Originally uploaded by markdeso
"The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit." - Morehei Ueshiba
I seem to be playing catch up this week. Last nights post was for Thursday. Today's post is for our Saturday class.
We worked katate dori shiho nage, both the omote and ura versions, as well as more koshi nage techniques yesterday. I had the good fortune of working with a couple of the black belts on both of the shiho nage versions; one of which will be my uke for my upcoming test, the other will be on the testing board. I respect and welcome their critiques. They both are upping the ante as it were, and helping me pick up the finer points of these techniques.
Sensei is also very supportive of the testing candidates. He works with us so that we are performing these techniques at our appropriate level. "Mary had a little Lamb" sounds different when a piano student first starts on the piano keys, versus a few years in, where they can support the melody with chords and bass lines, versus when he turns into a master pianist, that can throw jazz chord substitutions, syncopate the melody and still have it be very recognizable as "Mary had a little Lamb".
So, Sensei and the other yudansha works with me at the level appropriate for my rank. Yesterday on the ura version of shiho nage, he was working with me to not turn my head and luck before I turned into the technique. There is a slight lapse in connection as I turned my head so he was trying to correct that.
The thing I enjoy most is the constant refinement. We can always polish technique and get it to be better and better. If this is the case, then we can polish and refine ourselves. God knows I need the refinement!
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