In the past several posts, I've been working on oshitaoshi (or ikkyo - thing #1). Here is a video of Waka Sensei demonstrating two of the primary forms of this thing that you might call omote and ura. This seems to be a pretty common practice mode, in which tori gets to do four reps (one omote and one ura on each side) then the partners switch roles.
And interestingly enough, though the Tomiki/Ohba gang seems to have done a lot of things differently, here is that same practice mode cropping up as the first part of the first kata (hmmm... thing #1). And you will see this pattern show up again as the first and second thing in the next section at about 1:00.
The first parts of Ichi kata appear to me to be a nod back to an old training mode in which ikkyo (for example) was repped over and over in rapid succession - right omote-left omote - right ura - left ura - switch roles and keep going - and this was done in an aerobic manner. Little formality except before and after, lots of moving and falling and lots of sweat and repetition.
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I like that mode of practice. I don't so much like the do-two-reps-and-stop-and-talk-about-it-for-a-while mode. Nobody gets any exercise that way and nobody gets enough reps to make the technique their own - to transform thing one into just one thing.
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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com
