Let's try something different.

Last night's workout was a lot of fun. We started out by doing a quick go over of ko soto gari, i wanted to make sure i still had the basics of the throw from the other night. I still remember how the throw goes, woo!

Next we went through tegatana, nothing especially new there this time around. We forgot Pat's jumpy jelly leg syndrome exercise but we're going back to the dojo tonight and that's one of the things we'll work on.

Next John wanted to work on a judo throw who's name escapes me at the moment. I'm sure he'll be describing it in his next post.

After i had gotten off the mat several times we moved on to the first five of Ni ju san:

1. Shomen ate
2. Aigame ate
3. Gyaku gamae ate
4. Gedan ate
5. Ushiro ate

These first five are all striking techniques and i had been noodling over the idea for the last few days of changing the exercise up a bit from the way we normally do it just for a change of pace from the established way and...well...mainly just to see what would happen. Instead of uke making a straight armed forward attack from mai as usual, after checking mai and tori dropping his hand (signaling he's ready for the attack) uke brings his hand straight back to his shoulder then pushes it back out as he steps forward. Not quite a punch granted but the fact the arm, and especially a hand, visually seems to be "coming at you" was a load of fun to avoid during ni ju san.

Our mantra of "getting the hell out of the way" was a quicker and more automatic response with a different simulated attack thrown into the mix. Another thing we both noticed was that the initial off balance became a more "final" maneuver if uke was totally committed to the attack (which an attacker may or may not have a recover step in their game plan when they're trying to kick your ass and i'm wondering how different your body's natural recover step will react vs. a deliberate attempt to right one's self) and the technique often ended there if we were devoted enough into dropping the attacking arm into the hole between their feet. When the techniques DID continue they often produced spectacular results. We did tweak a few things every now and then, making sure tori stayed close to uke and aigame ate works better if you wait for it instead of just stiff arming your buddy in the head whenever, but over all pretty kewl beans.

After that John wanted to work on some ideas he had about being attacked in the guard and from the guard. He's been thinking on different ground work ideas he's come up with while watching UFC and other MMA shows where the opponent on the ground generally gets pounded instead of tying up the arms or simply shrimping side to side to avoid the attack entirely. Now this is not generally the case but i've seen it happen alot on TV (which is always a great meter stick to judge your ideas). I strapped on some gloves to be the uke on this one, and while i'll let John describe the whole thing in his words when he posts on it i will say i was pretty amazed at the ease someone can simply shrimp out of the way of an attack. The guy in the mount has to change his posture if he wants to attack someone in the guard which facilitates an easy block or evasion. It's a weird point where aikido and judo get close to the same thing in relation to being attacked.

I'm going to TRY and get some pictures up for some stuff soon. I think our dojo would definitely fall under a Dojo Rat heading. Nothing beats having an automatic door rise up as you approach your inner sanctum.