Saturday Training Notes

We didn't do much variation today. It was all about practising what we've been doing in the past.

Gyaku hanmi Ikkyo

Nage extends ki into Uke's center. Neither pushing or pulling. Go into Tenkan.
Doing tenkan using center to move not the legs or body to initiate.

On tenkan, now using center, move Uke's center forward.
As he moves forward drop down using the feeling from our Aiki Taiso practice. Bring up the hands and extend
Ki to uproot Uke. Do not focus on releasing the hand but just keep the connection. Don't push Uke's hands up but just extend through the mind.

When dropping the hand initially, it is a feeling of letting go and leading at the same time, but not pulling Uke's hands. Then like a wave, you bounce up as Uke gives a resistance as a reaction to the drop.

Now at the top position, we did 2 exercises. One feel for resistance and bounce Uke's power down and down. The 2nd, initiate the upwards motion into his center and bounce down from that. To test, initially use force to bring uke down. Familiarise with the feeling of uke's resistance. As you bounce the power up and down, the leading hand serves as an outlet for dissipating uke's energy.

After doing this to practice Chushin, leading, dropping and extending ki. We did the familiar technical ikkyo.

Change feet position to ai hanmi but off center. We are facing uke but uke is now offline. When we shifted to the side, our hands did not move. Give no indication to uke. Now the cut is very fine. We do not cross uke's hands but cutting just to his side profile. Although physically we are cutting the side profile, our intention is still cutting Uke's center. The cut starts with extension of ki into Uke and then cutting in back to you.

As uke drops or his knee collapses, we cut upwards and forwards. Our top hand rotates uke's arms downwards, our bottom hand rotates power into the arms. Its either an elbow or shoulder break. Feel the resistance on uke and compare the feeling with our first technique.