Sharp and wide

Today's aikidoka included Kristof, Patrick M., and 3 of Clan McKenzie. Most of the Hattiesburgers were either sick or working. We calibrated and rolled. I think I saw a couple of the newbies being a little rounder - so we're making progress there. Worked on tegatana, mainly with the focus of balls of feet and recovery step and getting the pattern into the newbies. Everyone did hanasu 1-4. The more advanced folks did all of hanasu. We all got several reps of that then finished up chain #2 with the ideas of what happens when tori's execution of hanasu#2 is either too wide or too sharp. Wide tends to whip uke back around onto tori, which can lead to hanasu #1, 2, or 5 - or really anything that we have covered so far in chain #2. Folks seemed to especially like aigamaeate and gyakugamaeate as counters to wide hanasu#2. Sharp execution of #2 leads to the the interesting "Who's uke now?" exercise in which uke whips around into a shomenate and uke and tori take turns playing with wakigatame, gedanate, and ushiroate. We cooled down and rested our minds a bit with the omote-ura entry into most of nijusan. Post-aiki breakfast included pancakes, fruit salad, and juice.