Yellow Belt Test

Today we tested for yellow belt.  There were two students going for their rank and two students who accompanied and assisted us in a great test!  Unfortunately Sensei Josh couldn't make it for a personal emergency which we all hope turned out alright.

We started out with the wrist stretches,  Nikyo, Sankyo, Kubitori, Kotagaeshi, and Gokyo.  Then we did Ukemi's forwards, backwards, over swinging blades (wooden of course :-D) and a drill of jumping, ducking and rolling.  Along with doing Ukemi rolls, Sensei added in two Tonto's (wooden knife) for us to grab by the handle as we did our rolls.

We moved onto the Tenkan and Irimi kata's, which i have gone over in-depth in previous posts.  Tenkan kata consists of doing 5 Tenkans down the length of the man and then 5 back.  The Irimi kata involves doing 5 Irimi's down the length of the mat and the na Tenkan which sets up Aikidoka in left hanmi (stance) and ready to do 5 Irimi's down the mat.

Next, we moved on to "Hamihandashi" (8-directions) which I have gone a bit in depth with earlier.  Its a sequence of strikes in each of 8 directions, forwards, backwards, left (from original direction) and then right. The second half is to the diagonal corners.

Lastly in the warm-up was the Ukemi kata.  This consisted of laying on your back and doing 3 break-fall slaps whilst laying on our back.  Then we repeat the same whilst sitting up and rolling back doing 3 slap outs to the back, right and left side.  Next we repeat from a crouching position, three back left and right.  Then the same from standing.  Finally, we do front break falls, where you kick your feet back and land on the forearms and turn the head to the side.

We moved on to the four techniques we were supposed to know for the yellow belt test:

Shomenuchi Sankyo - When working on Shomenuchi Sankyo I was alright on slipping past the attack and remembering the strike to the ribs as you slip under their arm.  Grabbing onto the muscle of the thumb of the hand was a point I forgot to do the first few times.  It's important to slide the hand down and begin the Sankyo hold before going under Uke's arm.  Keeping the arm elevated and turned in towards their center is key to locking in the Sankyo and keeping Uke on their toes, literally!!

Yokomenuchi Kokyuho - Performing this technique I think I did decent on drawing the attack from Uke down and I Tenkan with them, but was not direct enough when moving the arm through their head to stretch them out.  When doing the Tenkan with Uke it's key to draw their attack out and not turn into them so that they can just wrap you up with a grab.  

Katate-dori Shihonage - Which this technique I tried applying the technique Josh went over with us by rotating my hands and wrists in to my center and breaking the grip enough to allow me to get the lock on them.  Again, it's important when rotating with the arm, either in omote or ura, to keep the elbow propped out and to run the arm along your back.  When finishing the lock I was keeping Uke's palm facing upwards and this didn't completed the lock and gave me trouble finishing the technique.  Once this was pointed out I corrected it and kept Uke's palm facing down and across their back which allowed me to take them down more effectively.

Menutsuki Kotogaeshi - This technique is one of my favorites.  We did a lot of work on this at my old dojo with keeping a big circle and even applying an elbow to their kidney as you spin with their energy around them.  One thing Sensei Mike pointed out to me was that I wasn't holding onto Uke's hand properly and thus was having a hard time bringing them down.  It's important to keep their energy low to the ground and when doing a Tenkan around to finish the lock you must, again, remember not to step to shallow otherwise Uke will whip around and smack you one in the jaw.  Following around that "Aikido circle" will allow you to wring out Uke and apply the lock directed at their center and bringing them down.

After the four techniques we practiced weapons defense:

We had Sensei strike at us with a Bokken and Jo whilst we evaded and countered his strikes to the best of our abilities.  This was very exciting as a few exclamations were added with the strikes for intensity!!  We did  our best to counter the Shomen, Yokomen and Ski strikes and evade them with Tenkans or Irimi's.  This was more spur of the moment self defense training so there isn't much to go over other than keep an open mind, stay relaxed and let Uke do the work whilst you redirect their energy and break their center.

Next we did unarmed self-defense where we had Sensei Mike call out an attack for Uke to execute and Nage had to evade or perform a defense technique if possible.  Again, this was a spur of the moment deal so other than trying to remain calm, relaxed and focused there's not much to say.  We had Shomen strikes, grabs from behind, shirt grabs and an some attacks from Sensei as well.  

Finally we moved on to Randori.....  Usually we take only several minutes to defend ourselves from multiple attackers but this was not a regular Randori.  We went on for at least 5 minutes each where we had one or two strikers coming at us and constantly attacking whilst we evaded and countered them.  I myself was quite exhausted from this but tried to remain as calm as I could, remember to breath in and out and take big steps when moving around the mat, and not taking many small staggered steps.  I learned this stepping pattern from a seminar in Panama City a year ago with a Sensei from Kansas.

The test was a lot of fun and a great learning session.