Muketsu Invades D.C. (Part 2 of 5)

Day 2 – July 2

Morning

During the 8:30 AM class, the class was broken into four groups. One group worked on Aiki-ken #1-5, another group worked on Aiki-ken #6-12, another group worked on Aiki-jo #1-6, and another group worked on the basics of two-sword technique. I went to the two-sword basics class, taught by Eugene Sensei of the D.C. dojo and George Ledyard Sensei of Aikido Eastside of Bellevue, Washington. First, Eugene Sensei taught us how to wear, draw, and hold the bokken and shoto. Next, we worked on basic kamae followed by an irimi-tenkan exercise with both swords. Lastly, we practiced on basic kata practice involving shomen followed by a side body blow, shomen followed by an upward wrist cut, and shomen followed by tsuki.

“When you attack an opponent, in order to parry the blow of the opponent’s sword, making as if to stab him in the eyes, you dash his sword to your right with your sword, thus parrying it.

“There is also what is called the stabbing parry. Making as if to stab the opponent in the right eye, with the idea of clipping off his neck, you parry the opponent’s striking sword with a stabbing thrust.

“Also, when an opponent strikes and you close in with a shorter sword, without paying so much attention to the parrying sword, you close in as if to hit your opponent in the face with your left hand.

“These are the three parries. Making your left hand into a fist, you should think of it as if you were punching your opponent in the face. This is something that requires through training and practice.” – from the “Water Scroll”

Ikeda Sensei taught the 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM class. First, we worked on the jo, and Sensei showed us the proper way of attacking shomen and yokomen. Yokomen attacks are not like swinging a sword. The body is faced straight ahead, and the angle of the attack comes from body positioning where the leg and the shoulder are forward. Next, we worked on paired jo kata. During this time, I worked with Jim Sorrentino Sensei of Aikido of Northern Virginia. Ikeda Sensei was demonstrating how the jo was used as both offense and defense. Next, we practiced on jo vs. bokken. Some of things to keep in mind during this practice is the maai and the fact that the sword can be used to chop up the jo. After the break, we worked on breaking uke’s balance with katate tori and morote tori. Here, Sensei was showing how he was internally shifting his hara from his front to his back. Huh? And when uke is fighting, Sensei would instruct to move uke’s shoulder first and then uke’s elbow. He also was talking about making movements smaller.

Afternoon

Charlie Page Sensei of Baltimore Aikido taught the first Rokudan 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM class of the day. We worked on techniques including Katate Tori Ikkyo, Ryo Kata Tori Kokyu Nage, and Katate Tori Kaiten Nage. On this last technique that I mentioned, Page Sensei went around as we practiced and corrected me by telling me to enter deeply and leaving NO GAP between uke and me. (Note: It seems that I have been encountering this no-gap concept a lot since I received my aiki name.) At one point, while I was taking ukemi from Page Sensei, my toenail of my left big toe got caught in the crack between the mats causing my toenail to be lifted from its nail bed. This left a large hematoma underneath my toenail. During this keiko, I worked with Eric from Pennsylvania who gave me a hint on doing and effective ikkyo from kata tori. He told me to apply pressure to the elbow joint with the palm of my hand and then rolling the shoulder toward the point of imbalance.

After a brief break, Wendy Whited Sensei of the Inaka Dojo in Beecher, Illinois led the second Rokudan class. We worked on two-person randori with bokken. (Nage is also using a bokken.) I got to give a shout out to Steve Singer of Baltimore Aikido, who was one of my training partners. Cool guy. Sensei used all the women aikidoka as uke for her demonstration. Nothing wrong with that. Fun class.

Evening

For the first half of the 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM class, Saotome Sensei compared wielding a sword with one hand in two-sword technique to horseback riding. In horseback riding, the samurai is limited in certain sword movements because of the horse’s head in front of him. So we worked on paired single-sword exercises with this concept. The second half of class can be described with one word: FUN. We finally worked on two-sword technique consisting of attacks from shomen, yokomen, shomen followed by right yokomen, shomen followed by left yokomen, and shomen followed by tsuki. At the end, he briefly showed how two-sword technique related to empty-hand technique with atemi.

Now on to Day 3…