My crazy names for Hirano's crazy exercises

Naming conventions for martial arts techniques and kata vary from art to art.  Some folks like the ultra-simple thing-1, thing-2 sort of ordinal naming system, while others like more descriptive names for things like the "arm-crushing cross-shaped armbar," from judo.



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I personally like poetic names, like "Dragon whips its Tail" or "Willow in the Snow."
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So when I was digging through Tokio Hirano's various videos, looking to catalog the different ways he did uchikomi exercises, I gave each one my own name to help me remember which was which. The list ended up including exercises that I called...

• Running Room
• A Chorus Line
• Praise The Elbow!
• Boogie Nage
• Where’s My Chair?
• Sumo Stomp
• Zombie Man

An unfortunate result of poetic names is that none of y'all can understand what I'm talking about until we meet in person and I explain them to you.  But the flip side of that is they are very evocative and memorable names, so once I do explain them, it's easy to tell students things like, "Let's work on A Chorus Line seoinage," and they immediately get it.
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If these weird-sounding names have teased you sufficiently that you want to hook up in person to work on them, let me know and we'll work something out.



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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com