Shima Dojo 01/31/2008

Why is time in such a hurry these days? Seriously, slow down.

After the じゅなんたいそ exercises I went into the quasi peer evaluation drill. I think I'll refer to this as the "spot check" from here on out. So, for the spot check all we did was ぜんぽうかいてん and こうほうかいてん。 The うけみ was okay for the most part but some of the common trouble spots were: direction, smoothness/quietness, the "landing", and doing the roll that was demonstrated (eg. left back roll instead of right). Now that we knew where some of the week spots were we could continue to fix them. I reiterated the points that I feel are required for good rolling. Then we practiced some ぜんぽうかいてん with and without using our hands. We also practiced こうほうかいてん with and without the hands. The arms/hands often become a crutch for こうほうかいてん。　I also explained a new exercise to hopefully help with こうほうかいてん。 Sit on the ground with your legs extended in front of you. Image a target above your shoulder right next to your head. Pull your knee in to strike the target on the same side of your body (eg. right knee, right shoulder) to propel you through the backward roll. After that we practiced よこながれ and たちながれ。 To wrap up the うけみ we did two rounds of follow-the-leader rolling.

Doug followed with some punching and receiving exercises. Each one had the うけ and とり in close range with a boxing style posture. One would jab and the other would shift back slightly and just touch the fist with an open palm. We did this back and fourth a few times with jabs and cross punches. Once we were comfortable with this the とり could then catch the cross punch in an armbar. I saw several places where the material Rob covered fit nicely and I tried my best to apply those principles. I think I'll revisit this exercise Tuesday to flesh out these principles more.

Next we quickly went through each of the とりてきほんがた with our partners taking turns applying and receiving. Those receiving the techniques were instructed to take うけみ but to look for ways to attack while doing the うけみ。 Class was finished with everyone demonstrating an example.

がんばってください！