Northern Wind

Planet Dojo Another budo "play day" is upon us this weekend, but unfortunately, it looks as if I won't be going. At least, I don't think I will. The more young kids you have, the more time you're needed at home. On the other hand, my wife is going out of town in a couple of weeks to visit sisters (although she's taking the baby with her), so maybe I can "trade" some time? Maybe a little aikido tomorrow morning? If not, I hope everyone has fun and learns a lot!

Saturday was fun, if anything because I get to see all the folks I hardly ever see anymore now that I've been relegated to the morning classes, and they're all genuinely good friends. But also because I get to absorb what they have to impart. I spent the better part of an hour with Nick Lowry sensei alone going over some insights into Tomiki's randori no kata (particularly the last three, uki waza, or floating techniques) that frankly blew my mind. To borrow an expression Kyle Sloan sensei is fond of saying, it wasn't so much drinking from the Fountain of Knowledge as it was the Firehose of Knowledge.  I need to take some time processing it all, maybe reviewing with some of my early morning companions. At some point, I'd like to pontificate on it here, if possible. Ran some errands over lunch and came back and did a little randori with Byron, whom I used to get to play with at the noon classes. Always enjoyable. I'm really glad we've been doing more of these...

The first stretch of the fall godo geiko (or "play-day" as it's affectionately referred to) is done. And I'm pooped. Judo is typically Friday evening, from 6 to 8-ish. I did about half throwing, and got a few pointers on doing sukui nage and/or ura nage from Kyle Sloan sensei, fortunately with the aid of two stacked crash pads. I spent the rest of the time feeling inadequate and helpless with ne waza. Several of us spent time trying to deal with the way one brown belt held ushiro kesa gatame. It frustrated most of us no end. It was a pretty darn good hold! In general though, I wish I could have done more, but I just don't have much gas in the tank. Meanwhile, I'm watching all these other guys grapple for like an hour! How do they do it? Am I that out of shape? They just seem to have limitless energy, and I get exhausted after a few minutes, and they look like they're working every bit as hard as me if not more! Doesn't seem to matter: age, weight, ran...