Grab My Wrist

Coming Back After a Holiday

Our dojo is closed over major holiday weekends. Over the Thanksgiving break there were no classes Thursday through Sunday.

I went to class Wednesday night (unusual, for me), and tonight (I would normally have waited until Tuesday). Still, 4 days away seems like an awfully long time.

I noticed something interesting in both of the classes tonight, I think. We were having fun, and laughing like we always do, but there seemed to be a little different intensity and concentration. It was quieter than usual. During some exercises it sounded like a library (with soft falling, of course).

It reminded me of the silence one hears just after a group of hungry friends sets down to dinner.

Scanning the Instruments

When flying a plane, one thing a pilot does, to be sure things are working correctly, on course, and safe, is to frequently scan the instruments. Check the altitude, check the heading, check the airspeed, etc. Look around for traffic, communicate if needed… Check the altitude, check the heading, check the airspeed, and so on. Scanning the instruments lets you detect little problems quickly, and fix them before they become bigger problems.

I’m finding that paying attention to each aspect of my Aikido would be a similarly good idea. Am I breathing freely? Does my posture have integrity? Am I centered, and grounded? Am I aligned with Uke/Nage? Try to work out the next step of that new technique… Am I breathing freely? Does my posture have integrity? Am I centered, and grounded? Am I aligned with Uke/Nage? Notice the little problems quickly, and fix them.

Inattention to one aspect or another in Aikido has similar consequences to inattention in flying. Going faster than you’re capable of going safely. Heading in the wrong direction. Unintentional flight into terrain.

Doing a frequent scan of a few key points could help keep me on course. It’s something I’ll play with, and see how it goes.

[Note: Thank you to Mark De Souza for a post on his blog, Mark’s Meanderings referencing this post.]

TGIF (day 15 of 16)

This has been a very busy running-full-out kind of week at work. For some it’s been a pretty rough time. Everyone was quite ready to get started on the weekend this afternoon. For me it’s been mostly fun - the kind of work I enjoy, just lots of it, on tight deadlines. My body has had enough of sitting at a desk and using a trackball, even though I did get out for a quick walk at lunch. My brain could use a cooling-off period, too. Thankfully, I got to a good stopping point, and even entered my time for the week, before shooting out the door at 5:00.

I managed to pop a temporary crown off a molar today.  At 5:10 p.m. On a Friday. While driving in heavy traffic. On my way to the dojo. That’s always the best time for that sort of thing, you know. D’oh! Naturally I just stuck it back on, smooshed it down real good, and went on to class. Now I’m being very, very careful when I eat. Great.

Tonight’s class was a lovely respite from the madness. (I just looked up “respite” on Dictionary.com to be sure I am using it correctly. I am. “a delay or cessation for a time, esp. of anything distressing or trying; an interval of relief.”) I got there early enough for plenty of warming up and stretching, and for the meditation period. When class started we did a lot of very soft rolling exercises, and then one putting each other into a forward roll, and being aware of where the connection and center was. Lots of attentiveness to keeping alignment and integrity. It was a pretty meditative, mindful sort of class.

In spite of all that, it was physically a difficult class. My left upper-back/shoulder have hurt for 2 weeks, so rolling on that side (well, for the first 10 or so times each day), or breathing deeply, both feel a little like I’ve gotten the wind knocked out of me. Before class even started my left hip and right knee were unhappy (sitting for meditation didn’t help). To warm up before class I started to jump up and down a few times, and my ankle immediately hurt. One partner missed my arm doing ikkyo, and poked me right between the eyes. I almost got stepped on about 4 times, but the key word there is “almost.” Since actually getting stepped on twice this month (once on each foot) I’ve been more careful about that, and got my feet out of the way this time. And I have a few new bruises. No real harm done (although my knee worries me a bit - it’s an ongoing thing). Hooray for Arnica gel and ice packs.

There were a couple of techniques that I and my partner were both not feeling real good about yet when we had to stop practicing during class (shomen-uchi ikkyo, omote and ura), so we stayed after for a few minutes to work on them (and on katate-dori shihonage). I’m learning to be very happy with “better.” We definitely got them “better.”

I’ve been noticing the same thing in class, that I may not have a whole technique down, but I get some aspect of it right, or even if it’s not perfect, the overall thing flows a little more smoothly. Trending in the right direction is a good thing. I’ll take it.

Class ended on a more-contemplative-than-usual note, with Sensei reminding us that Aikido is not about attacking and defending, not me and you, but about the shared energy between partners. Good thoughts to take us into the weekend.

How Not To Do It

One of the woes of having the privilege to train under a teacher with an unflinching commitment to his students growth as Aikidoists is that the feedback sometimes stings.

Last night, in spite of my intention to go to class tonight, I stayed up to the wee hours to watch a meteor shower. That was stupid. Tonight, not having had enough sleep, I went to class anyway. That was arrogant and selfish.

I actually felt pretty good, and thought I was doing well for most of the class. But particularly toward the end my rolls got sloppy, and I wasn’t really focused. And I failed to notice that.

Sensei, being a perceptive and experienced teacher, noticed. He stopped class early, with a few words about how injuries are more likely when people are too tired to roll correctly, and how he doesn’t like injuries happening at his dojo.

Thank you, Sensei. It won’t happen again. My apologies to you and to my training partners.

In the words of Mark Rashid, horse trainer and aikidoka, “now I know how not to do it.”

Off to get a good night’s sleep…

Day 9 of 16: End of a Great Week

Today, Saturday, wrapped up the first week of my 16 day Personal Aikido Intensive. I’m delighted and relieved to be able to say I’ve been having an awesome time, and am excited about having another full week ahead.

Next week I’ll be in classes Monday through Saturday. M, W, & Sat. are two-class days. That’s 9 classes, 5 of which will be with Sensei. This past week (M-Sat) he was away, and the yudansha (meet most of the teaching staff at Aikido of San Diego) taught all the classes. I really could not have picked a better time to do this, because for the past week there has been a tremendous variety to the classes, and for the next I’ll have 5 days in a row of classes with Sensei.

The whole 16-day thing kicked off with a killer Friday night class with Sensei. I think he was trying to tire us out so we wouldn’t be too hard on the yudansha during the week. ;-) It was an absolute blast. Sensei taught again on Saturday morning, and we did several really interesting exercises, including a walking-pace randori practice that looked like “Night of the Living Aikidoka” as 6 uke wandered, zombie-like in the general direction of each nage. Then Terry, Bill, and Doug had their exams, and there was the dojo party and potluck with the Sumo suits. (If you haven’t seen the video yet, scroll down and watch it.)

The classes during the week were all as different as they could be, and offered many opportunities to try completely new things, hear familiar things explained in new ways, focus on different details, and so on. If I’m remembering correctly, I got to train with Megan, Jay, Cyril, Andy, and Karen. Classes were really well attended all week, too, and ran like clockwork, as usual.

This morning was a pretty fast-paced, interesting weapons class with Jay. We worked with the jo, doing still more techniques I hadn’t yet seen. (I just tried to run through them all with my barn jo after feeding the critters this evening. Ah, the joys of long, dark nights and open outdoor space.) It sounds like there may be more opportunities to train with weapons, which would be great.

Next was an open-hand class with Mike. Lots of complicated (for me… sigh…) techniques. Some I got, and some I was befuddled by. The really annoying ones were a couple that I nailed on the first attempt, and then couldn’t get right again. I’ve been finding lately that I’m much less frustrated with myself when that happens. I just keep trying, and don’t go into panicky brain cramps. The class was a lot of fun, and thankfully I ended on a good note by getting the last technique right.

After class we cleaned the dojo and headed off to our respective weekends. Next up: Two 1-hour classes on Monday, with Sensei, and Cyril. But first, chores, resting, playing with the critters, and dinner with a friend.

It’s a Lot Like Line Dancing

I’m going to try to keep this brief, because come hell or high water I am going to get 8 hours’ sleep tonight.

Have you read the two diaries that make their way around the Internet every so often? One is by a cat, and one is by a dog. The cat reports the horrors of his captivity, while the dog is excited about everything that happens, all day long:

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!

(From http://www.wanderings.net/notebook/Main/DogDiaryVsCatDiary)

My experience of Aikido all this week has been reminding me of the dog’s diary: “Woohoo! My favorite teacher.  Yay! My favorite kind of class. Awesome! My favorite people to train with. Oh, good! My favorite techniques.”

—-

The teacher tonight asked me (since I’ve been to a lot of classes this week) what techniques we had been working on in the classes. Or at least what kind of work we had been doing. I could only come up with a very short list. I really should start being more conscious of that, I suppose. So I’ll try to post a very brief summary of at least a few memorable points from each class, mostly to use for my own review.

Tonight we did a lot of bokken work:

• Cutting, one direction, and then with irimi
• 8-directions cut (happo giri)
• Front rolls, and back slap-falls (?) with bokken

We also did a bit of open-hand jiyuwaza.

A fairly large class, with a broad range of levels, learning happo giri looks a heck of lot like a big group of folks trying to learn a line dance. It went very smoothly, and none of us whacked each other. I couldn’t help but think of The Electric Slide (video on YouTube), though, as we all stepped and turned at the right angles, all together. A music video would be hilarious.

—-

The most recent exams at the dojo were last week. Exams come around every few months, with the next date being February 6th, 2010. I don’t know if I’ll be testing then (for 5th kyu), and I don’t care. But I am setting it as a personal goal for myself to be on track to test then. That means paying even more careful attention to the techniques that are on the test, training thoughtfully, etc.

We each work with a senior student when preparing for an exam. It’s our responsibility to find a mentor, so I’ve been doing some watching and thinking about who I might want to work with some day. At least if my name does appear on the Dreaded Dojo Whiteboard, I’ll have an idea of who to ask.

To be clear, my goal is not to test on February 6th. I am not even hoping to test then. That’s up to Sensei, of course, and I’m not in any hurry to “get there” anyway. The goal is to train as if I will be testing, regardless.

OK… Off to bed. Two classes first thing in the morning. Right after my 8 hours of sleep.

A Much Better Day

I sure didn’t get everything perfect today, but I did a lot better. 5-1/2 hours of sleep instead of 4, and actual meals (big, hearty salads), meant more energy. Last night’s bath, plus a few sessions with ice packs, had everything feeling better today. More water, less coffee, more focused.

Not perfect… Still not enough sleep. I didn’t eat or drink enough this afternoon. Having a good dinner now, with ice packs scattered about as needed, and heading for bed ASAP. I’m glad I seem to be able to get things going in the right direction, instead of getting more sore, and more tired.

Tonight (day 6 of 16) there were two classes, so I did them both - 2 hours, total. It’s the first time I’ve trained on a Wednesday, because I usually have another commitment in the evening. So these classes were new ones for me.

The first class (open to all students) was the biggest class I’ve done, aside from the Nadeau seminar in July. The second class is “only” open to 6 kyu and above. (I’m 6th kyu - that’s the level where you’ve proven some very basic competence at simple things - graduated from kindergarten, essentially.) There really is no set pattern to how classes are run, aside from warm-ups, but this week in particular, with a variety of yudansha teaching while Sensei is on vacation, they are even more variable. It’s great to hear things explained in different ways, do new exercises and techniques, and experience a little different temperament to each class.

I finally learned something that has been driving me nuts for months. I’ve seen the ukemi for tai no henko done two ways - staying rooted where you are, basically, or sort of spinning to face Nage (and keep your own alignment). I failed to see the pattern to when it was done one way versus the other. It seemed capricious. I’d almost accepted it as a koan of sorts - someday it would become clear to me why each way was randomly wrong half the time. (I suppose I should have, um… asked?) At any rate, someone (and I’ve very sorry that I can’t remember who) pointed out that the difference is static practice (kihon waza?) versus doing the whole thing in-motion. Oh!

Something I was especially aware of this evening, although it’s always the case, was the attention to detail, kindness, patience, and generosity of spirit of everyone I have the privilege of working with. Everyone is careful with their partners, thoughtful in giving perceptive, helpful feedback, and really warm and caring about each other. (And I’m not just saying that because I know some them read my blog. Really.) It’s a wonderful environment to practice and play in.

I found out today that yet another student will be signing up for the Aikido Bridge seminar. So that makes at least 4 of us from Aikido of San Diego who are going. Yay!

For the last couple of days the muscles under my left shoulder blade have been in spasm. Patient trigger point work last night and this morning helped, but even so, by the time I got to the dojo it was the sort of thing that made me not want to even take a deep breath. I considered not going to class, but I’m too stubborn to wimp out. Fortunately, like last Friday, a good workout with a lot of rolling got it feeling nearly perfect. Much, much better. (Domo arigato gozaimashita. You know who you are.) By some great stroke of luck, I was also able to schedule a massage today for Saturday afternoon. Really looking forward to that!

In the second class we did a simple, short jiyuwaza (freestyle series of attacks). By that time I was pretty tired, and really did a rather pathetic job of it. One thing I am proud of, however, is that I was able to mostly stay connected visually and energetically with my partner, in both roles (Uke/Nage). I was focusing on them, not the attack. As Nage I think I managed to mostly keep coming in and offering, not backing down. But then I couldn’t seem to manage a single coherent technique. Oh well…

We had the opportunity to try a two-uke jiyuwaza (randori?) at the end of the second class. I would have loved to done it (in either role), but I was just too exhausted and dehydrated (in spite of drinking water all through class) to do anything else. I hope we have the chance again, when I’m not wiped out.

All in all, a tremendously fun evening. I left the dojo already looking forward to tomorrow night. But for now, a hot shower and sleep.