Saturday class...

Or "Maybe I should have stayed in bed" O_o

Someone requested suwari waza (kneeling techniques) Saturday morning, and I think if my dojomates find out who it was, there might be a riot. Thank goodness class is an hour each on the weekends :)

Charly Sensei taught.

Shomenuchi iriminage (*groans* it's always iriminage in the morning..heh)
W/Paul. Who I've decided is a blast to train with after several months of indecision. He unnerved me a little in the beginning, but I've discovered he's got a quiet and goofy sense of humor that makes training interesting.
He kept speeding up, slowing down. Sometimes he'd whip me around like a ragdoll, other times he'd just drop me immediately. heh He laughed at the look on my face after a particularly startling execution of the technique and said "iriminage can be done many ways, and they all feel different"
Part of what I enjoy about training with him is that while he rarely gives me verbal instruction, he makes exagerated movements in order to help me get the feeling. I'm not a very verbal student. I think it makes more sense when I feel it and see it. Verbal instruction only really helps when it's reinforcing something I've already captured physically.

Suwari waza shomenuchi iriminage
W/The Russians. (I don't know their names yet-- they practice mainly on the weekends) While this was less tiring as uke, it was very difficult as nage. (and anyone who's done any suwari waza already knows it's killer on the knees.. O_o)
Charly Sensei said to try not to take huge "steps", but rather slide forward without raising up too much. I found the swing up difficult because uke is already down pretty far on the tenkan. It helped that one of my partners was making the effort to get back up though. He helped me with the swing up and also the pin.

Hanmi handachi shomenuchi iriminage
W/one of the russians. My timing was terrible here. Hanmi handachi means that uke is standing and nage is kneeling. On the shomen strike, nage has to swing up and then cut uke down while simultaneously moving in behind uke to tenkan. It's tricky because nage has to keep uke in front of him and maintain control. It's tempting to tenkan too soon, leaving uke behind. (at least from my perspective-- I got no Sensei intervention the entire class... O_o)

Shomenuchi ikkyo/suwari waza shomenuchi ikkyo (omote & ura)
W/ Scott B. Apparently my genetics kicked in again, and I found myself trying to enter directly into the attack instead of at an angle. Not much to note here except it was nice to switch back and forth between standing and kneeling. (my knees were really starting to kill me)

Suwari waza shomenuchi kotegaeshi
W/4th kyu. Major difficulty here was getting proper maai (distance) between nage and uke. The turnover proved difficult too.

Hanmi handachi shomenuchi shihonage
W/Scott H. This was fun. :) I don't think I've ever done shihonage from shomenuchi-- even standing. Usually we practice from yokomenuchi. It took me a while to figure out why I kept wanting to tenshin. ^_^
The shihonage pin was interesting. Scott tried to pin me to the mat then shook his head and said "I can't pin you with this technique-- you're too flexible"
I must have given him a look of disbelief, because he said "try to get up". Suprisingly, It was rather easy. It took a bit of an effort for him to pin me, and when he did get me pinned, he pointed out I could just hit him or kick him in the head. LOL
Of course, he did transition to another pin that DID work on me.
I also found out that he's just about as flexible. We worked on the pin almost the entire time before Charly Sensei called for kokyudosa.

Very fun class, though my knees decided to go on strike the rest of the day. Afterwards I told Charly I really enjoyed class, and I think my dojomates wanted to slap me. "Hey! I didn't say I wanted a repeat!" heheh