武神館忍術

Last night was the last of the long session classes, for next week we’re back to a Monday/Wednesday two hour schedule.

The weather was excellent although we didn’t really get to enjoy it being indoors. We did our usual set of pre-training exercises with one new addition. At the end I introduced a variation of the push-up which I saw in a Judo video. You assume the regular push-up position but with your feet spread apart wide. When you move down your head goes first then you arch your back bringing your stomach to the ground much like a wave. Then you push up back to the starting position. I try to do these exercises everyday at home.

I then brought out the trusty obstacle and we proceeded to practice various かいてん (kaiten) up to the obstacle and then over it. First up was みぎ　ぜんぽう　かいてんと　みぎ　ひちょかいてん (migi zenpou kaiten and migi hicho kaiten) followed by the ひだり (hidari) side. Second was ぜんぽうかいてん (zenpou kaiten) followed by ぎゃく　ひちょかいてん (gyaku hicho kaiten), さゆ (sayu - both sides). Third was こうほうかいてん (kouhou kaiten) followed by ひちょ　じゅんながれ (hicho jun nagare), さゆ (sayu). We finished this set with たちながれ (tachi nagare) followed by ひちょ　ぎゃくながれ (hicho gyaku nagare), さゆ (sayu). We then turned the obstacle long-ways and did regular ひちょかいてん (hicho kaiten). To end the うけみ (ukemi) session we linked all of the basic ones together.

Start in みぎ　いちもんじのかまえ (migi ichimonji no kamae)

1. みぎ　ぜんぽうかいてん (migi zenpou kaiten)

Turn your face to the left into ひらのかまえ (hira no kamae) or しぜんのかまえ (shizen no kamae)

2. みぎ　そくほうかいてん (migi sokuhou kaiten)

Assume ひだり いちもんじのかまえ (hidari ichimonji no kamae)

3. たちながれ (tachi nagare)
4. こうほうかいてん (kouhou kaiten)

At this point you’ll be in みぎ　いちもんじのかまえ (migi ichimonji no kamae) again facing where you started. Shift from みぎ (migi) to ひだり (hidari).

5. じゅんながれ (jun nagare)
6. ぎゃくながれ (gyaku nagare)

Turn to the left into ひらのかまえ (hira no kamae) or しぜんのかまえ (shizen no kamae)

7. みぎ　よこながれ (migi yoko nagare)

Next, we quickly covered last month’s topic before moving onto the topic for March. We each took turns demonstrating すいのかた (sui no kata) and then おもてぎゃく(omote gayku). At this point I decided we should work on something a bit more elemental so we went over basic いちもんじのかまえ (ichimonji no kamae) and from there shifting forward for じょだんつき (jodan tsuki). We took turns practicing this with punching mits for targets. After that we formally practiced かのかた (ka no kata) with かまえ (kamae), つき (tsuki) and alignment the focus for the うけ (uke) and for the とり (tori), the focus was the かた (kata). After practicing this for a while the うけ (uke) put the mits back on and gave the とり (tori) those targets for the かた (kata).

Next was the formal introduction of うらぎゃく (ura gyaku) and the remainder of the night was spent mostly on it. We practiced each step individually before combining them with a focus on かまえ (kamae) and the ぎゃく (gyaku). Next we looked at using the かまえ (kamae) to deliver a そくぎゃくけんげり (sokugyakuken geri) and grabbing muscle to aid in the throw. We ended class with a free response session as usual. Good stuff.

がんばって！