Cold, cold, cold!

Today was perhaps the coldest the dojo has been this winter. I'd left the heater running for an hour and a half before class and it was still not noticably warmer inside than out. And it was 29 degrees outside! As Whit would say, "Look, dad! It's ice-o-lated!" I fared well because I had sweatpants, two teeshirts, and socks on under my gi. I don't think my students fared that well.
Today we iterated tegatana numerous times, working on how the motion of the arms changed the ability to step. This is most apparent if you take one particular motion and repeat it several times, paying attention to the rhythm of the feet hitting the ground. Then add in the arm posture or the arm motion and repeat, looking for rhythm changes.

We ran through hanasu once then worked on evasions with uke and tori approaching each other from a long distance. Tori wants to take the last step that would put him inside ma-ai and use it to evade offline. This exercise is not only an excellent one for working on evading as you pass ma-ai, but it teaches tori to watch for indicators or changes in uke's behavior that indicate that uke is preparing to attack.