kokyunage anyone?

Sensei was noticibly absent tonight, so Charley and Scott B. taught class.

First class-- Charley Sensei.

Morotetori kokyunage (omote & ura)
W/Klara. Swing up while stepping behind uke then swing down while turning your hips toward uke. For some reason I love this one. It seems so graceful. :)
Ura was basically the same only slide in, pivot to face the same direction as uke, tenkan and cut down then sane as omote.
Not much to note except Sensei caught me not swinging up. (UP IS UP!) This also had the not-so-nice effect of nearly elbowing my uke in the face. OOPS.

katatetori kokyunage (omote & ura)
W/David. Swing up, step through while cutting down--sending uke into a forward roll.
Ura-- slide in while swinging up, pivot and cut down like omote.
Davids a lot bigger than I am (which is a rarity-- I'm pretty tall.) and he's just a big guy in general. I love practicing techniques like that with big guys, becuase I really have to get it right-- there's no muscling my way through it.

katatetori ai hanmi kotegaeshi
W/Billy. (new guy who practiced aikido about 7 years ago in another tradition, so he's almost a newbie but not quite) Not much to note-- lots of akwardness on both sides. I still have a hard time helping people when even I don't feel comfortable with my own technique.

Tsuki (to the face, not our usual mune tsuki-- the punch to the chest)
W/Scott B.
Sensei didn't know the name of the technique, but nage slides off the line to the outside of the punch, grabs uke's wrist while the other hand slips over uke's elbow and grabs their own wrist then pivots towards uke while dropping their weight. Was a bit like a shihonage grab- very strange, but fun!

Charley called a quick break and then Scott took over for second class.


Second class--Scott B. Sensei

katatetori ai hanmi//

Shihonage (omote & ura)
W/New guy--about 2 weeks of classes. I tried to remember what people always tell me about shihonage. There's so much to remember-- don't swing down before you swing up. (Sensei caught me doing that tonight...grrr. :)) Swing UP! Keep uke's hand in front of you while pivoting. Bend your knees-- extend uke! Touch their pinkie to their shoulder. Don't slide in too far....So while I'm trying to keep all that in mind, I'm also trying to help my partner. ("kick your leg back in omote!" hehe)
I honestly think I could spend 10 years working on shihonage and still never get it.

Iriminage
W/Joshua. He's still pretty stiff. That combined with my utter inability to consistently do irminage correctly made it very difficult. Sensei had to tell me again-- "up is up!" (I'll hear those wordes in my sleep tonight)
I've got a love/hate relationship with iriminage, and tonight I was experiencing more hate than love. O_o

Ikkyoish kokyunage (omote & ura)
W/RD. Omote was fine, but I kept collapsing my arm in ura after sliding in. RD is another big guy, and it took me a while to figure out that I was trying to grab too soon.

Sensei called me up as uke for the next kokyunage. (eek! I'm still not used to that.)
It was the extend the arm out while using the other arm as a jack under uke's arm and slide forward bit (I wish they'd name all this stuff). I took about ten foward rolls from Sensei. (whew!) Paired up with Bob-- an older gentleman, fifth kyu I believe. He threw me 4 more times, and by then I was worn out O_o. I don't know how Ron does it-- he's a favorite demo uke for Sensei. I was out of breath by the time it was my turn as nage. The last few times I've been called up as uke, it's been kokyunage throws. I'm starting to think I should fall on my back a few times so they'll stop using me to demo kokyunages (it always wears me out.. O_o). I'll give myself credit by saying that I may not be good at anything else, but I can take some pretty impressive rolls. :)

After that Sensei demonstrated a seated throwing exercise. Uke runs up to grab nage's wrist from the side and nage swings down and across sending uke flying into a side roll. He told us to keep it moving continuously in sets of ten. I paired up with Charley who didn't let go of me on several occasions, forcing me to take some psuedo breakfalls. Surprisingly, I didn't kill myself. Huzzah. We were probably the highest energy pair on the mat. He even pulled my feet out from under me on a few occasions. I was wiped out after that.

Good workout class tonight. I'm beat. I'm glad I had the energy for tonight's class, because it was fun!

Scott asked me if I'd be going to the dojo party he's hosting Sunday. I asked him whether any vegetarian dishes would be appreciated. Found out Bob Sensei is a vegetarian. Yay, I'm not the only veggie in the dojo. :)