Springfield Class - 7/25/2006

Me, Tim, and Bhanu went to Jong's class last night. It was Bhanu's first time, Tim's second, and my first in a while. Jong and Gino were there and a new girl named Kristen from Illinois or Indiana; I don't remember which.

We started with ukemi; basic zempo, koho, and sokuho kaiten. I've been neglecting my ukemi lately and the ground there isn't as comfortable as it is at my place so my body didn't like it at first. It didn't take long to get back into the flow though. After that we did the sanshin gokyo no kata. Kristen did ka and ku slightly differently. Bhanu did them all differently. Haha, just kidding man. After that we did three kihon moves: omote gyaku, hon gyaku, and oni kudaki. To finish the evening we did two exercises involving taking the balance.

1. 
   Uke: Diajodan shomengiri.
   Tori: From shizen no kamae. Step forward to the inside of the cut and maintain shizen no kamae. Step across in front of the uke taking their space and capturing their arms with your arm. Capture from below. Keep your shoulders facing the uke when you step in front of them. With your free hand you can affect the spine using the uke's shoulder or head. Also apply appropiate footwork.
   


2. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Use the uke's elbows to take their balance.
   

I had a good time. It was nice training with them again since it's been over a month since I was there last. Gino was promoted to 8th kyu so congratulations to him. This Sunday me, Tim, and Bhanu might do some paint balling. That'll be a different kind of training. Gambatte!

Columbia Class - 7/25/2006

First actual class I've been to in a while. Most of my training lately has been at home with one, maybe two other people, hence no posts. Last night was an actual class though hence this post.

After wasting 20 minutes or so driving around trying to find the spot and getting all sorts of mis-direction we finally arrived. Class had already begun and I'm assuming some ukemi took place. What was covered was two techniques from the last seminar with Kacem: sei on and I think sui sha. There was another technique in between those but I don't remember it being shown at the seminar. This was really great because we got to work on the fine points of the techinques.

1. 
   Uke comes in and grabs kumiuchi. As uke is coming in drop into ichimonji on the inside of the attack while applying a boshiken to the side of the neck and pulling the uke's sleeve towards you. The timing is important. You must be moving into kamae before they touch you. Pulling the sleeve is important with the boshiken in the neck. Uke's balance most be loaded onto the front foot. Their torso should be curved away from you like they're sticking their ribs out for you. You must maintain ichinen with your whole body: legs, hips, and shoulders. Do hicho and kick downward at an angle to the side of the knee right above that knot on the tibia bone on the outside of the leg. It's like applying a shuto with your foot to the knee joint. Uke goes down and you follow as needed.
   


2. 
   I don't remember this second technique from the seminar. It's the same as the sei on except that either your kick doesn't work or you just opt not to do it. Step forward all the way behind the uke. Place your foot past the uke's rear foot. Go down onto that knee like you're doing gedan ichimonji. The foot you extended should hook around the uke's foot. As you kneel down you're throwing the uke over your hip and they should land flat on their back. It's important to have the first part down otherwise the second part will be crap.
   


3. 
   Uke's throws two punches and one kick alternating sides. Uke nagashi to the inside of each punch. When the kick comes hold onto the last punch grabbing the sleeve or forearm. Apply a gedan uke nagashi to the kick. Your distance should be medium length and your angle should be that your kamae is pointed towards the uke's spine straight on. Your kamae should be perpendicular to the uke's kamae. This requires sliding your foot over some from it's position after that last uke nagashi. It's kinda like going from a right ichimonji to a left. Strike down onto the uke's shoulder with happo ken and grab with your free hand. At the same time pull the uke's arm, using the shoulder attack and the hold you already have, to your hip as you slide your rear foot to your front foot. You should have the uke's weight onto their rear leg (the one the didn't kick) and you should be able to do hicho. As if doing hicho take your front foot and hook it around the uke's front foot; the one with no weight on it. This move is like the previous technique. Now kick up and out as if kicking someone's chin and at the same time rotate the arm/shoulder upwards like a bo. Once the uke is falling extend your leg to crush the groin. Sui sha means water wheel.
   

I had an excellent time. Gambatte!

Arlington Class - 7/1/2006

The weather was nice and we had a good number of people. Two of them were new guys. We did a lot of different things and I'll try to remember them all. We started with the usual ukemi but with a couple of twists. One was doing a back roll into the prone position. The idea being you had a firearm pointed at someone the entire time. The second was doing yoko nagare but instead of taking whichever foot you normally start with take the other, rotate it 90 degrees and step back with it then roll.

We then did some simple muto dori where you just move to either side of the sword and cover the hand. We then took this a step further with taking down the uke. Roger then showed a specific movement:

Uke: Diajodan shomen giri.
Tori: Shizen no kamae. Step forward to the outside and extend your forward arm to catch uke's arm. Rotate toward uke and take them down. You can bring both arms underneath uke's arms and clamp down on them like a praying mantis, take their balance then devour them.

We worked on a few different uke nagashi/ichimonji exercises. One was something we've done before where you initially move your foot back for ichimonji while keeping your body in shizen no kamae. You would be moving your foot before uke's attack. Then when the attack comes you simply shift back into ichimonji, do dojan uke, shift over your front leg, yoko aruki with the rear foot twisting your body and omoto shuto. Keeping the spin straight was stressed here. That means keeping your head facing forward at all times so when rotating your spine your head moves too.

Next we did uke nagashi with a whip-like motion of the arm. We also did it with more of a circular/90 degree step instead of the usual 45 degree step back. The last one we did was a regular uke nagashi but with a leaping omote shuto to the arm. We also did a three hit combo: uke nagashi, shifting punch with the other arm, then using the twisting/yoko aruki action we practiced earlier to deliver the omoto shuto.

That's all I can remember at the moment. Gambatte!