Today I had my first Aikido lesson with Sensei Mike. We worked on break falls, working on keeping the back leg straight, the front leg in and slapping the mat with the free arm before your legs hit the mat. After a few practice falls we did a Kotagaeshi into a break fall. The thing to keep in mind was that you are flipping yourself over the hand that Nage is controlling. Lots of fun!!
After spending some time on break falls we moved on to weapon defense and technique. We worked on some open hand technique defense against the Jo. When Uke performs a Menutsuki strike with the Jo Nage can blend with the attack and Tenkan around the strike while keeping the outside forearm in contact with the Jo and allowing the strike and energy of the attack to flow past. This can be done both on the left and right side depending on your stance when the attack comes. We also applied this to Irimi and stepping past the strike and ending up on the blind side on Uke as their energy goes forward. Next we worked on disarming a Shomen Jo strike. Sensei pointed out how useful it can be to give a bit of a hop Irimi as the strike comes down by jumping around to their open side and having your arm nearest them blending with the strike as you sweep it upwards to let it pass. As this is occurring you are turning your body to face them and should end up in the space near their open side. As you turn your outer arm delivers an Atemi to their nose or face as a distraction. The other arm should be in contact with the jo and grab onto it lower to the end. The striking hand should come down and grab the jo in between Uke's hands thus establishing a mirrored grasp on the Jo that resembles Uke's. You grip will give you more leverage of the Jo and allow you to pull the Jo up into their center causing Uke's grip to break and opening up a strike to the groin. The next strike is one to the side of the head/temple and going past their head to the backside. At this point Nage switches his grasp of the Jo hand closest to Uke and then brings the Jo in to hook behind Uke's knee and draw them to the ground.A finishing strike from the butt of the Jo can then be delivered to the throat or face. Its important when doing the Tenkan and Irimi to enter in and remember the strike to the face of the Uke to disrupt them and allow for the weapon steal. Another variation from the Shomen strike was blending with the strike and performing a Tenkan to end in the same stance as Uke with a more controlled grasp of the Jo. Then stepping through the Jo and pulling the top part of the Jo to the ground you can launch Uke into an Ukemi.
Next we did some more Jo work with a Yokomen strike. By flowing with the rotation of their strike and drawing it in to the ground, the same technique can be applied to Uke once redirecting the energy of the strike into the ground and establishing the mirrored grab on the Jo. The rest is the same as the Shomen defense.
Worked some Bokken defense similar to the Jo defense except instead of a groin strike it is a slash up their center then a step back with the final slice to the neck. The beginning starts out the same as with the Jo, the side step to Uke's open side and the Atemi strike to their face. Instead of grabbing onto the lower part of the Bokken, which would undoubtedly result in the loss of several fingers, you place your palm on the back end of the Bokken to keep the blade grounded until the next step. After the strike to the nose/face this hand ends on the handle of the Bokken. After these hand positions have been established the handle hand draws the sword up to their face, which bends their hands against the joints causing their grip to break, and the palm on the back side of the sword pushes the blade in towards their body as the handle hand draws the sword up across Uke's center. You can either deliver a strike to Uke's chin with the butt end of the handle or deliver a more devastating counter by running the blade up Uke's body as your other hand draws the sword up and out of Uke's grasp.
After doing these and several other techniques with weapons, we did them open handed, showing how the weapon techniques can be applied to open-handed situations as well. Overall, it was a great lesson and I have a few things to work on with break falls on my own time now. Excited for the next lesson to continue working on more Aikido principles and techniques...
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