Domestic Violence

Watch out. This video is so disturbing that I hesitated to post it, but it has an excellent, needed message. We wouldn't let our young kids watch it though. I want to comment on this video but it will take me a while to work up a comment. What do y'all think?

French curve

Aiki with Andy and Rick

• tegatana x2
• hanasu with emphasis on #6 and #8 being different arcs through space that you have to learn to follow with your whole body ll the way to the end without getting discontinuities. A great way to practice this is with fine fingertip pressure touch attacks from uke instead of grabs. This way, if tori screws up it is mroe obvious because uke comes unhooked.
• shomenate and aigamaeate with emphasis on moving slowly and gently throught hte arc of the movement without adding a lot of random extra energy.
• kotehineri and kotegaeshi with emphasis on flowing from one to the other (following the arc with your whole body just like in hanasu #6 and #8 above. we wound up alternately getting near and far kotegaeshi and everyone was flowing nicely.

Wrist techniques and floating techniques

Aiki with Patrick M.

• tegatana with emphasis on sliding the feet vs. not sliding the feet. We also talked about how to hipswitch with grippy shoes on.
• hanasu with emphasis on getting offline in #2,4,6,and 8 and emphasis on getting a releasing feeling on #5 and 7
• nijusan tekubiwaza (wrist techniques) and ukiwaza (floating throws) with particular emphasis on the difference between shihonage and tenkai kotegaeshi. We also looked at the kotetaoshi-maeotoshi pair.
• Ichikata part C shihonage variations

Randori within constraints

AM aiki with Rob

• releases as warmup
• chain #1 - the first part with emphasis on left-right synch and hineri-gaeshi synch
• chain #2 - the sharp turn with emphasis on up-down synch and the 'who's the boss?' idea. This led into the idea of chains as randori within constraints. It is randori with enough structure to make it repeatable so you get to do randori around a set of 4-5 techniques or positions with good flow.
• Getting Rob ready for nidan in aikido. End of October would be a good time to do that as part of the aiki buddies gathering.

Knife class

Modular knife with Rob & Pat

• 1-4-12 and 2-3-12 drills. I was beginning to flow a little in the first one - not because I know anything but because there is an obvious inherent flow, a structure to the game. The response to 12 in the first drill was awkward for me, but then Rob told me to think about it as if it were shomenate and it clicked. I guess that's one of the benefits of having the Instructor of the Year for your knife teacher ;-)
• An application - inside forearm cut, hook pass into armbar...
• Crossada - didn't really flow but I can see how it will with practice.
• Some 2-stick patterns that really burned my brain up trying to coordinate them.
• Had an interesting discussion about rebound and follow-through in jodo. Food for thought...
• homework: practice turning the knife in hand and practice beating the pell with the 2-stick patterns

Tokio Hirano demonstrates kosen judo

Interesting video that is titled, 'Kosen Judo,' thought it is hard to identify with what is typically thought of as Kosen judo - hardcore newaza done by University youngsters. This demo of Kosen judo is more reminiscent of the abstract, theory kata of Kodokan Judo such as Ju no kata and Itsutsu no Kata. Interesting nonetheless. Check out all of the other segments of this program at this guy's videos page.

Variations on shihonage

Aiki with Patrick M., Kel, and Ross

• ukemi, including airfalls and flying sidefalls with a spotter
• tegatana with emphasis on hip switch
• hanasu
• aigamaeate with emphasis on not pushing past the offbalance, but leaving uke hanging in offbalance while tori slips behind.
• gedanate - variants with the idea of attacking anything low when you can't attack high
• udegaeshi/kaitennage
• chain #2 including the gaeshi-hineri loop. We'll get to the migi-hidari loop next class.
• cool ninja technique of the night: koryu dai ichi section C - variants on shihonage, hijikime and sukuinage

Dan Anderson

While I was at the WHFSC conference this past weekend I got the chance to have an extended conversation with Grandmaster of American Freestyle Karate and Modern Arnis, Dan Anderson.
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It started out as an informal interview but I didn't have a recorder with me (I bet I don't make that mistake again!) and I got such a great flow of opinion and info that my note-taking ability was rapidly overwhelmed. I did get some notes and will be putting the interview together for posting here soon, so you can look forward to getting to read his take on topics like:

• ...the best art to start kids in...
• ...whether stick teaches knife or knife teaches stick...
• ...the common denominator - why people stick around in martial arts classes...

Quarter-Nelson

AM judo with Rob

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  Footsweep to control drill to warmup
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  various techniques, including deashi, kosoto, haraiTKashi, ashiguruma, okuriashi, etc...
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  Moving from quarter-Nelson directly into submissions. Look for classes on half-Nelson, 3/4-Nelson, and bar-Nelson/force-Nelson in the upcoming weeks.

Substa-tux

I failed to mention in my last post that Rob Belote also received an award for Tactical Knife and Long Rifle Instructor of the Year at the WHFSC conference we just got back from. Congrats, Rob. I'm fired up about getting CSSD knife classes cranked up at Mokuren Dojo.

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As for the wardrobe malfunction story - The awards dinner was a swanky, black tie event so I rented a tux. When I went to pick it up the day before we were to leave for San Antonio, the woman smiled and said confidently, "It will be here tomorrow," to which I responded, "I'll be out of town tomorrow at the event that I rented this tux for." So, they cobbled together a substa-tux for me to wear.

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My tux ended up being this nearly-psychodelic vest over some crazy ruffles on the shirt and cheezy piping down the sides of the pants. The only thing keeping this tux from looking like it was straight from the 1970's was the fact that it was not actually powder blue. It had the little adjustable zippers on the hips so that it is supposed to fit almost everyone but the left hip zip was broken, so the pants kept sliding down off my butt so I looked like a gangsta. As I walked I had to swagger to keep the pants up, and as I strode across the stage I opted for the hand-in-the-pocket-like I'm playing-wit'-my-jewels walk. To top it off - no cufflinks.

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My wife was out shopping until about an hour into the event, so she was not there to help me dress. As soon as she walked in, all shiney and sophisticated looking, she said, "What the hell is wrong with that tux?" All through the dinner she would lean over and try to tuck or adjust the vest and straps, but after a few drinks we really didn't care anymore.

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So, thanks, bad tux shop, for a really uncomfortable awards dinner.

I'm back!

I just returned from attending the World Head of Family Sokeship Council 15th annual Hall of Fame, which was held in conjunction with the Internationals Sport Karate and Grappling tournament. It was a very interesting conference, very well attended by a truly international group of participants, including folks from Britain, Israel, Scotland, the Cayman Islands, Germany, Canada, Russia, and the US (among other places). I got to see some very interesting seminars by some amazing martial artists. Among the people that did demos and/or received awards were the following two folks that have been featured on Human Weapon.

Additionally, having been nominated by 2007 Black Belt Hall of Fame Weapons Instructor of the Year, Bram Frank, I received an award for Master Instructor of the Year in Aiki and Grappling Arts. Quite an honor that they thought so much of me. I'll have pictures and more stories on that later, including a funny wardrobe malfunction.

Regional popularity of wrestling

One of the things that I asked Gene LeBell about in my recent interview was the reason for the regional popularity of judo and wrestling. Judo is far more popular in Europe than in the U.S.A., and amateur wrestling is only popular in some regions of the U.S., like the midwest, while being almost completely unknown in other regions, like the south. Why is this? Gene attributed it to lack of publicity and I'm sure that's part of it, but the topic comes up in a book that I'm reading, Four Days to Glory, by Mark Kreidler. Kreidler writes...

Wrestling long ago became a surrogate for many Iowans' perceptions of themselves, particularly those that spent days working the land. It was basic and it was predicated on strength of body and strength of mind; and just about anybody could learn to do it. Iowa got better at it than anybody else. And over time that became a calling card in itself, something that did distinguish the state. It became a thing to be cherished and appreciated and bragged upon...
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...Iowans cling to it more fiercely than ever. It is, for lack of a more benign way of putting it, their heritage... It goes back to the roots, goes back to the rural...
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...the sport succeeded in the small towns, in the way that schoolboy football did in Texas and basketball in Indiana. It wasn't that nobody else did it; it was that Iowans decided to adopt it. They gave wrestling a place of importance that it would not be granted in very many parts of the country, and in turn, Iowa became known as a place that not only loved the sport, but produced its finest competitors...

I thought this was an interesting description of the type of regional phenomenon I was talking about. I will have some further posts related to this interesting book. If you enjoy wrestling or sports writing or reading about the competitive ethos in rural America, I'd recommend the book. If you want a copy, please pick one up at my Amazon bookstore:

12th Houston Open

Class cancellation

Don't forget - no class at Mokuren Dojo this Friday (May 23) or Saturday (May 24)
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Hope to see y'all at class tonight (Thursday the 22nd)
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We'll be back to the regular schedule next week