Aiki with Kel and Rick
- ROM and ukemi
- Tegatana with emphasis on relaxing the shoulders down and back throughout the exercise
- Hanasu with emphasis on the stick and rope model - that is, releases #1 and #3, the connection is like a stick - you can only effectively push forward along the length of the stick, lining the stick up between your center of mass and the point of contact. Releases #2 and #4 work like a rope - you can't push a rope, only pull it with both centers of mass lined up with the rope. What this does is minimizes all moments of torque around the shoulder joint.
- nijusan #1 - shomenate
- Sankata tantodori #2 and #3, Sakate yokomen gyakugamaeate and sakate hidari wakigatame - both of these with emphasis on evading and brushing off - minimizing the amount of time you are in the meatgrinder. #2 (at least the way we were playing it tonight - similar to the kokyunage pictured above) is another one of those super-cool ninja invisibility tricks.
This is probably unrelated, but "stick and rope" reminded me of an SCA stick fighting article I read years ago. I think I still have the book it was in, but I can't find it on line anywhere. The article was called "talking to your sword." It describes treating your arm as if it were a rope. Gravity, momentum, and centrifugal force with minimal torque at either the shoulder or wrist are used to move the stick. Graceful, circular movements are achieved just by pushing and pulling. Think Musashi's "path of the sword." I admit I dance around the backyard like that on a regular basis.
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