Aikido where you can do....it.

To pass the time at work I've obtained a high bounce ball to play around with. One of the things I've been working on particularly is trying to do the first portion of hanasu one bounce at a time. It definitely shortens up your steps. I occasionally get some evasion practice in when it's really quiet. Throw the ball against the nearest concrete wall and you get an instant attacker to sidestep! Needless to say i have to carefully pick my moments with this one but it's still something to do.

Anyone know of any other coordination or aikido-like things one can do with a bouncing ball?

Classified Ad

Semi-adequate aikido student willing to do degrading menial tasks for aikido lessons. Must be within bus distance of Bellingham, WA. Specialties include medical sanitation of premises and odd job repairs. Also capable of taking falls and receiving mild joint manipulation. Not looking to advance in grade, just in understanding. Please leave email address below.

Bass Rutten is an expert. Andy learns the importance of sarcasam.

Any thoughts?

So much for that idea.

The aikido project is dead. It was, i thought, a good idea for the hour it lasted. At the moment it looks like i'm going to be taking something of a step backwards. My plan now is to try and find a way to get into the local aikikai classes and start training there. Yes, i'm going to be starting over at square one in a different organization but not getting to do aikido ever again seems to be the worse option. What's an ikkyu 2500 miles from his teacher really supposed to do?

Pat says i should find a couple of people that would like to learn aikido and practice with them, in a way teaching each other, but i just don't feel like i would do our style justice. There's a lot of rust and uncertainty on my part in that regard.

Suggestions?

Aikido Project

Just a quick update. Here's the actual page for the project John and I are doing. It's nothing fancy and you are bound to be disapointed if you're looking for the reinvention of the wheel or extremely crisp technique. It's really just something john and i are doing to practice various parts of aikido. Hopefully we'll get better and get some great advice along the way.

So, here's what i did....

Sorry for the large lapse in blogging. I realize it's been 5 months and no one may even still be reading this. That's cool because i use this thing to write down my random scattered thoughts on aikido.

The last 5 months were filled up mostly with life. I had a job that kept me busy so much i didn't make it to class very often. 3 times in fact, which isn't a record or anything. The year i was in Orlando i MAY have posted twice.

My last class at Pat's was my last class in Mississippi. I recently moved to Bellingham, WA where my best bud John of Johndo fame resides.

My last class was rather mind blowing. I guess since Pat knew i was leaving he decided to blow apart some of my ideas and leave me at aikido square one. After doing the class norm of tegatana we worked on hanasu. I have always had a problem with the second move in this kata, Hon Soto te Osu. I have felt rather led footed and one step behind with this technique all the years i've been doing it. I asked for some advice on how to make this move work smoothly and Pat told me to try and accomplish the technique on one foot at a time always causing a same hand/same foot to fall. Wow, said I. Instead of simply stepping around like i have been, i allowed uke more freedom to move me in whatever direction he was going making my aikido (i think) crazy better. I know you're supposed to allow uke to determine how the engagement goes... but this was really working great!

The whole class allowed me to re evaluate all the footwork and positioning that i seemed to have taken for granted in tegatana. With just a slight shift in focus my aikido (i think) as become a bit more free flowing and a bit less cluttered.

So fast forward about a month later and here i am in the top north corner of the United States. John and I, in an effort to keep ourselves training, have decided to do a video blog here. We're not trying to teach anything by any means, we're just recording our sessions so that we can 1)get advice and 2) have something that shows what we're doing, that we're doing something, and shows where we are at and were we need to go. I look forward to hearing what people think and trying to overcome my extreme anxiety over seeing myself move and flop about like a pregnant ox.