Last Class

Ok, I've been putting off writing about my last class because it was pretty straightforward. We went over Tegatana with a notepad and pen to make SURE the steps were understood, then went over Honasu again and again until class was over. The last class was fairly short.
Something happened after class that warrants at least a mention. I was talking with a friend of mine about how his Aikido training was going and he commented lately he has no one to do it with. My natural response is "Oh, well train someone then you have a partner." My friend then told me he doesn't think he has what it takes to actually TEACH Aikido.
I think there are a lot of common misconceptions about teaching. I know I had quite a few in Orlando when I started teaching Rob. First off, you can't expect to teach everything. You can only teach what you do know. Tell your prospective student that, straight off the bat. I don't know know everything, but what I'm sure of, I'll tell you. When you're not sure of something, tell them that too. This is my interpretation of what happens, but only what I think. I've noticed over the past year that my interpretation of something when I explain it to Pat isn't always the same as his, but they both could be "correct" based on what we feel is happening.
After getting over that barrier, remember that teaching someone else something teaches you too, maybe even more than they learn from you. In Aikido (and again, this is just what I think), you learn the moves from your teacher so you can copy them when they may or may not feel natural at first. Then, they feel natural and you just start doing them, likely forgetting HOW you're doing them in the process. It doesn't end there. When you teach someone, you re-learn HOW you're doing what you're doing so you can show it to someone else, and by re-analyzing your own technique you discover things. I noticed that when I do Gyakugamae ate (the link is the closest pic I could find), I used to spread my arms farther and farther apart. I initially thought that at a certain point it became an arm thing. I noticed when I started teaching Rob, I don't do that anymore. When my arm comes across Uke's face, I turn my hips and rise and fall with my whole body. Sort of a Gedan ate feel. I never would have known I started doing that unless I taught someone else.
In learning new things about your Aikido you also start applying those ideas to different techniques. I prefer doing Mae Otoshi like Gedan Ate only with my foot in front of Uke and using my body push to continue Uke's rise. Sort of like the guy in the Mae Otoshi link, only closer.
Another advantage is by teaching Aikido to someone who doesn't know it, you get to really practice honasu (the wrist releases) with someone who has not idea what it is supposed to look like, so their resistance is genuine. They won't move for you, so you REALLY get a look at where the holes are in your technique. In making them softer, you have to get softer first.
All I'm trying to say in all this, and I WISH I could find the article in that book on my list at the bottom of my page called "Black Belt Korean Karate", is that teaching is not just a part of learning. I've learned SO much from it I think it should be mandatory to teach at least a few classes upon getting an Ikkyu or Shodan rank. It improves your techniques, makes you think in detail about what you're ACTUALLY doing, and if forces patience on you. Also, there's no reward in the world like when a student just "gets it" one day and starts doing Aikido on their own and you pointed the way.

Next to Last Class

Next Tuesday will be my final class at the YMCA in Bremerton, Wa. Since I'm down to one student, I decided this week I would use the class time to go through Tegatana, Honasu, then Junana once. Junana would (I thought) give her a peek at what she would be learning as her training progressed. A few observations I noticed were, I do Sumi-Otoshi much better the Junana way instead of the Nijusan way and I need to work on that. Gedan ate went well, but when we got to Mai Otoshi (I think I spelled that right), I could not remember exactly how to do it. I thought for a second and tried Gedan Ate and intentionally missed the timing and caught Uke on the rise coming forward and an interesting thing happened. Usually when I do get Mai Otoshi I have a feeling of almost catching the back of the elbow and it's a toss or continuation of that forward movement. While the catching Uke going upward and getting that forward feeling, I caught Uke just above the elbow and it felt like the throw, or point affected I should say, was Uke's shoulder. Is that right? Is that still Mai Otoshi?

It's Been Two Weeks

So as far as last week's post (I know you're on the edge of your seat), I arrived at class and there was a sign on the front door that simply said "Closed for maintenance. Will open tomorrow." Inside I could see electrical wires hanging from the ceiling...nice of them to let me know they'd be closed, yes?
This week, my one student returned and we only have 2 more classes left together. I wanted to go over a few lessons such as, notice your surroundings. We went through the first 4 wrist releases standing near a wall. It took a few minutes, but hip switches developed and number 1 and 3 worked especially well using those, and the "lost releases".
Some concerns were expressed over release number 3 and 4. She, like almost everyone, enjoys doing number 1 and 3 because they FEEL like they have an end. I explained that neither do 1 and 3, and we practiced what happens after the 3rd step of 1 and 3. In other words, what if Uke keeps going? That moved nicely into a Junana lesson, most notably oshi taoish and ude gaeshi. I was requested to go over that a few more times next class, so my lesson plan is just that....more wrist releases chaining into Junana
After 2 weeks when I move, I don't know how much Aikido I'll be doing. I hear Western Washington University has a Judo club, so I'll look into that. The interesting thing I read about their Judo club is that for randori it's open to anyone who does any wrestling, grappling, or throwing art. There's also a group that just focuses on kata and not competition Judo, and that sounds great to me.

For Pat...

I was going to post how the past two classes have actually felt more like work than a class, where I've been teaching the same stuff and haven't really seen anything myself. I WAS going to post that, but I did remember something that happened last class where I was going over what we call "the stupid drill" which is going from kote-gaeshi to kote-hineri and back again and I felt something weird. Class was ending and I was feeling sick so I didn't want to explore it then, but I made a mental note of exactly what was happening and decided to further speculate on it later. This morning when deciding to post that I hadn't learned anything new or seen anything, I figured it out.

I know this next part is going to make a lot of people nod their heads (and by a lot, I mean my one reader) and say "well duh!" but it's something that just never really occurred to me and I'd like to voice it. First off, when I do kote-gaeshi, I feel like I'm locking Uke's hip when I do it right. I get the wrist to a point where I control the elbow, then the elbow to a point where it shortens one of Uke's legs, at least that's how it feels to me. With kote-hineri I feel like I control the wrist, then elbow, then the shoulder.

Ok, now that the preliminary explanation of how I feel Uke responding to the two is out of the way, onto the speculative part. When doing the drill, I've usually had trouble transitioning from kote-gaeshi into hineri. What I was doing is when Uke pushes out of kote-gaeshi and I switch hands as uke's arm straightens, I'd extend uke just a little to set the wrist and elbow close to the same time as the arm comes back up. What I noticed is, I don't have to. If I feel the wrist, then elbow, then shoulder/hip locking up as I set it, I can work back down in reverse order during the switch. When Uke pushes out of kote-gaeshi I lose the hip feeling but I have the elbow. As the arm straightens I lose the elbow but I still have the wrist and that is what I've been neglecting. If instead of stretching the arm as I switch hands, I just focus on the continual rotation of the wrist, I lock it down in the opposite direction, which gives me more than enough tension to follow it up through the elbow then to the shoulder. I haven't had a chance to apply it yet, but I just KNOW my kote-hineri has improved a lot just from realizing this, this morning.

There you go Pat, an epiphany, all stemming from a post initially intended to being centered around me feeling like I haven't learned anything the last two classes. I suppose I still have a lot to learn about learning things :P

Ok, ok...so I haven't posted in a while...

There have been complaints from certain people (Sarah Jane) that I haven't update in a while. The reason being that there isn't really anything to report. I've had a single student the past two classes and with me leaving for Bellingham in a month, there's only so much to teach in each class. We've been going over the Aiki-brush off and tegatana almost exclusively. The wrist releases were the subject of the last 20 minutes of this past Tuesday's class. Updated!

A Week Ago at Pat's

This post is one week overdue but I've been doing a lot of traveling. Last week at Pat's I got to meet his new group of students, and we went over a few familiar exercises, mainly waki-gatamae to kote gaeshi and back again. It was extremely hot in the dojo, but there were two new things I learned that I found really interesting. With the eighth wrist release, I always interpreted it as Uke grabbing Tori's wrist then pulling it across his body causing the turning motion. At Pat's well there was almost no resistance from anyone on any wrist releases, but from what I gathered Pat was doing, Uke grabbed Tori's wrist but didn't change anything, Tori just does the turning motion with no prompting. I always thought Uke determined where Tori went, but it felt more like Tori determined where Uke went after Uke grabbed. The most interesting thing though was Gendan ate. I learned in Washington that the timing issue of performing it while moving behind the arm could be fixed by actually stopping your motion for one step making Uke "catch up" and putting him in a perfect position for Gedan ate. Pat had a twist on this where Tori tosses Uke's arm over behind him which twists Uke slowing him down. The end result is Tori and Uke in sync with each other and facing each other and Tori could just push Uke backwards. It's an odd feel. Wish I had a camera to get some footage of it. Maybe later :)

Surprises and Speeches

Just before class I received an e-mail from the YMCA saying "Congratulations on keeping 2-3 regular students. We were going to cancel your class this month but decided not to since you've had regulars." Thanks for telling me you were thinking about suddenly dropping my class! It went on to say "We'll decide at the end of August based on your numbers whether to continue to give you that time slot." I replied with the reminder that I'll be gone two weeks in August. Will I still have a Tuesday night class when I return? Who knows?
As I did have a class last night though, here's what went down. We went over Tegatana (the walking kata) then number 1 through 4 of honasu (the wrist releases). My newest student decided to show off a few things after work the day after her first class with me. This inevitably led to questions like "when someone grabs you like this what do you do?" Then came the classic "well what about after someone has your wrist and has planted their feet and they're a lot stronger than you...what then?" After a movement exercise she seemed happier about the situation.
Class ended with a story of my first day of Aikdo which I'm SURE I've posted at least once before and won't bore everyone with again. I know, I can almost see the look of surprise in everyone's faces.."You're NOT telling a story?!" I think that just shows me growing as a teacher. I now am learning when NOT to bore my readers.