Young aikidoka

I recently had the privilege of inviting two of my own students to test for 5th and 4th kyu at my sensei's aikido club. I always enjoy the opportunity to see how the teenage students cope with the test conditions and it gives me an idea of how our little dojo is progressing. Both students are showing strength in the basics. They deliver such techniques as ikkyo and nikyo from katate tori with crispness and are well grounded. Their taisabaki is clean and strong. There are of course areas for improvement. As they perform more advanced techniques, especially from strikes, their under-confidence rattles their nerves and their posture suffers. They begin to move more from the shoulders and they lose their centre. This is to be expected and they still created the right shape for the technique. Overall, I am proud of their efforts and look forward to the next lesson I have with them. I have a clear direction to go in my teaching for the next little while.

Stepping stones in my training.

Two significant things have occurred in my budo training recently. The first moment happened at the end of an aikido training session. We had just bowed out for the night when my sensei walked over to me and said most casually "I think you should grade for your nidan at the end of the year."
Now, grades or rank have never been a driving force for why I train. I see rank as a side-effect of training. So I never ask to be tested and am always surprised when I am asked. I have been a shodan for four years and was happy with my lot. However, sensei has decided it is time I go for it. I am excited and honoured to have been asked.

The second occassion was a Tuesday night training session with the TSYR group. We were asked to bring our swords (not bokken) and wear our hakama. This is unusual for a Tuesday night as this training session is only an hour long, straight after an adult karate class. As most of the group are karateka they simply stay in their karate dogi and pick up a bokken. I travel across town from my aikido training so my hakama is always with me. Tuesday training is usually paired bokken kata. So to ask the group to bring their real swords and dress in hakama means we are to do something else. I do not have a sword so I just thought I would use my bokken as I have done before with live sword work. Upon arrival at the dojo I am told that two of the group have received their swords from overseas and the spare club one was now available for me to use until I get the money together for my own. So for the time-being I now have a sword to train with. As I have said before, it is nothing like using a bokken so I am quite excited.

The TSYR sensei is overseas at the moment at an instructors seminar so the study group is on its own for training. That is OK, it gives us an opportunity to practice the basics well.

My focus will be now on polishing up my aikido for the end of the year and at the same time remembering to clean and polish the sword I have in my possession.

Keeping on, keeping on.

It has been a while since my last post. I have still been training but haven't had time to sit at a computer and type. My basic knowledge of the first two paired sword kata is coming together in TSYR. Both sets have their challenges and principles I have yet to internalise. However, I can recall and perform all the kata at a rudimentary level now. The taijutsu is also feeling more natural and is more similar to aikido techniques but I am far from competent in any of those. I'm still eagerly awaiting more instruction in tanto work. We have not practised much of this but what I have experienced has been exciting. 

Of late we have been practising kneeling techniques from the Chuden scroll. Some of these are very old jujutsu techniques where both people kneel side by side rather than facing. Techniques are then executed from this position, with some wonderfully, surprising outcomes!

Aikido training continues as always and I am considering inviting my instructor from TSYR (who is also 7th dan Wado-Ryu karate) to come and demonstrate basic Wado strikes at our annual  aikido summer camp. We'll see how that goes.

Rolling and rolling and...

Just finished a Saturday training session. Often we finish with 30 breakfalls (rolls). I often train with sensei on these. However, as I reached my 30th roll today, he said "keep going". We get to 40 and I think my legs are going to give out, we keep going and get to 51. I am surprised but happy he pushed me today.

The internal strength exercises continue to haunt me and I will continue to practice them to get better. Today's training focused on the chuden level techniques most of them kneeling. Many were very similar to aikido.

I am thoroughly enjoying the training and the people I am training with.

Developing a budo body.

I've only been training in TSYR since February this year and I would like to take some time to describe how my body is changing due to this practice.
I have mentioned the internal strength exercises before. They are a series of exercises designed to strengthen and align the body to allow power to be generated through technique. They are hard to perform correctly and I'm making slight progress. However, the benefits are apparent already. I have always had loose flexible joints, to the detriment of my posture. These exercises are developing the muscles across my back especially the trapezius muscles, latissimus dorsi and deltoids. This has the effect of pulling the shoulders back and down and bringing my arms into correct alignment with my spine. The legs muscles are also getting 'tweeked'. While doing a squat type of movement we try and concentrate on tightening the hamstrings rather that tensing the quads to stand up. This causes the hamstrings and gluts to work harder but lifts the body straight up through the spine.
An application of these exercises is to teach the practitioner how to channel incoming force down through your own body and into the ground. Lots of neurological changes going on here. The body needs to 're-wire' muscle groups in order to coordinate the posture. I have a long way to go before I can say I can do these exercises with confidence. However, I am continually progressing and even the mother of my children has noticed a thickening of the muscles through my back. That has to be a good thing right?

Just to touch on the training.
We practised kneeling techniques on Saturday. Techniques from single and double hand holds as well as double grab to the front of the gi. I have slightly modified my bokken as TSYR swords have a longer handle than modern sword arts so I needed to place the tsuba (guard) further up the bokken. It will do for now until I can purchase a TSYR bokken.

The art of falling.

Saturday training at the TSYR dojo consisted of sword disarming techniques, then a whole lot of taijutsu. Here is where I feel the classical budo overlaps with modern aikido a wee bit. The techniques were against a wrist grab and I saw a variant of ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, kote gaeshi and a kokyu nage sort of throw. However, imagine these techniques on steroids! The movement was much sharper and smaller often starting and ending with a strike. I enjoyed the fact that my breakfall experience in aikido came to the fore. It gave me and my partner the freedom to explore the technique without worrying about my welfare too much. Sensei mentioned utilising my skills in ukemi in future, not sure what that means, I guess time will tell.

All but one other student of the club has a background in karate and are still working on their ukemi so it was nice to feel competent for a change.

Substance.

I'm tired. On a Tuesday night I start a martial arts sojourn. At 4pm I teach teenagers aikido until 5:30pm. Then I drive to my own aikido training, 6pm - 7:30pm. I then throw down some high energy food and drink and drive to my final training location for the night. 8:30pm - 9:30pm Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu training.
As my night progresses, the training gets more difficult as I get more tired.

The subtle nature of TSYR training is difficult to grasp in a tired state but I also realise I am learning something new every time I step into that dojo. Last night I was shown the first two kata of the second sword kata series.
I'm still trying to get the simple mechanics of the movements and the internal power is not happening. Due to this my movements have no substance. One of my training partners said he had to pull back on his tsuki as he could feel that he was going to thrust straight through my defence even though I was doing my best to defend myself. I know in time as my confidence builds, I will be paying more attention to how I am powering my movements. In the meantime I will continue to have no substance, like a shadow of myself on a martial sojourn, every Tuesday night.

Bring on Saturday!