Jujutsu Class Diary
Berinsfield and Warborough entries by Giles, Piddington by Jim.
18 August 2003 - Berinsfield
A summary evening, going over some of the themes of the last few weeks. Started off with some good shoulder stretches in the form of the Daito Ryu lock ups. Joints sufficiently loosened we spent a little while working through some knife taking techniques in a fairly formal manner. Putting weapons away, then emphasised the use of atemi to allow the knife taking techniques to have a chance. In particular, we played around with low kicks and counters to low kicks.To round the evening off, we finished with some more work on ukemi, following wherever tori wants to take you and being in a position to counter.
13 August 2003 - Piddington
Shodan Gi Suwari Waza! Spent more time on it this evening, trying to make use of the mats to iron out the finishes. Back on to a similar atemi practise with the pads, and then onto oi zuki with bicep atemi (hoorah! might have figured out a paradigm to explain it which seems to work!) into a side headlock choke thing. Then from a sleeve grab and hook punch atemi to under the clavicle, and your Common or Garden ude osae dori nidan gi to finish.
12 August 2003 - Warborough
Class was taken by Jim this eveningShodan Gi Suwari Waza, then into a Chinese evening. Started off with a tai chi sensitivity exercise to try and find a flow of taking an incoming hand, redirect maintaining centre control and circle it out and back to the opponent, who would do the same. This progressed into uke attacking chudan oi-zuki, which was blocked and redirected into irimi nage, the final stage was no block, simply flow snakelike around the attack so the first inkling uke got of a defense, was a forearm in the neck. Onto a section from Shaolin kung fu, from the form Lohan 18, one part which incorporates some similarities to Dentokan, especially in atemi. Using the specific way it was done in the form, we tried it out against pads, and against each others' biceps, to reasonable, though painful-arm-rubbing-effect! The next section of the form is a body strike which we tried out against big pads, lifting our partners up and launching them. The final culmination was attacking a static 'guards up' partner, using atemi waza to enter and distract, and then the body strike as sankaku irimi nage to drop them.
11 August 2003 - Berinsfield
Following a suggestion from Chas, we experimented with some of the immobilisation techniques from Daito Ryu. The hands free pins got everyone moaning as shoulder joints got well stretched. The feeling of total inability to move, coupled with the discomfort of the pin itself was quite unsettling. Although the locks were effective, we were all fairly lumpy in our ability to move in to applying them, so there's room for more practice here. An interesting area we'll be studying more.
5 August 2003 - Warborough
More work on ukemi this evening, starting where we left off yesterday. The emphasis was on uke moving with tori and retaining posture so as to be able to respond to tori's actions. We then extended this to looking at counters, where uke uses the same feel of following the technique, then slightly over extends tori, leading to a reversal. This eventually culminated in a chudan tsuki - kotegaeshi - iriminage - ippon seionage combination that surprisingly didn't seem to confuse people.
At Alan's request we finished off looking at some basic escapes and counters in newaza. Working just from kesagatami, started with basic bridging to roll the opponent, then a couple of turns into arm locks.
4 August 2003 - Berinsfield
As promised we spent most of the evening working on ukemi. Initially we worked on the mechanics of the breakfall itself. Once every one was moderately happy flipping it was time to get on to the meet of the evening - following a technique and retaining enough posture so that you could respond to whatever tori happens to do. This culminated in a period of pseudo randori where I got to pile people into the mat willy-nilly. Good fun for me and allegedly educational for them. Not bad for the hottest day of the year.
Finished off with some slower sword work, concentrating on acquiring a feeling for the changed distance of engagement when using weapons.
29 July 2003 - Warborough
Continued the theme of looking at other approaches to techniques, starting with kaiten nage from aikido and then Kamishin Ryu. Took this on along the lines of taking uke's balance: shades of Andrew Wilby's "crystal balls" from the Windsor Euroseminar a couple of years ago. Worked on balance taking from wrist grabs and then sleeve and chest grabs. After a fair amount of detail work, it was time for some exercise; a period of judo style randori followed. Final part of the class was a reflective quarter of an hour on suwariwaza hakkodori.
Conversation in the pub afterwards turned to ukemi and different peoples approaches to it. Something to work on over the next few weeks.
28 July 2003 - Berinsfield
After all the emphasis on kata over the last few weeks, I decided to look at other approaches to the same basic techniques. Taking shodan/ikkyo from a sleeve grab as the fundamental technique we started with Kamishin Ryu. Trap the hand, elbow strike, drive through and pin. Chas then went through an aikido version: basically the same but marginally less aggresive in the details. Then on to a Daiwa Ryu version.
After a bit I lost the theme of ikkyo, but we ran through a nice sandan technique from Kamishin Ryu and then ended with irimi nage and sokumen irimi nage.
23 July 2003 - Piddington
Once again we made use of the mats, running through basic ukemi for the beginners and the physics of the 'flip' for the braver, why I should be teaching that is anyone's guess! On to posture taking an uke who is attacking with Oi Zuki, and then some of Shodan Gi tachi waza, returning to the Oi Zuki attack to apply Shodan Gi to the wrist from the initial tai sabaki and posture break. Then through Nidan Gi Ude Osae Dori, and using that as a response to a front strangle. Practising entering under a shomen uchi attack, with a choke finish, and then the same entry but into an aiki nage throwing response. Finished with some grabbing sensitivity drills in controlling ukes posture.
22 July 2003 - Warborough
The last of this set of gradings. Congratulations to Graham on his sankyu, and to Alan on surviving as an uke only a week after his own grading.
Whilst the grading was taking place at one end of the mat, a run through of shodangi tachiwaza was taking place at the other end, letting the new yellow belts see what would be coming up for them in the future.
21 July 2003 - Berinsfield
A small class tonight, but we worked hard enough for twice the number. Started off with sandan, emphasising the use of hips to apply the technique. The key seemed to be to make sure that the technique was applied on tori's centre line, and maintained there as tori turned. Having got the basic technique on, we looked at applying it one handed, requiring greater accuracy in the direction of the technique. Then moved to taking the technique from aihanmi katate tori, taking first the yondan gakun, then the sandan lock. From there, yondan gakun into sokumen iriminage. Feeling a bit sore around the joints by now, we then indulged in a long newaza session, trying to emphasise planning and balance over all out thrashing.
Ended the evening with half an hour of shodangi suwari waza: done in a reflective, deliberate style. Made a nice form of moving meditation, as well as a break from the exertions of earlier.
16 July 2003 - Piddington
Woohoo! Mats! Ukemi! What next? Once again an unprecedented number of students, luckily I was playing gooseberry so I could hobble around being critical (overuse injuries are great, like luggage, they never truely go away...) First half of the session was devoted to ukemi basics, side, rear, and forward breakfalls, as well as some push up position spinovers for Rob, since he's never gone through the physics of it properly, onto forward and rear rolls, and forward rolling breakfalls. Second half was solid Shodan gi for Graham and his up and coming grading, even so, in an hour all you can really do is rattle through them at speed.
15 July 2003 - Warborough
Another warm evening. Worked on nidangi ayadori to begin with, first from kneeling, then standing. After a while on that, wrists became a bit sore so it was time for a new technique. Instead we looked at counters to a basic nidan lock, taking ogoshi or udegatame. Though effective against inaccurately applied nidan locks, this still added to the soreness of various wrists.
Ended the evening with a long newaza session, Steve winning the award for most determined, despite being by far the lightest person in the class.
14 July 2003 - Berinsfield
A hot evening in the warehouse like sports hall. Started off working on several entries to nihonage, trying to beat this bugbear of mine. After about 40 minutes of that, moved on to nidan to much greater effect. Tried a few counters as well for variety.
As it was hot, the only appropriate way of rounding off the evening was a newaza session. I learnt something new - whilst holding Graham down in kesagatame, he tried to attack my eyes as is his wont. As I felt his free arm moving towards my face, I was able to take it and apply a figure 4 arm lock. Played around with this transition for a while until it became quite smooth.
9 July 2003 - Piddington
A couple of new faces on the mat today, so a bit of variety. Starting off with the big players from shodan, hakko dori, tachi ate, ude and mune osae dori plus uchi komi dori. Mixed in some of the nidan kata, mainly ude and mune osae dori, to give a feel for the way things developed, as well as working some variations to show how the principles glued together, lapel grab with hook punch, into strike shoulder (tachi ate) and mune osae dori. Cross wrist grab into a standard niho nage entry, from which we took iriminage, and the sokumen irminage style choke.
Finished off with oi zuki to shodan, to 'horizontal' nidan, to 'vertical' for some fun. Next week we'll have a few mats, time for some ukemi!
There's no Warborough class on Tuesday 8 July 2003. The hall is being used by the parish council for a meeting opposing the development of gravel pits in the area.
7 July 2003 - Berinsfield
I'm nursing a puffy right eye as I write this. Proof that one should not use the orbit of the eye as a first point of contact in a face plant breakfall. We live and learn!
Spent most of the evening working from the sandan gakun. Started with sandangi tachi tekagami, then modified it to finish with a strangle or arm lock. The rest of the evening followed a similar style: a kata based start with an over the top finish. Came up with an interesting sandan gakun into yondan, into gooseneck into ogoshi. Overkill but good fun!
In the pub afterwards, Alan suggested that all techniques should be described in rhyming couplets. We await his offerings with interest. As for why he suggested this, perhaps I wasn't the only one to land on my head this evening?
2 July 2003 - Piddington
Not much to write home about this week, as we did a solid 2 hours of shodan gi tachi waza, trying to ingrain the names as well, which was the hardest part! Going through addressing all the specifics and trying to 'tease' out the technique was interesting, watching it evolve into something that at times was over-emphasising one area, making the waza look quite different that it should, I'm guessing that over time, we'll keep hitting different areas and the visual 'flow' will settle. One interesting thing to note, is that te-kagami is a push with the top hand, not a pull with the bottom, and, if done the other way round, generates a nasty click in the wrist of uke, a palpable "you're doing it wrong" feedback! Next week hopefully some suwari waza!
1 July 2003 - Warborough
The next of the senior gradings. Jim and Alan demonstrated good kata and some interesting variations - many intentional. Congratulations to both of them for their well earnt brown belts - 3rd kyu.
Whilst this had been going on, the rest of the class had been working through shodangi. With the class reunited we spent the last half hour on something a little different: shimewaza - strangulation techniques. Nidangi into ude osae dori into kata ha jime, then building from the same attack into ashi jime and eventually sankaku jime.
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