Woops, I haven't been doing these for a little bit now. Let's get up to speed…

Monday, April 17th: Didn't work out, since my knee was still hurting.

Wednesday, April 19th: took it easy, served as Darcy's uke for a couple of demos. We worked on a nice combo — an advancing de-ashi-barai into o-soto-gari/o-soto-guruma. Very slick. Make sure you do the sweep first; if it works, great, and if it's not quite a success, you've got the space to move in for a very tight o-soto-[gari|guruma].

Tonight:

Present: Mike F, Jeff P, Marc, Alex, Herb, Me.

Did: Warm-up, moving uchikomis, then Mike did an impromptu self-defense seminar. Not a lot of sweat but an interesting lesson. Things to drill into the lower ranks: The first rule of self-defense is to get away without a fight.

Present: Mike, Marc, Herb, moi.

Did some randori — Mike pointed out that my sasae-tsurikomi-ashi would be much more effective if I came in deep, then pulled and blocked, rather than trying it at arms' length. Makes sense.

Did kata (as uke) with Herb. Things to remember:

• Don't let feet cross on ippon-seoi-nage breakfall. My knee's still hurting as I write this the morning after.
• Stiffen, keep legs together, and place back hand on belt (don't grab) for kata-guruma.
• On uchi-mata, don't rush it; let him pull, then go with it.

Present: Me, Herb, Mike F, Mark, Alex, Jeff P.

Mike did a brief lesson on ayumi-ashi (normal walking), tsugi-ashi ("kata style" walking), and tai-sabaki (body control). We did some moving uchikomi with these stepping patterns.

Mike took Mark and Alex off and did some ne-waza randori, while Herb, Jeff, and I worked on kata.

Things to remember:

• Ippon-seoi-nage: uke's arm should be in the crook of tori's elbow, not across the shoulder. This will reduce the threat of uke strangling tori.
• Kata-guruma: on the second step, tori's sleeve-side hand should be starting the arc.

I should sit down and watch the video again, straight through.

After kata, I went and did some groundwork with Mark and Alex. Note to self: give them this URL on Wednesday, and maybe they can start their own training diaries, if they want to.

Minor injury: I think I bruised my calf muscle. I remember banging it on someone's bony knee, but I think I must've done something more to it during randori. Getting better now (it's Tuesday morning as I write this), so I don't think it's all that serious.

Present: Herb, Jeff P, Mike, Lawrence, me.

We worked on nikyu (blue) and ikkyu (brown) throws. My blue-belt throws felt really good, even o-guruma, which I haven't done in a while. Even the brown-belt ones, some of which are a little unfamiliar (though not completely alien) felt good.

Points to remember:

• Remember the difference between sumi-gaeshi (kind of a behind-the-knee tomoe-nage) and yoko-guruma ("around the tree").
• Ura-nage: Be sure to lift the hips skyward during the kake portion of the continuum.
• Hane-makikomi: Don't wrap the elbow up with the lapel-side hand; instead, bring the hand up high and around, in the arc you want your body to make.
• O-soto-guruma is rather like a cross between o-soto-gari and o-guruma. It's not just "clip both legs"; it's got the high-kick and lifting elements of o-guruma.
• Yoko-gake: the feet should stick together all the way through. Kind of like a mis-timed de-ashi-barai, where uke's foot is planted before the sweep, and you just keep… on… sweeping. And fall to the side.

Good practice. That crashmat is a brilliant purchase, esp. for knocking the rust off of things like makikomi and yoko-gake.

Hey Darcy (and others),

Here's the first crack at the print ad for the Senior Nationals program. Let me know what you think.

Vertical (full size about 4" × 5")

Horizontal (full size about 10" × 2.5") [New!]

click images to see more detail

I've decided to try and maintain a training diary here, so that I can scribble down what goes on at the dojo. Hopefully it'll help me remember.

Tonight: Just me and Darcy. We worked on my kata for my ikkyu grading, whenever that's going to be. My kata felt very good tonight; everything fell into place, more or less.

Points to remember:

• On kata-guruma, the throw (ie, the drop) is to the side front corner, not straight to the side; the feet remain planted and both hands control the arm
• Uki-goshi is a full pivot — 180° (? clarify)
• On sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, after the block, bring the foot around to maintain balance
• Tsurikomi-goshi: take the collar grip at the initiation of hostilities, not on the second step
• Also on tsurikomi-goshi: there are five steps; three in the pivot just before kake
• Harai-goshi: on the third step, pivot with the leading foot (almost 180°), then bring the trailing foot in, pulse, then reap

We also went down the list for the throws, and I'm feeling fairly confident that I can do them, with varying degrees of expertise.

It was a small class — just me and Darcy — but it was a good class, too.