Take it easy

There are ups and downs in life and right now it is down down down. Maybe I am just being pessimistic because things are not going my way. Being selfish as usual instead of seeing things as they are. Many a times you just have no control over anything because of the timing, persons involved, karma..etc etc etc.

But hey there is light at the end of the tunnel because this weekend I will be travelling somewhere to attend one of my favourite events! I haven't been training as often as I should but I am determined to have a jolly good time!

 In the meantime I will learn from this baby and relax...

Have a good weekend all!

Something interesting today

It has been a rather eventful week before and it looks as if this week will be more "eventful". Training goes on as usual. C took the class tonight and just before class started he was sharing with me something he learnt about executing a yokomenuchi attack. He asked me to execute a yokomenuchi. As I move forward with my tegatana C proceeded to raise his arm straight at me with a fist. I was taken aback and could not finish my attack as I was contrained to block the punch. Hmmmm. So C explained to me why there would be no point in him receive my yokomenuchi. It is the same for katatedori and morotedori. I was in his direct line of attack. That was a good reminder. We explored on this a little bit more after class and N pitched in and we discussed about whether it would make a difference if we it was static compared to irimi-tenkan. It was a good discussion and I realized that we seemed to be doing it abit more after we became yudansha. Truly, this is where we begin to learn about aikido.

Taking C's class is always interesting. He makes the effort to put some life into training (otherwise it is usually very serious and...well serious). I am not saying that he plays around during training but its a different perspective. We paired up for our ukemi and kaiten ukemi practice (which is usually done solo) and that gives us a feel of taking ukemi with a partner. Doing ukemi on your own is good but I feel that at some stage you will need to "feel" the taking of ukemi. 

We first trained generally with our kyu partners on shomenuchi dai nikkyo. J was a little stiff which makes him more prone to kuzushi than others. I am probably not articulating this properly but i hope you get what I mean. As for S, he was abit tense which made it difficult for him to taken ukemi in urawaza. He seemed to be in great fear of the arm lock as it would end up being very very stiff. I would ask him to relax him arm and let fall as if it was asleep. I never imagined me telling others to relax because I used to get that alot from most senseis. Hahaha.

We did some techniques with dual attacks. Firstly katatedori with shomenuchi and secondly katadori with shomenuchi. Moving from dealing with just one attack to two made me a little unsure and haphazard. It is new to me so I have to make sure we practice practice and practice. As I practice I realized that I can now better relate to blending and kuzushi. The need to recover your balance is indeed very important (it is an interactive endeavour after all). Sometimes I wonder at what point is it that you submit to the technique? Do you keep coming back up until there is absolutely no way to or do you discern for yourself whether it is practical for you to do so?

Maybe we will discuss that at our next training session. 

It was a good tiring session and I am off to bed once I get some nom nom to satisfy my wailing stomach. Good night!

Please don't fall!

Sensei is back in action! With his knee heavily wrapped and guarded he went on the mat to conduct the class. I was abit worried at first but after seeing his first few moves I realized that I was overly concerned and he knew his physical level more than I do!

The kyu students practiced on shomenuchi kotegaeshi while N, C and I worked on some other techniques. We started with ushiro kubishime dai sankyo. One of the things we were asked to take note is to be aware of the space that we occupy during training. Although we are blessed with rather generous mat space (not due to the size of the dojo but the number of students hehehe) that does not mean that we can move wherever we want. It is part of dojo etiquette to be considerate of our fellows' space so that we can train safely. Into the second set of the technique I felt that something was wrong. It did not have that many movements... Ah. I did not pay attention to maai when I came out of the grip hence I could not continue with hanmi tenkan when applying sankyo. Check.

Next technique was hanmi handachi ushiro ryokatadori dai yonkyo. I felt very strange in my movements considering the fact that the uke is now so much taller than me. I had a lot of trouble executing kuzushi on the uke and many a times find myself stuck in a position, feeling very vulnerable. Sensei had us continue our training in tate and explained the mechanics to us and pointing out the differences when doing the same technique in hanmi handachi. All I can say is I suck in execution of of tachiwaza too!

Whilst waiting for my turn to train with my group (we were training in 3's) I noticed one student in the kyu group looking at our training and mimicking our movements. He is a newcomer and appeared to be quite an enthusiastic student considering the fact that he lives in Tutong (40 minutes from dojo) and chose not to join another dojo situated in Tutong. I checked on him a few more times and noticed that he pays more attention to our training than his own. This is another topic of discussion in training which I may go into later. After all this is the first time I see him doing this so I will just observe a few more times before I make any comments.

Sensei shouted "Yame!" and we all lined up. Instead of ending the class he called the kyu students to come forward for a mock examination. You can see nervousness manifesting visibly in their performance which would have been otherwise quite relaxed. Many things were forgotten and movements became more abrupt and mechanical. After the mock test sensei decided that he will also have a go with the yudansha. When C was asked to call his uke, I heard my name and my first reaction was "uh-oh...will I be able to stand up?" Moving forward in shikko had never felt so difficult and when the first technique called is shomenuchi iriminage, I can only hope that my legs will move the way I want them to. Sensei decided to see iriminage executed with different attacks. Ah. I am done for. Somehow I managed to blend in with C and didn't collaspe halfway like a ton of bricks. I was tested as well. It was the exam jitters for all of us!

Sensei gave his comments on our performance in the mock exams and also reiterated the etiquette aspect in the dojo. Before class ended I requested to make a couple of announcements. One of which is concerning sensei's resignation as a member of the technical committee. In my capacity as the Secretary General and on behalf of the federation expressed regret over the resignation followed by a formal speech.

On a personal note I am very sad that sensei has resigned. I took note of his reasons and I think that I would never be able to relate to his situation unless I am in it myself. We all know that his post is not easy. Even for myself I discover new challenges at every turn of my job in the committee. Sensei was one of the pioneer members in Brunei aikido even before the federation was formed. He worked very hard and dedicated much of his time in aikido. He will be sorely missed and I hope that he will continue his post as an instructor as he is currently the only active instructor and the highest ranking aikido practitioner in the country.

Well, the training goes on!