Aikido day 60
Gentle Readers,
So, today was the 60th class I've taken, my 60th hour of mat time. According to the website, that's enough to test for my first rank, but apparently in practice it is more like double that. Given how much I currently feel I understand, I feel like even double that would be not enough. Still, having stuck it out for so long is really satisfying. Getting my self back on a monday after 12 days of absence is also a good thing. It feels great in fact.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that today was a private lesson with Sensei R. We worked on blocks and doing the "teddy bear roll" on a forward roll. For the last little while we've been doing the forward roll to tenkan/step back and this one goes the other way. I was fighting a lot of programming, but was able to at least stop the old one and switch to the new one by the end of class.
We also did one reversal.
I do have to work on my break falls as I'm not really ready for them yet. They suggest that you should so something every day that scares you and breakfalls certainly qualify. I'll get it yet, and I know I'll get it, but I'm not there yet.
I did tell R that I would learn it well enough that he could throw me around the room, just not this morning.
With the blocks (or really Parries, from my context) the trick is to move forward so that you are not doing it against the wrist. Otherwise, you can bend the elbow around and bring that up to continue the attack.
So, today was the 60th class I've taken, my 60th hour of mat time. According to the website, that's enough to test for my first rank, but apparently in practice it is more like double that. Given how much I currently feel I understand, I feel like even double that would be not enough. Still, having stuck it out for so long is really satisfying. Getting my self back on a monday after 12 days of absence is also a good thing. It feels great in fact.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that today was a private lesson with Sensei R. We worked on blocks and doing the "teddy bear roll" on a forward roll. For the last little while we've been doing the forward roll to tenkan/step back and this one goes the other way. I was fighting a lot of programming, but was able to at least stop the old one and switch to the new one by the end of class.
We also did one reversal.
I do have to work on my break falls as I'm not really ready for them yet. They suggest that you should so something every day that scares you and breakfalls certainly qualify. I'll get it yet, and I know I'll get it, but I'm not there yet.
I did tell R that I would learn it well enough that he could throw me around the room, just not this morning.
With the blocks (or really Parries, from my context) the trick is to move forward so that you are not doing it against the wrist. Otherwise, you can bend the elbow around and bring that up to continue the attack.