Testing day...
Thankfully, I was able to sit back and enjoy the class-- no test jitters for me :)
Some of my dojomates were a nervous wreck.
Bob Sensei taught. Quick warmup-- rowing, tenkan exercises and the like.
He pulled techniques from across the board as far as testing criteria goes.
Ryotetori tenchinage (omote & ura)
Started to bow to a girl prepping for 6th kyu, but two yudansha split us up.
Practiced with an instructor from the dojo in Denton. Started out with a nice backstretch. Ahhhhh :) I am starting to know my left from right, which is a huge plus in aikido, I've discovered. Also, I sort of learned ura! My partner really made me focus on keeping my hands in front of my center. He was making exagerated movements to illustrate how I was supposed to be extending uke and getting them off balance. Somehow this really helped me out.
Shomenuchi shihonage (omote & ura)
W/5th kyu girl. As uke strikes nage blocks with forward hand and then slides back (tenshin?) bringing the back hand underneath to get uke in place for shihonage.
Why on why can't I learn to bend my knees?? :) I tried really hard to focus on keeping uke's arm in line with mine and extending further out on the pivot, but I'm afraid I kept slipping into what I call slacker shihonage. Ahh well, one of these days :) I do seem to do this better in ura than omote. We had a little problem with the opening-- Sensei demonstrated it on me a few times for my partner, and we did a wee bit better.
Shomenuchi kotegaeshi (ura)
W/a guy I've practiced with on a few occasions on the weekends. We had fun :)
Sensei emphasized that nage should not rush to find kotegaeshi until after the tenkan. My partner told me to try and keep my hands in front of my belt on the tenkan... grr... another thing I always have a hard time with *grins sheepishly*
I always leave uke behind. Also, he told me to stop hesitating-- after the tenkan immediately turn my hips back and apply kotegaeshi, emphasizing a large swing up/arching motion. He seemed to project out farther than some, I noticed.
He was also very surprised at how I was almost completely unaffected by the pin. LOL
He kept saying "does that hurt?"
"No, feels good to me" *grins* he seemed rather amused that I was just grinning when he stepped up the pace a little bit. "you're not supposed to ENJOY nikkyo" he said.
Ahh well :)
When I was nage he told me I was being too nice. He said I was appologizing everytime I got it right. LOL
Suwari waza shomenuchi ikkyo (omote & ura)
W/Mike, who was testing for 3rd kyu today. He was pretty tired at that point, so we went at a leisurely pace, much to Sensei's chagrin, I imagine. I'm glad too that I'm not the only one who leaves their feet being in suwari waza.
Afterwards we did kokyudosa together--rather amusing because at this point he was pretty wiped out. When I threw him a few times he just laid there copping a quick rest. Sensei happened to walk by and cast a dubious look at him while correcting my throw. (keep your hands in front of you! hehe)
Mark said "Sensei always walks by when I do something stupid" hehe I told him it was the infamous Sensei Curse. O_o I also told him that next time, he should say he was testing his partner's ki projection. Hey, it sounds good in theory :)
Hopefully I helped him think about something other than his test nerves. He was at least laughing when we were done.
Didn't get to stay to watch testing as I had to go straight to work. Maybe we'll have another impromptu test over the next week or so like last time. I'd like to see testing again so I'll know what to expect when I test in the next 3-4 months.
On a sidenote-- I was really bored about 30 minutes to close tonight, so when nooone was looking I found a feather duster and was practicing one of the 8 directional bokken katas. Hehe feather duster kata! A customer walked in when I had my back turned and started laughing. I must have made a pretty silly sight in my orange apron, pigtails and feather duster. Kiai!!!
I'm so glad I don't take myself too seriously :)
Liz
Some of my dojomates were a nervous wreck.
Bob Sensei taught. Quick warmup-- rowing, tenkan exercises and the like.
He pulled techniques from across the board as far as testing criteria goes.
Ryotetori tenchinage (omote & ura)
Started to bow to a girl prepping for 6th kyu, but two yudansha split us up.
Practiced with an instructor from the dojo in Denton. Started out with a nice backstretch. Ahhhhh :) I am starting to know my left from right, which is a huge plus in aikido, I've discovered. Also, I sort of learned ura! My partner really made me focus on keeping my hands in front of my center. He was making exagerated movements to illustrate how I was supposed to be extending uke and getting them off balance. Somehow this really helped me out.
Shomenuchi shihonage (omote & ura)
W/5th kyu girl. As uke strikes nage blocks with forward hand and then slides back (tenshin?) bringing the back hand underneath to get uke in place for shihonage.
Why on why can't I learn to bend my knees?? :) I tried really hard to focus on keeping uke's arm in line with mine and extending further out on the pivot, but I'm afraid I kept slipping into what I call slacker shihonage. Ahh well, one of these days :) I do seem to do this better in ura than omote. We had a little problem with the opening-- Sensei demonstrated it on me a few times for my partner, and we did a wee bit better.
Shomenuchi kotegaeshi (ura)
W/a guy I've practiced with on a few occasions on the weekends. We had fun :)
Sensei emphasized that nage should not rush to find kotegaeshi until after the tenkan. My partner told me to try and keep my hands in front of my belt on the tenkan... grr... another thing I always have a hard time with *grins sheepishly*
I always leave uke behind. Also, he told me to stop hesitating-- after the tenkan immediately turn my hips back and apply kotegaeshi, emphasizing a large swing up/arching motion. He seemed to project out farther than some, I noticed.
He was also very surprised at how I was almost completely unaffected by the pin. LOL
He kept saying "does that hurt?"
"No, feels good to me" *grins* he seemed rather amused that I was just grinning when he stepped up the pace a little bit. "you're not supposed to ENJOY nikkyo" he said.
Ahh well :)
When I was nage he told me I was being too nice. He said I was appologizing everytime I got it right. LOL
Suwari waza shomenuchi ikkyo (omote & ura)
W/Mike, who was testing for 3rd kyu today. He was pretty tired at that point, so we went at a leisurely pace, much to Sensei's chagrin, I imagine. I'm glad too that I'm not the only one who leaves their feet being in suwari waza.
Afterwards we did kokyudosa together--rather amusing because at this point he was pretty wiped out. When I threw him a few times he just laid there copping a quick rest. Sensei happened to walk by and cast a dubious look at him while correcting my throw. (keep your hands in front of you! hehe)
Mark said "Sensei always walks by when I do something stupid" hehe I told him it was the infamous Sensei Curse. O_o I also told him that next time, he should say he was testing his partner's ki projection. Hey, it sounds good in theory :)
Hopefully I helped him think about something other than his test nerves. He was at least laughing when we were done.
Didn't get to stay to watch testing as I had to go straight to work. Maybe we'll have another impromptu test over the next week or so like last time. I'd like to see testing again so I'll know what to expect when I test in the next 3-4 months.
On a sidenote-- I was really bored about 30 minutes to close tonight, so when nooone was looking I found a feather duster and was practicing one of the 8 directional bokken katas. Hehe feather duster kata! A customer walked in when I had my back turned and started laughing. I must have made a pretty silly sight in my orange apron, pigtails and feather duster. Kiai!!!
I'm so glad I don't take myself too seriously :)
Liz
posted by Liz at 5/15/2005 09:02:00 PM
5 Comments:
ROFL -- steve caught me too, but he didn't have the digicam handy. *whews* he's already got one piece of blackmail-- think green hornet.
Heheh
I don't know how you learned all those names. I still have trouble.
It was most likely all that Dynasty Warriors practice.
"Look out, it's Zun Hu! No, not Zun Yu, Zun Hu! They're completely different people!"
~S
hehehe.... yes, we have indeed spent many an hour playing dynasty and samurai warriors.
hmmm.. I wonder if sensei would count that towards testing? *grins*
It's a nice thought anyway.
:)
Language is something I tend to pick up on relatively quickly.
I think it runs in the family-- my brother is in the military, and they almost put him in linguistics. He had other ideas. He just wanted to blow stuff up.
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