Aikido + food = enjoyment

Last night was my first class back in quite some time. I feel sore again and it's awesome. The focuses put into tegatana last night were gripping forward with our toes (kinda like cat walking from Pat's post on the msg board) and making sure we end up on the balls of our feet. A new one that was throw into the mix was snapping our center under us and the end of the movement. I noticed all three cause an accentuation of the up and down motion generated by our walking. I still think it's neat that by having your toes lead you to where you're going there's very little chance of ending up off balanced at the end.

I think i did a lot better at rolling last night, much less flat tire flapping. I think having less clutter in my head when doing it helps. I still need to work on rolling out of hiki taoishi.

We worked on chain number 7. I think that hand switches go along with the changes in garumas and otoshis as we move from gyaku uchi hanasu to ude heneri (?) to hiki taoishi. If i got the names right.

One of Pat's old students is coming to class now. Seems like an alright guy. The crawfish we had after class was fantastic, haven't had any in a while so i got double the goodness out of the return trip to class.

Bits and pieces.

I haven't been to class in a WHILE, life has gotten in the way lately. I've still been "practicing" if you could call it that. I do tegatana frequently, posture (i.e. balance) and the drop vs step idea my two main concerns. My ideal place would be getting it so hardwired in my brain that i won't even STEP out of the way or whatnot but fall. (there's got to be a better thing to call that.) I'm playing with the unbendable arm too. One armed wall pushing, two armed wall pushing. We have a swinging double door at work and i check the different strengths of the one armed or two armed unbenadable arm push. A few other things here and there. I haven't given up!