Promoted to Pain

[toosuto]

So within "2-3 weeks" apparently meant "next week." And I did really well actually. I only flubbed one defense and I realized as I did it, stopped and started over. Testing took approximately 40 minutes of beating on me and consisted of:

• Demonstrate all four wrist exercise and know their names (Sensei started trying to confuse by asking me to demonstrate attacking with nikyo which is a lot like saying "show me a lunge stretch attack").


• Perform all five basic defenses on the yellow belt syllabus on the left and right hand side. This is where I flubbed mostly because I am still working on associated a quick string of scots accented japanese any one of a number of instructions–I also am fighting the second guessing myself game–thus when Sensei said "Gyaku hanmi mune tsuki irimi kokyu nage." I had a second of panic, and was still trying to figure out which one I was supposed to be doing when my partner attacked and then started the wrong defense.

  I also had harassments in here. The rest of the class was divided into two groups of 5 who would take turns attacking me for 2-4 minutes (at a time per group) and I could do the one defense I was currently testing as they all came at me.

• Demonstrate "Suwari Waza Ryote Tori Irimi Kokyu Dosa," a seated exercise where your partner grabs both your wrists in front of you while seated. You need to unbalance and topple hip and then pin him.


• Demonstrate the yellow belt knife disarm.


• Demonstrate the six hazushi waza (I should look that up I have no idea what it means, ah: "techniques from escaping holds" I'm pretty sure that's not literal though) escapes from a bear hug, head lock, choking, the hand crush, front kick and side kick. I got a harassment on every single one and at the last one people were allowed to use any attack, so before Sensei called a stop to it I was being bear hugged from behind, choked, and had two different people attempting to crush either hand while the fifth guy half heartedly tried to kick me through the crush of people.


• Perform the yellow belt tai gi in 65 seconds (margin of error +/- 2 seconds). The tai gi includes: sitting and bowing to one's partner, followed by six defenses on the right and left hand side (the last defense ending in a pin), then bowing again.


• Demonstrate general knowledge of aikido and basic dojo courtesy.

Like I said I did really well, and I even feel really well about how I did on my harassments (I never got over excited and started just splatting people, I was calm and in control the whole time) and the tai gi I performed just once in 66 seconds. Even better: apparently my test was also Sempai Joe's test for his first instructor rank. Since I passed he did too and is now Kyosei-ho and can train/submit people for grading up to 3^rd kyu/green belt. Luckily it was a surprise and I didn't have the added pressure.

So now I'm 5^th kyu/yellow belt and supposedly on track to test for my orange belt in May when Geoff Sensei arrives from Exeter.

Comments

[hailcezer.livejournal.com]

Hooray!! Hooray! *singing in my head* (i'm in a sterile office). Congrats on kicking such great arse! wish i was there to cheer on the side! Except I wouldn't be annoying like Elizabeth Shue(sp?) in Karate Kid. hee.

[k8cre8.livejournal.com]

Hoo-ray! Yay you!

Although, I've spent considerable time this morning trying to "hear" the sound of Scottish Japanese. It's decidedly odd.

[slownewsday.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Oh yay! Perhaps our chat was a bit of foreshadowing, eh? =]

Hey, have you seen the "Sweep the Leg" video yet? Hang on, lemme find it fo'ya...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFlQNtL8F9s

There ya go! Kinda cheesy music, but the video's really funny. =]

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

I have, wasn't it Jeremy that linked to that? Or maybe it was zoomardav. I can't remember, the end result though? Awesome.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

Odd. Yes. Very.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

Well since it was a surprise we wouldn't have known to have you come anyway. SWEEP THE LEG JOHNNY!

[kung-fu-monkey.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I'm seriously looking forward to sparring with you when next we meet! Well done, sir!

[kung-fu-monkey.livejournal.com]

The hair. Oh God. The hair!

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

By "spar" you mean "uke for josh" right?

I'm also picking up a bokken and twice a month starting some weapons training, so I'll have some very (very) basic sword forms too...

[theosphere.livejournal.com]

Whoa, I had no idea you were training in Aikido! I must be behind on my livejournal readin'. Congratulations on your 5th kyu!

The testing process sounds a lot more rigorous than the promotion process I went through for my kyus - what Aikido style/affiliation are you training in? With all the japanese and how intense the testing sounds, I would guess either Yoshinkan or IAF.

What do you think of O'Sensei's philosophy? Have you watched any of the videos of him teaching? I love how he seemed to become happier and more lively the older he got - and watching him throw Terry Dobson around (6'5") is a hoot. Let me know if your interested, cuz there are some excellent books on O'Sensei and Aikido I can recommend.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

I started up back in October, just too late to be ready for the gradings they had in December.

Apparently as far as 'rigorous' goes, I had worse (better?) than anyone else bechttp://www.bhaikidoaberdeen.co.uk/uase it was just lil'ol me. Yuishinkai is the international governing body (or however that works) for Banyu Hatten Aikido (link is to my clubs page).

I need to do MORE READING. Becuase my general knowledge was weak I didn't have O'Sensei's birthday/death day memorized, and could barely remember his real name. I also lucked out and Mike Sensei forgot his own cheat sheet about Koichi Tohei's "13 Disciplants" from Ki in Daily Life which I was supposed to have read outside of training. The big question is: Will the library have them? We will find out... I've done some O'Sensei browsing of YouTube but I should probably do more.

The one thing that I really am enjoying about aikido is how light hearted it is (maybe this gets back to the philosophy of it I'm not sure, maybe it's just Banyu Hatten and Geoff Sensei). Chinen Sensei was great and I learned a lot from practicing goju ryu but it was all so serious all the time. When Mike Sensei divided up the rest of the class he separated the two green belts, divided the yellow belts in half (two groups of three at this point) then threw in the two older white belts and looked over and saw that it left the two new white belts. And what we got was "Oh, what the heck, Sean, Linda you go to one or the other group too..." and everyone laughed because it man was it going to suck in that great you're-so-screwed funny way. And that seems to persist across training, belt tests whatever. Everyone is there to learn and do it right but not to the point that it's not enjoyable or funny occasionally.

"No let me sum up:" Recommended reading is good because I'm going to do my best to not stop practicing so I should probably be better about the book learnin'. I think that I could even see myself teaching it to others someday, if I ever let myself believe that I could really get that good. And if I'm really lucky, I won't have to start over in rank if/when (when/if) we come back to the states.

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

Gak! open italics tab!

[theosphere.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're having such a great time. I often heard in my training that "Aikido is a dying art," so it's nice to hear anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

Weak is a relative term. I don't have O'Sensei's birthday or death day memorized. Nor have I ever heard of Tohei's "13 Disciplants." In fact, I was never required to learn more than the technique names and formal greetings in Japanese. The impression I'm getting is that your training is, in fact, much more rigorous than anything I've encountered in any of the independent dojos of California or Washington I've been to. So, I would venture to guess that you'll be ahead of the curve if you want to train back here in the states.

My training was centered on Aikido as 'spiritual discipline'. So, most of the focus was on 'makoto' or sincerity. Techniques were, for better or worse, secondary to "showing up with an open heart and a willing mind."

The organization of independent schools I trained with (http://www.newschoolaikido.com/) traced their lineage back to Hikisuchi Michio-Sensei. We were often (jokingly, and sometimes not) referred to by other schools as "The Hugging Aikido".

What I think is wonderful is that Aikido is very rich and diverse. I've met many people who've trained in many different styles - hard, soft, formal and informal - and each one echoes what you've said here: It's fun, and it brings people together through non-violence.

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you more mushiness. Here's some books by John Stevens I can recommend:

Abundant Peace
The Essence of Aikido
The Art of Peace

The Art of Peace in particular is a tiny book of quotations from O'Sensei that read like mind-clearing open-ended notions to begin or end your training session.

[bryree.livejournal.com]

Woots and YeeHaaaaws!

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

I think that a lot of the BHA's focus is on creating a calm person, thus all the harassment. They don't want someone with the authority of a whatever belt that's walking around with some crazy hair trigger, so advancement, is strongly tied to keeping one's cool. The tai gi has a set time limit, you have to perform it with effort and commitment but if you get overzealous you are sure to finish too quickly, and the harassment really just pushed you to see if you'll crack. There is a young man with chips on both his shoulders and I am fearing the day of his belt test, it might not be very pretty.

Sadly the library has failed me. I will persevere though and start hitting the bookstores and what not. Also, "hugging Aikido" took me here:

[hailcezer.livejournal.com]

beautimous!