Another class I took - part 1

I took a Wednesday class a couple of weeks ago, now it is time to take another one as Karesz might not arrive on time, or not arrive at all, because of his work. The last post was about a training plan and actual training, both in retrospect. This post is from another view: I write here my plan first, and then I discuss how I managed to implement what I planned. Sounds like fun :).

Part 1 - The training plan

I'm planning to divide the training into two parts: in the first part, we will practice horizontal circles. First we will draw circles in the air, then our partners will try to push our arms with both hands (static position, no movement), then we will use the power of the circle to lead uke. This will be followed by ikkyo, iriminage and udekimenage from this kind of pushing attack. In case I have some time left from the first half of the training, we might do more techniques, or simply practice ukemi without doing more techniques.

The second part I'm planning will be about katemi (aka katame) waza: ikkyo to sankyo. Karesz always mentions that we should hold our arms as if they were swords, katanas. Why not actually use wooden swords (bokken) then? I practiced these techniques with Heni at home, there should be enough space to do ikkyo, nikyo and sankyo with a bokken (the ceiling in the dojo where we train in is quite low so a proper shomen cut - raise the sword quite high and cut straight down - by a 6 foot tall person is not really a doable option). If there is still time we will do kokyuho with the use of the jo (stick), and possibly a leg-sweeping technique.

Reading back my above plans it seems that 60 minutes will probably not be enough to do all these exercises and techniques, but at least people who train in our dojo and read the blog will know what to expect from me (i.e. the rest of this list) when I take a class some other day. We'll see how it goes