S.T.I.L.O.W.I.Y.A.E. (Martial Arts Update)

Aikido:

Lately, I've been happy that I didn't give up on Nishimura Sensei. A few months ago, he seemed to be going downhill. Recently, he's been showing me a few more tricks up his sleeve.


We've been working on what I call "sensing the invisible lines of weakness in your attacker's energy (stilowiyae)." I'm sure there is an aikido term for this, but that wouldn't make much sense for any of you non-aikido people. At the end of class, for lack of correct terminology, I told him, "I can't see your power line." or "I can't see your power direction."


He promptly had me grab him some more to demonstrate that he understood my issue. I knew he understood, from the way he repeatedly "stilowi(my)e."


The reason I brought it up at the end of class was so that he might remember our conversation during tomorrow's class.


It's frustrating to not be able to exactly do it. (Today's new word is frustration/yokkyuufuman/欲求不満/よっきゅうふまん.)

But through this softer kind of sensitivity training, I can see how easy a strong attack could be defeated by someone that can sense these things. Aikido can get really mindblowing, at times.


Sometimes you feel like your partner or sensei is somehow shutting you down on purpose (they do know what you are going to do, after all), but then you try to kind of shut them down (well.. more like resist a little bit/lot) and you just make their job easier. For all of you non-aiki people, it's really not something that's easy to explain. It almost has to be felt.

Takakura Ken from "The Yakuza."

Toyama Ryu/Soga Ryu Battou-Jutsu

We had another round of tameshigiri (test cutting), last night. Sensei brings in rolled up tatami mats for cutting. We stick them on Christmas tree stand contraptions and cut them to pieces. It was my third time to attend a tameshigiri night. The first time, I only worked on kesa giri cuts (diagonal downward cuts). The second time, I did kesa giri and kiri age (upward diagonal cuts). This time, I worked on kesa giri and kiri age, again. These cuts are designed to enter a human body at the neck and leave below the armpit on the other side of the enemy's body (kesa giri) or to enter from below the armpit and exit on the other side, from the neck (kiri age). So, during my second time at doing the upward cut, my sword kept getting stuck in the target. It looks so easy on the Samurai Channel! When you mess up, it feels like you tried to hack through a tree branch with a dull machete.


Last night, though, I was able to cut through the targets. When you perform a successful cut, it feels like cutting air. The first thing I thought was "Wow, I guess performing hundreds of practice swings does help!" I frequently see men in parking lots or at bus stops performing practice "air" golf swings. Lately, I've been doing "air" sword swings. Or, when nobody's looking, I use my umbrella.

Aikido Test and Enbukai

I had my second aikido test, last month. This one was for 4th kyu. I was completely stressed out, beforehand. Would I have to lead the bok-to (wooden-sword) suburi (swings) counting? Last time, I had to do some counting and although I've been able to count to ten, since my elementary school goju karate class, I got a little confused. How much ukemi (protective falling) would I have to take? We always do a burnout session at the end of our classes and our tests are no different. In fact, we usually have to do more. Last time, I had to do sixty and it completely zapped me.

To answer those questions: I did not have to any counting. However, the test emcee did try to tell me to join in with the others in the kiai (shout) with each cut. We never practice kiai in our dojo so I feel a little self-conscious when I try to sound off with an "OI! or "UUU!" during techniques. Regarding the ukemi, I only had to do forty. I was a little surprised as I still had some get up and go left. No complaints though. Doing ukemi in rapid succession is very tiring.

Also, today was the Yokosuka City Aikido Kenkyukai International Enbukai. An enbukai is basically an exhibition or demonstration. Numata Sensei is the main teacher for Yokosuka so this was his day. Other "shihan" (master teacher) have their own enbukai for their respective areas. Twice a year, we have a large enbukai with all of the AKI dojo in attendance.

At the moment, Misakikai Dojo is comprised of myself, Nishimura Sensei, and sometimes, Aoki Sensei. While it's beneficial to train with many partners, I'm getting some benefit from my circumstantial private lessons.

The Misakikai Dojo portion of the enbukai was Nishimura Sensei and myself doing some techniques to a short musical piece. We did:

Nishimura Nage/Me Uke:

Suwari Shomenuchi Ikkyo Omote and Ura(2x)

Suwari Shomenuchi Nikkyo Omote and Ura (2x)

Suwari Shomenuchi Nikkyo Omote and Ura (2x)

Suwari Shomenuchi Kokyu Nage that turned into a Tachi Iriminage

Tachi Shomenuchi Iriminage (2x)

Me Nage/Nishimura Uke:

Katate Kokyunage (4x)

Katate Shihonage (4x)

Nishimura Nage/Me Uke:

Shomenuchi Kokyunage (3x)

View of Students Warming Up

I did have one surprise during the day. I'm only a member of Misakikai Dojo. Occasionally, I train at Numata Sensei's dojo. One dojo lined up for their demo and realized they were one person short. One of the guys (the emcee from the testing day) told me "Mo hitori!" I jumped to my feet and ran to the empty spot. I didn't know the song or how long it lasted. When things are unexpected there's no time to be stressed out.