Aikido 2

I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy the class since it was only an hour long, but the structure of the class is that you are to be ready to go when the clocks strikes 8. The Sensei gave us about 5 or so minutes to warm up, but it was enough as he structured the class around non-intense movement in the beginning to get the blood flowing.

After each movement we would sit while he demoed the next part. In this class the exercise was always following by the same thing except performed on the knees. Walking on the knees is call shikko (which I immediately dubbed "sicko), but I think everything combat related on the knees is called suwari (not sure I heard that correctly). By the half hour mark was groaning from the activity. Worried that my tender knees would really be acting up I would occasionally stop to stretch them behind me. It really didn't work, but my partners never indicated that it was a problem.

One of my favorites was an updown. When the person comes in for a double handed grab to the gi (to the shoulders for instance) the nage steps to side, one hand pushes an elbow and the other hand pushes the other elbow down. The Uke bends over and, boom, the Uke gives a slight shove forward and the Uke rolls out. We can definitely use this in TSD. Even though it's predicated on a grab, the grab didn't actually need to occur. Sweet.

At one point we were doing a shihonage. This is a wrist twist that we use in my class so I was somewhat comfortable and didn't think much about that portion since i was trying to learn the footwork and everything else. My partner for the exercise thunked down and said, "apparently you go to a different syle school" with a big smile on his face. I'm not sure what I did differently, but I'm betting he wasn't used to his partner putting that much energy in the wrist lock. This class doesn't put an emphais on that - as far as I could tell.

This class was a great deal more populated. I think around 12 folks all together.

This class was also very quiet. Questions aren't forbidden, but it's either frowned on or something along those lines. I will say that questions weren't really required becuase the instructor was impressive in being everywhere at once and correcting what needed to be worked on. It was still a tough change from our class where it's questions and answers all the time.