excited to read this one, because I could not find anything but rave reviews of it. Did it live up, in my opinion?




Am I glad I read it? Most of it, yes.




Will I read it again? Maybe.




Reflections? This book did a great job at what it was designed to do: give martial artists a reality check and expose them to the idea that real life violence is not like what happens in their dojo. Sgt. Miller is a compelling writer with a raw, no-nonsense style, which fits well with the book's theme. He's also extremely qualified to write on the subject, given his experience. I have only 2 negative thoughts about the book: 1) From time to time, he uses inmates as examples in his stories, and tells what crimes they were serving time for. I think he does this to show the kind of person he's talking about. However, there is one such account in which the crime he off-handedly mentions disturbed me so much it woke me up in the middle of the night thinking about it. It was a crime against a child so heinous I would never have dreamed it up. Being a new father probably made it even worse for me. I read the book about 4 months ago, and still wish I could un-read that part. I'm doing my best to forget it. I understand there are terrible people out there. Do I have a new "appreciation" for just how wicked people can be? I suppose, but I could have done without it. The story I'm referring to didn't have anything to do with the anecdote it was associated with, except to point out that he was dealing with a very bad person. 2) Toward the end of the book, some of Sgt. Miller's nihilistic philosophies come out. He may be an authority on violence, but that doesn't make him an authority on God. He speaks of a time to come where God won't exist any more, which is ridiculous at best, blasphemous at worst. Now, I'm a big boy, and I understand that not everyone agrees with me. I'm cool with that. This section of the book just seemed incongruous with the rest of the book, and to be honest, it came off as pretty self-indulgent. I realize it's his book, and I suppose he can indulge himself all he wants. These are simply my own reflections on the book. Having said all that, most of the book was a fascinating read. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down...most of the time.




Recommended? I think so, but be prepared to skip over a few parts if you're easily disturbed.

But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. Tell them this: 'These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.' " But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

Jeremiah 10:10-12

Judo, 3/21/09

Today Rob joined us (one of Pat's black belts). We started with the footsweep-to-control exercise, using deashi, kosotogari, and hiza garuma motions. Then we worked on a failed deashi barai, into a hiza garuma. This can happen if a) uke jerks his foot away from my deashi attempt, or b) if my bump is too enthusiastic and knocks him back further than I intended. Alternately, we looked at how a failed hiza can sometimes become a deashi if uke's foot stays in range.

For ground work, we worked on the legs-over escape from katagatame, and the spinout escape from side control and north/south. We also worked on the kimura and a straight armbar when your opponent is in your guard. Lastly, we did ground randori. I have been feeling like my "fuel efficiency" has been improving when rolling with my nephew, but during randori with Pat and Rob, I found I was back to sputtering out pretty quickly.

Our Judo time went over today, so we didn't get any aiki in this time.