Another breakthrough of sorts at the dojo last night. We were doing techniques from Tai no Henko. We did shiho nage, a couple different kokyu nage throws, and some throws whose memory was beaten out of me last night, including some koshi nages which all led to break falls.
On the one hand, my break falls were all nice and light. On the other, as nage, my throws were all pretty good until I got to David, who is about 75 pounds heavier than me. He is also about nine inches taller. Between all that and my arthritis, I was happy that I did it as well as I did.
The real breakthrough was with the Tai no Henko. Our first kyu sensei and I were working together. He was hounding me to relax. I was doing Tai no Henko the way I thought is was supposed to be done. I was using my ki as I would doing the "unbendable arm" trick. He kept telling me again and again to relax. Finally, I sighed in exasperation, completely relaxed and did the technique then really settled down at the end. He let out this "Ah!" as he tried to keep connected with my wrist. "That felt totally different," he said. I will do it this way from now on.
This is just one more breakthrough in my Aikido. I've been astonished at how I've improved since the start of the summer. I am moving so much more effectively these days. My throws are, from my perspective, quite gentle, yet my ukes go flying. I'm afraid to think of what would happen if I used as much energy as some of the other people at the dojo. Changes are if I did, I might just mess everything up. Moving at this speed and this level of energy seems to work for me. I don't see the need to crank it up right now. Why mess with what's working for me?
On the one hand, my break falls were all nice and light. On the other, as nage, my throws were all pretty good until I got to David, who is about 75 pounds heavier than me. He is also about nine inches taller. Between all that and my arthritis, I was happy that I did it as well as I did.
The real breakthrough was with the Tai no Henko. Our first kyu sensei and I were working together. He was hounding me to relax. I was doing Tai no Henko the way I thought is was supposed to be done. I was using my ki as I would doing the "unbendable arm" trick. He kept telling me again and again to relax. Finally, I sighed in exasperation, completely relaxed and did the technique then really settled down at the end. He let out this "Ah!" as he tried to keep connected with my wrist. "That felt totally different," he said. I will do it this way from now on.
This is just one more breakthrough in my Aikido. I've been astonished at how I've improved since the start of the summer. I am moving so much more effectively these days. My throws are, from my perspective, quite gentle, yet my ukes go flying. I'm afraid to think of what would happen if I used as much energy as some of the other people at the dojo. Changes are if I did, I might just mess everything up. Moving at this speed and this level of energy seems to work for me. I don't see the need to crank it up right now. Why mess with what's working for me?
No comments:
Post a Comment