Image courtesy of Martial Artist
This month sensei, NTC and myself agreed that we should set aside extra time apart from regular training to fine tune whatever we have been training. We have been talking about it for a long time now and it is great that it has finally come to pass.
We started our first session yesterday evening. We just did alot of repetitions on kihonwaza, taking care on our footwork. Most of the time we focus on the upper body and neglect the lower, resulting in a somewhat less dynamic movement because of our small/weak tenkan etc. It was tiring and more tiring for sensei and NTC because they started 40 minutes earlier.
During training we would give feedback to one another on how we felt about the techniques that are being performed and what needs to be improved. Then sensei asked us if there was anything in particular that we wanted to train and I suggested, "how about koshinage?". Immediately I got a look of dread from my senpai. Ahhh, the much dreaded and avoided technique. To be honest there is no helping it. As part of a group of aikidokas that is interested in sharing and training with others, I personally feel that aikido training is also about overcoming your fears.
I find that most either fear or find aikido difficult because they fear falling. No one like to fall and certainly be made to fall or kiss the ground. It is part of our ego. As one of our visiting sensei once told us, we practice ukemi to crush our ego, and build it up again (with paraphrase). One is afraid that he may not take the fall safely or injure himself here or there in the process. My fear is doing koshinage.
I don't want to do the nage/flip because it seems so strenous on the body. Plus I have an old lower back injury and I would still like to walk on my feet for as long as I can. But iIam among friends and ones who value safety in training. Since there are only the 3 of us why not? I am sure we can practice this safely. After training for 30 months it is about time.
In the end we simulated everything, short of executing the technique. As a compromise we decided to train our nage. We tried using the training method that judokas used, where one kneel on all fours and the partner attempted to do the nage by holding on to the flaps of the dogi on the kneeling partner. I had so many thoughts running through my head before I moved and it proved to be a big big mistake. I had to learn how trust my sensei, my partner and myself. so in the end, I said to myself if I need to face my fears and just do it. the first few times I landed incorrectly and there was some pain on my upper back and my shoulder but I continued with it. NTC also did the same and we started building up confidence along the way.
When sensei saw that I had got the hang of it he asked to changed the method of training to be the uke for kotegaeshi. Both the uke and nage are stationary with the nage holding the uke's wrist in the reversed manner. We chanted one, two, and on three nage tenkan and I went "foooooooo...pak!" Sometimes it is ok and sometimes I would bang my toes. Ouch. But on the final round, I did the nage where sensei and NTC said, "That was good. That was good."
I was delighted. I decided to stop there to savour the moment and give my body a rest. Learning the nage was not jsut for myself, but I wanted my partner to have the benefit of having a wider repertoire during training.
Well, I am very happy with the training and there is a long way to go. I can't believe I pulled it off and I am thankful to sensei and NTC for their guidance and assistance.
The rain makes me feel like taking a long nap.
We started our first session yesterday evening. We just did alot of repetitions on kihonwaza, taking care on our footwork. Most of the time we focus on the upper body and neglect the lower, resulting in a somewhat less dynamic movement because of our small/weak tenkan etc. It was tiring and more tiring for sensei and NTC because they started 40 minutes earlier.
During training we would give feedback to one another on how we felt about the techniques that are being performed and what needs to be improved. Then sensei asked us if there was anything in particular that we wanted to train and I suggested, "how about koshinage?". Immediately I got a look of dread from my senpai. Ahhh, the much dreaded and avoided technique. To be honest there is no helping it. As part of a group of aikidokas that is interested in sharing and training with others, I personally feel that aikido training is also about overcoming your fears.
I find that most either fear or find aikido difficult because they fear falling. No one like to fall and certainly be made to fall or kiss the ground. It is part of our ego. As one of our visiting sensei once told us, we practice ukemi to crush our ego, and build it up again (with paraphrase). One is afraid that he may not take the fall safely or injure himself here or there in the process. My fear is doing koshinage.
I don't want to do the nage/flip because it seems so strenous on the body. Plus I have an old lower back injury and I would still like to walk on my feet for as long as I can. But iIam among friends and ones who value safety in training. Since there are only the 3 of us why not? I am sure we can practice this safely. After training for 30 months it is about time.
In the end we simulated everything, short of executing the technique. As a compromise we decided to train our nage. We tried using the training method that judokas used, where one kneel on all fours and the partner attempted to do the nage by holding on to the flaps of the dogi on the kneeling partner. I had so many thoughts running through my head before I moved and it proved to be a big big mistake. I had to learn how trust my sensei, my partner and myself. so in the end, I said to myself if I need to face my fears and just do it. the first few times I landed incorrectly and there was some pain on my upper back and my shoulder but I continued with it. NTC also did the same and we started building up confidence along the way.
When sensei saw that I had got the hang of it he asked to changed the method of training to be the uke for kotegaeshi. Both the uke and nage are stationary with the nage holding the uke's wrist in the reversed manner. We chanted one, two, and on three nage tenkan and I went "foooooooo...pak!" Sometimes it is ok and sometimes I would bang my toes. Ouch. But on the final round, I did the nage where sensei and NTC said, "That was good. That was good."
I was delighted. I decided to stop there to savour the moment and give my body a rest. Learning the nage was not jsut for myself, but I wanted my partner to have the benefit of having a wider repertoire during training.
Well, I am very happy with the training and there is a long way to go. I can't believe I pulled it off and I am thankful to sensei and NTC for their guidance and assistance.
The rain makes me feel like taking a long nap.
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