Aikido Yoshinkai

Welcome to my first post. I feel it important to contribute as we all get to share in our knowledge via thoughts transcribed. History tell us that important lesson of the written word as it implies to empowerment.

Regarding this class Sensei Taylor had Jarod and I (Alan) in front of the class working through various Katamochi Iriminage and Shomen Uchi Iriminage da iche and Ni. After running through the techniques he had the class critique our movement. I always find this enjoyable to see who notices what.

Sensei Taylor asked Jarod to perform the first movement = Shomen Uchi, then proceeded to ask him what was in his centre. Next movement towards iriminage, same question; What is in your centre? After some frustration on Shite’s part leading to Jarod replying -1) My Hip 2) My Elbow… The correct answer was in fact his left hand. Shite had struck down with his left hand leading from left side Kamae. As he struck down his left hand was in his centre. As he moved forward to gain momentum towards Iriminage. the left hand was leading the entire way.

This was a real eye opener for me as I believe this is the first time we had heard it expressed quite like this. I also have to confess Jarod’s frustration added to the moment by enhancing the effect Sensei Taylor’s question was having on Shite.

As Uke – being involved – directly has had a impact on me I will never forget. To understand that there has to be that pivotal key in my centre the entire time was an epiphany. Of course what is in Shite’s centre will change depending on the technique, however knowing that for the techniques to work with much less effort.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 9:47 am and is filed under Class Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.