Getting Closer

My test is March 20; one month away. I've been told by sensei that I need to smooth everything out and move with more circular motions. My feet still hurt, so sitting seiza - and especially kneeling in kiza for suwari waza - is painful. There are many suwari waza techniques on my test.


I am very nervous. I am at the point where I do not know if I will even pass my test. When one of our members took his 2nd kyu test, he honestly did not do his techniques particularly well. At the end of his test, our chief instructor explained that sometimes testing gets a student up to a rank which then allows that student to work up to his new rank. I do not believe he was making excuses for the student's rank promotion: I believe the student was deserving of promotion. His dedication and hard work were above reproach. I think that perhaps his promotion was a recognition of that dedication and hard work. It is not my place to say who is deserving and who is not. I am only hoping that my techniques are proficient enough that it is clear to everyone at the test that I am working at a 3rd kyu level. I don't want there to be any questions about whether I deserve it or not.

I am nervous. Very nervous. I would also feel just utterly defeated if I were not to pass my test.

On a bright side, I have been chosen for "Meet a Dojo Member" on our web site. Our instructor asked all the dojo members to answer three questions: When and how did you start Aikido? What made you stay? What do you like about Aikido? I remember answering the questions last summer, then nothing. First there was one student listed, then another. Each one was listed for three or four months. Now it's my turn. There is a great photo of me doing kaitenage in suwari waza. Ironic, isn't it? I have one hell of a time doing suwari waza, and here's this admittedly great photo of me in suwari waza.

Suwari Waza

My feet hurt. I can't count how many times I've bashed my big toes against hard objects. So many times, it seems, that I can't bend my toes backwards much at all. There are numerous suwari waza and hanmi handachi techniques on my test. I'm having a hard time lowering myself down onto my feet before I start my techniques.

This bites.

Snow Day

Southeastern Wisconsin - Forecasts call for 10 to 14 inches of snow over the next 24 hours in Southeastern Wisconsin, from the state line up to Milwaukee. Most school districts have canceled school for the day.
My dojo has also canceled tonight's class.

Five weeks until my 3rd Kyu test. I have a fleeting knowledge of all the test techniques, but do not yet feel solid with too many of them. I am not sure if I am supposed to feel all that solid on these techniques, or, if I correctly remember my education psychology classes, the act of testing will solidify them in my brain.

I look at the list of required techniques, and with the exception of the suwari-waza katatetori kaitennage uchi and soto styles, they all feel pretty darn good. This much is a relief.
After a twenty-odd year layoff from practicing Aikido, many of the "additional MAF ttechniques" are hazy.

• Jujinage (3 ways). I feel good about doing an ushiro jujinage. I can do two more from yokomenuchi and shomenuchi, I suppose.
• Ushiro ryokatatori (3 ways) I got nothing except what I can make up - so not real techniques
• Yokamenuchi (3 ways, not shihonage) Ikkyo, Nikkyo, Sankyo - got 'em
  
• Ryokatatori (3 ways) I've got the low and high posts down with iriminage. Don't have a third yet.
• Shomenuchi yonko (omote and ura) - know it, but very rusty, hard to get my hand to hit the nerve
  
• Ushiro ryotetori (tekubitori, 3 ways) - sankyo, jujinage and shihonage
• Suwari waza shomenuchi ikkyo, nikkyo, yonkyo - bad feet and arthritic hips make these very tough
• Hanmi-Handachi ryotetori shihonage - Okay. Omote stay down, ura stand up. I think I have it.
  

The worst is that I only feel solid on a few techniques, so for all of these listed above, I feel like I'm just repeating the same techniques again and again from different attacks. I hope that is going to be acceptable.

Five weeks. That's all.

Bruised, Not Broken

I did something I normally don't do: Went to the dojo on a Saturday. It's not that I don't like the dojo - I love it. I love playing Aikido. It's just that Saturday's are family time. We go grocery shopping and run other errands that can't be done on the weekdays. It is no coincidence that my wife does not drive, so everything has to wait until the weekend. We also go out to breakfast on Saturday morning. There's this little place near our house where they know us and treat us like family. If the credit card machine is down, they say, "Don't worry about it. Pay us when you come next time."

I left home a bit after 9:00 and arrived before 9:15. I saw our regular instructor's car there. Alone. I parked, went in, and saw that he had moved the tables and was just starting to put down the mats. We finished putting down the 21 mats together, then came the task of putting them together using the velcro tabs. The mats are home made, and I guess there was some debate when they were first made, so they don't fit together particularly well.

Our chief instructor drove up from Chicago and taught yesterday's class. I think we had about 10 or so people on the mat. It was a really good class, except when I hurt myself. We were doing a kokyunage that ended with uke doing a forward roll. The white belt I was working with was having trouble getting the move down, but he had no shortage of strength. He is also about 6'4". I am 5'9". At one point he threw me. Just as my left hand touched the mat and I went into my forward roll, he did something to throw me off balance. I ended up being thrown sideways on to my back. I got up and went on with the rest of class. I guess it wasn't until we bowed out that I stopped moving long enough for my back to suddenly tighten up.

I've used both creams and those peel-off hot pads. I've feeling okay now, but I'm trying to move slowly so as not to aggravate anything. I hope I'm good enough to hit the mat on Tuesday. My 3rd kyu test is March 20, and I need all the extra mat time I can get. So far the worst part is that the arthritis in my hips and knees makes suwari-waza really painful, and difficult to get a good long step in to get behind uke like I need for my irimi-nage or (shudder) my kaitenage, uchi and soto styles, omote and ura. Five weeks to go. I am nervous.