aikido.lemy.ch - saturdays training

I was not in the training for 2 weeks. The first week holiday and last week too busy. So, I was quite hot for the training this morning :-)

Daniel took the lead today. There were (me included) 3 students plus romolo and markus on the tatami zone today. Enough space for fun ;-)

The first half of the training, we trained Tenchi nage (Heaven and Earth throw). We focused at the timing and movements, ignoring the technique. For this, we combined it with other techniques like irimi nage. Then two of the students and romolo left. There were only 4 of us remaining in the training: daniel, markus, julien and me.

Second half was jo time :) At the beginning mechanically repeating attacks and defenses. Felt a bit like a typical karate training as it is shown in all those martial art movies. I only knew about half of the movements so far. Therefore i was in big trouble sometimes. Daniel was counting the repeats and the rest was training while i was quite stuck in the movements itself. But no matter, I'm quite sure, when time comes, even I will know all those movements :-D

Then we moved to some basic attacks and defenses. Unfortunately time was passing very fast today and we had to stop the training to finish the official part of it (shokuso!). Nevertheless all of us 4 stayed for the after class lession.

We stood in a quarter, each one facing his counterpart. And one after another we choosed a technique and performed it 4 times per person (positive and negative, left and right). In half an hour, each one picked 2 techniques. Since markus and daniel picked too, I was (again) faced with some fancy techniques which were a bit too advanced for me. For example, I was quite struggling with Katate-tori nikkyo, which is a technique for 4. kyu. But anyway it was a very nice and interesting training full of content for me. Before I left, daniel showed us a technique against 3 attackers. Two attackers with katate-tori and one graps the neck (don't know the name for it). Each one of us performed it once. It was the first time for me dealing with 3 attackers (daniel told me with a smile :).

At the beginning I gave daniel the cd with the movies and pictures I took from the training of 15. October, which were the tests for the dan novices (e.g. reinhard) and markus for his second dan. He was quite pleased and asked me, what I want for it. To my answer (nothing) he meant he'll pay me a beer. Looking forward to it ;-)

I've put the pictures on my webpage. You can see it under: http://aikido.lemy.ch check it out! This link will be the place, where I'll put all my ressources about aikido in the future.
Unfortuantely, I had to remove the movies as they produced too much bandwith usage for my account :( If you want to see the movies too, send me an email and we'll see what I can do for you ;-)

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training - My first Yonkyo steps..

Only 5 Aikidokas on the tatami today. Ruedi Sensei was back and Daniel took the lead. Reinhard (still training hard for his 1st dan test next saturday) was the only non-white-belted student in class today :)
Etienne showed up later on and mago and me were also participating.

At the beginning mago and me trained the ikkyo kata while daniel sensei watched us. Both of us got problem at the entering move for the ura form of this technique. We're moving to far which results in a not so clean turn of the hips. Uke falls over our knees which is not good enough. But besides of this small fault, daniel meant we both would have passed the test when doing the kata like this. Yay! :-)

Then we proceeded a bit to more advanced training in order to give reinhard the chance to train for his dan test. That's why we made our first steps in yonkyo. I did not manage to get the pin correctly but no matter, it's an advanced technique anyway :-)

At the end we trained the Jo kata from Walther Oelschlaeger again. It was good since it has been long time ago we trained it last time.

Quite a good training but still, my right shoulder hurts :( I really hope it gets better next week, as I'm not able to go to the training at tuesday and wednesday (I'm in Amsterdam! Yay! Watching championsleague match between ajax amsterdam and fc thun). Should be a long enough rest period (hopefully). Because of the same reason (adam) I'll not train at saturday as I have to leave at home around 1pm and the training dures until half past 12. But I really want to see the dan tests and therefore I'll just visit the training as a visitor and will make some pics and videos. Keep on reading, I'll post some of them in here!

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesdays training - Iriminage

Beginners training today. Daniel together with Nathalie and Romolo took care about us students today. Markus was training with Reinhard for their dan tests next saturday themselfs.

Again quite crowded tatami zone again today: 10 Students! And that on the small tatami zone (there are two in our dojo). I think the time comes us aikidokas get the big tatami zone back from the kickboxers :)

Todays theme was iriminage. The beginners had to learn the first steps whereas we (a bit more advanced students) had to perform all different iriminages: ai hanmi katate tori, gyaku hanmi katate tori, gyaku hanmi katate riote tori etc. As I remember, it was the first time for me performing iriminage on gyaku hanmi at all! Quite good that i could train the first parts with romolo. He's really very patient and takes care of showing it slowly to us students. Unfortunately I could not throw him at all as he still has problems with his knees (he's over 60 years old and had 4 operations on his legs but is still training aikido twice a week, respect!). Therefore sensei daniel came 2-3 times to be my uke and i could throw him quite good.

Got quite a better feeling on iriminage now. I think it's getting better and better for the tests. BTW: Daniel mentioned to make the tests in december and we should think about when we have time for it... ...I'll keep you updated ;-)

Yours,

Lemy

Sunday Training - Special Training for Tests

Yes! I succeeded, I went to the special training for those making the tests. I did not sleep to long and was there on time. Quite funny... ..don't know for how long I was not up in the morning at a sunday... ...the sound of the churches bells was something I didn't hear for a long time on a sunday morning. Had quite a good feeling.

It was a tough training session today. Daniel (of course) took the lead. There were also markus (preparing for his 2nd dan next saturday), 4 1st kyus (preparing for the 1st dan next saturday), 2 5th kyus (preparing for the 4th kyu in november) and mago and me, preparing for the 5th kyu (november as well).

At the beginning, we trained the katas again. For us whities simple shomenuchi ikkyo. I think I got it quite good now. Shouldn't be a problem I think. The others trained quite more katas meanwhile as they have to show quite a bunch of katas.

After that, mago and me trained all the katatetori techniques for us alone (ikkyo, kotageshi, shihonage and irimi) while the others did their techniques (boah, the dan aspirants have to make many techniques in subury waza (on the knees)).

Then, quite cool, everybody had to perform a randori. All the dan aspirants had to defend 2 opponents. Daniel really pushed us to attack as fast as possible. Everybody was out of breath afterwards. This is sooo tough, I wasn't aware of that. The two 5. kyus had to do the randadori with only one opponent, whereas i was uke for julien. It's really exhausting! Mago and me had just to show all the katatetori techniques and we did it at the end and both at the same time.

Quick summary:
- kata ikkyo, no problem i think
- katate riote tori ikkyo and katate tori ikkyo as well
- katate tori kotageshi, no problem
- katate tori shihonage, some minor problems to remember how to begin for negative. Positive no problem
- katate tori irimi, I'm not yet confident with this technique. I think i'll have to focus on that one in the next trainings.

The training dured 2 hours, which is not usual as all trainings don't exceed 1,5 hours (normally). Then it was quite exhausting. I think that's why I feel a bit tired now. But anyway a good feeling, nevertheless I had to stand up that early today.

Yours,

Lemy

Saturdays Training - Shomen Uchi Ikkyo

Neither daniel nor ruedi were in the training today. Markus took the lead, supported by nathalie (yeah! that's the name of the women i forgot last time... ...hey I'm making progress too! ;-) and romolo. 6 students (me included) were on the tatami zone today.

No shinkokyu at the beginning but some stretching exercises. Followed by a couple of basic techniques step-by-step which I don't remember all of them.

Then we spent a long time training the adequate katas (ikkyo for the 5. kyu, ikkyo-nikkyo for the 4. kyu and ikkyo-nikkyo-sankyo for the 3. kyu). It was good since I've performed it with mago who (most probably) will be my uke at the tests.

I got a tough time today as my right shoulder hurts like hell in one specific position (when I arise my right arm, the pain flashes in). It begun already yesterday. No idea from what this comes.... ...I'll use some salve today and hope it gets better for tomorrows special training.

Yours,

Lemy

Wednesday Training - Ushiro riote tori

Daniel sensei took the lead today. Monika, me, mago, reinhard and etienne were participating.

They moved the picture of o-sensei to another wall in the dojo. We were still all a bit confused to sit on another direction... ...but i think we'll get used to it. Daniel explained that this should be the normal case in dojos, that the picutre of o-sensei is in front of the entry. So it seems we got a correct dojo now :)

Today we performed different techniques going out from Ushiro riote tori (attacker grabs both wrists from behind): Ikkyo (mainly for us beginners), nikkyo, sankyo and kotegaeshi.

I asked today danile for a list of the techniques to perform at the test. Answer was: "You can buy it for 18 bugs at the office of the dojo... (short break) ....but I think I'll just copy it for you for the first test, you can buy it afterwards.." Heh, seems I was not the only one with a strange look in the face when hearing that. I asked why they don't put it on the dojo's webpage, he meant that it was quite common in the past but (like here) that most dojos removed that. He didn't know why exactly...

For me to keep in mind, as I remember, it was (for my first test, 5th kyu):

• kata:
  
  • shomen uchi ikkyo


• techniques:
  
  • katate tori ikkyo
  
  
  • katate riote tori ikkyo
  
  
  • katate tori kotegaeshi
  
  
  • katate tori shihonage
  
  
  • katate tori iriminage
  
  

Of course all in omote (positive) and ura (negative) execution.

Yours,

Lemy

Tuesday Training Session - Shihonage

Long time no training. I was not in the training for about 2 weeks now. The first week i had problems with my back. One morning while standing up, there was a pain flashing in, which did not release the whole day. After speaking with my doctor, he asked me if I begun a new sports... ...hell yeah! I'm training aikido now! He meant that i begun using muscles in my back whereas it seems I never really used them before and that the pain comes from that. Good one! No one in the training knew of other people having such troubles with aikido. Seems I'm not sitting correctly at work as well. Need to focus on that now and do some extra exercises for my back in my spare time... ....I have to keep in mind that aikido is not only about the training sessions but can be used in daily life as well... ....but stop! hey, i'm still a beginner.. ..no need to hurry, right?

In the 2nd week I was not able to go to training because of some private and business issues. One day I had a lot of work to finish and the other I had other private intersting appointments... ...I think you get it! ;-)

So, I was quite excited to go back for training today.
Tuesday means beginners training. I was surprised: The girls I mentioned a post (or two?) before, are still participating. There were more women than men in the training today! Such a situation can confuse a bit if you're not used to it... :-D

Daniel took the lead today, supported by markus (still training for his 2nd dan), romolo and another dan women whoes name I already forgot again (damn!).

Quite cool, they came back from a stage with jiro kimura sensei from japan, who visited switzerland. In the first hand, I planned to visit this stage too but left this idea behind. I'm still not _that_ trained for such exercises in my opinion. I think there will be many other stages comming in the future which will make more sense for me :-) So, as I mentioned, they came back from this stage with many new ideas.

At the beginning around 15mins kotageshi. Daniel checked us white-belties if we stand correctly and if we focus on our centers (markus took the lead for this exercise and daniel was all the time in the rear). I had a bit the feeling, this was already a check for the test comming up (daniel once mentioned, that kotageshi _is_ part of the test but that we don't need to show this extra since he's checking this while normal trainings...). It was the first time (at least for me), that we did that _before_ shinkokyu.

The rest of the lession, we performed many differend shihonages. Both positive and negative, with only one hand, both hands. I'm still not able to remember all that bloody names... ...what's the name again for holding only one hand in ai-hanmi? (Maybe some of the readers can help me out ;-)

Daniel will not participate in the saturdays training session as he's in a seminar. Markus and Romolo will lead this training. But daniel will make a special training at sunday morning for all those making the test in november. I have to go... ...wheter i've slept enough or not... ...pray for me ;-)

At the end of the training, I was quite relaxed and very focused. The aikido training is beginning to be profitable for me it seems... :)

Yours,

Lemy