Preparations for our first grading
Yesterday we started with an hour of stretching as every Thursday, again with lots of exercises from a straddle, quite painful, grr. On the other hand, I think I got a tiny wee bit better, my upper body just might be able to bend down a little bit further. So there, it has to do some good after all. =)
After that we began the Aikido training with Ki breathing, Ki gymnastics and rolling. We were giving a new exercise for forward rolls a try where you notice clearly how effective your unbreakable arm is – by the degree of pain in your shoulders… Note to self: work on unbreakable arm. 
Then we ran through the Ki tests we’ll need for the Shokyu grading in September. I do notice an improvement, very small and slow of course, but still. Everything with my arms held above my head is working fairly well (although of course I need to relax some more). Yesterday I also realized that when placing my hands on my thighs, the angle of the hands and the ellbows is extremely important.
Up to now, I had neglected to imagine and remember the lines along the body (don’t know whether there’s an official name for them) – so my goal for now is to improve this, no matter in which position.
The last 30 minutes we used to repeat and deepen the irimi ikkyo technique, this time complete with the final joint lock. Ouch, that one is mean when applied correctly. *evilgrin*
I think I’m quite fast when learning the individual basic movements of a new technique (i.e. which leg does what, how do I use my hand here, how my hips, etc.). Much more difficult, however, is trying to combine all of these to a single flowing movement and not having to think about each one first. This is what I am trying to do right now with the ikkyo technique – so I’ll just have to do it again and again and consciously try not to think about it but instead move with the flow.
Small things to break the routine
Yesterday morning on my way to work I met (or rather, drove by) an elderly man with his golden retriever. I’ve seen them several times before, and as always they had just bought the newspaper – obviously, as the retriever was carrying it proudly in its mouth… =)
Or the day before: I was driving home to my apartment as I noticed in passing a child waving a conductor / train driver (sorry, vocabulary…) of a train that was just driving next to the road, and that man grinned and waved back.
Although these moments are so small and unimpressive, I love them anyway for making my everyday routine somehow bearable.
Apart from that, unfortunately we did not have any Aikido training last week – there was the yearly teacher’s seminar in Herzogenhorn – and I used the time to meet with lots of friends. However, starting today I’m finally ^^ back to training 3 times each week, and I’m really looking forward to it! And then, around the 24th of September, we’ll have our first Ki grading…
More pictures of Mythodea
As I noticed that several readers found me through searches for images of Mythodea, I don’t want you to be disappointed by the measly four photos of mine down below. So, here’s a link where you can find lots of links to larger galleries: http://www.larp-bilder.de/larpbilder.php?where=larptitel&search=mythodea&start=100
Don’t worry about the German, just scroll down a little, then the links are easy to find… Have fun, and thanks for visiting my blog! =)
Lots of laughter
For stretching we did lots of exercises out of a straddle, which for me is relatively unpleasant as my knees always complain at once – seemingly this exercise stretches the tendons in my knees, not in my groin. One other exercise was to open and close our hip joints by pointing our feet outward and inward alternately. We’ve done this a lot before, but this time we included our hands as well – first moving them in the same and then in the opposite direction of our feet. At that point we had to interrupt the training because everybody was laughing too hard to move – we could not make the movement work at all and it looked really funny.
We started the Aikido training as usual, with Ki breathing, Ki gymnastics (the part on the floor we counted in Japanese, yay! ^^) and rolling exercises. My theory has been confirmed (for me, at least): rolls from a higher position are definitely easier than from a lower one. Cool! Now I can work from high rolls to low rolls and not the other way round. Although – I think I should work more on my unbreakable arm on my left side first, otherwise it might hurt. =)
Then we used the katatedori tenkan technique (which some of us did not know before) as an exercise for falling. Without any explanations: those who did not know what to do just imitated the others, and that worked really well. When I compare this with the problems I had later on with the irimi ikkyo technique, it’s really interesting what your body will do right automatically and how complicated a movement can become when you think about it too much. I hope I remember this when I think too much again.
Afterwards we continued with the irimi ikkyo technique. When we practiced it for the first time two weeks ago, we were told not to think about it too much but just imitate what we saw. For me it looked like you pick the hand off your arm, simply turn the arm around and walk forward. When I did it that way it worked fairly well.
Now we looked at the technique in detail, step by step, and nothing at all seemed to work any more. Yes I know, practice practice practice, but anyway. *grumble*
At the end of the lesson, something extremely embarassing happened when I was Uke for a demonstration and Sensei wanted to show that we mustn’t be hesitant because we disturb Ukes harmony that way. First she demonstrated how it is NOT to be done and tentatively pulled on my arm and moved forward with lots of hesitant small steps. Then she let go of me and told the others, “Ok, so this is how it is NOT supposed to look like.” Then to me, “If I tell you to lie down on the floor…” – I just stood there and waited for the end of the sentence – “Well, so if I tell you to lie down on the floor…” – I just stood there and was mildly puzzled – “No, I really mean it, please lie down on the floor!” – and I went, “Oh!! Oh my… I’m sorry…” and had a laughing fit while I finally lay down on the floor.
For the last 10 minutes of the training, every time I thought about that situation and my (non-existent) reaction, I had to laugh again. Everybody else (including Sensei) was laughing as well, but for me it also was somehow embarassing. I guess it was the inflection of the sentence, somehow it didn’t sound like an instruction… I’ll have to pay more attention. Definitely. *blush*
Pictures from Mythodea
Here you can find lots of links to larger galleries: http://www.larp-bilder.de/larpbilder.php?where=larptitel&search=mythodea&start=100
Don’t worry about the German, just scroll down a little, then the links are easy to find.
Conquest of Mythodea – Extreme Babysitting
Exciting, very different, exhausting… this is how I would describe the past week.
On Saturday morning (August 2), I left for Kaiserslautern and my sister’s home. We met at the well-known base in the area and then tried in vain to consume two gigantic pizzas American style – delicious but infernally hot. The left-overs were enough to feed us the whole weekend…
Afterwards, we went “home” and searched and packed our stuff, sewed some clothes and sang some songs. In between, we picked up a trailer and bought a Wii for yours truly (read more about that soon) and had fun trying it out, we went to Koblenz to our equipment storage room and bought the last necessities for the con (that’s “convention”, i.e. the LARP event “Conquest of Mythodea“).
On Tuesday, the time had come to leave: at 7 o’clock in the morning we left for Koblenz and our storage room once more, where we loaded some last bags and charcoal into the trailer and left right on schedule at 9 o’clock towards our goal: the small town and manor of Brokeloh near Hanover. The following seven hours were spent with entertaining the baby, feeding the baby, desperately trying to find new toys for the baby, changing the baby’s diapers, trying to calm the baby by singing (of course, after seven hours in the car it will get boring some time; if I weren’t so well-behaved, I would have started screaming and crying as well) and lots of stops to take care of the baby in general. “The baby”, by the way, is my cuddly cute – but very loud – 16-month-old nephew. At 4:30 p.m. we arrived at our destination and were able to check in, unload and set up without any delay. It was quite exhausting but also nice to move around after so much time spent in the car. At 10 p.m. we were finally finished and able to sleep in our newly erected 8-meter-diameter tent.
We spent almost no time at all at the event itself – one of three big LARP events in Germany and according to the organizer the biggest in Europe. I myself am no LARP player, but was accompanying my sister to babysit her son so she could play a little herself, so I was almost grateful for this fact. However, my nephew had other ideas and in the end we spent our time entirely next to our tent taking care of him. At least we had a place at the edge of the camp so were able to watch the battles on the meadow directly in front of us – almost like watching TV.
Here are some snapshot memories that impressed me the most.
A group of warriors wanted to help a besieged stronghold. They charged the vastly superior enemy lines, only to spin on their heel and take flight. After that, their leader called out to the stronghold, “This was your diversion – now it’s your turn!”
During one of the night-time battles (through which our little one thankfully slept undisturbed but because of which I was tossing and turning in my bed, trying without success to sleep) I heard the leader of one of the enemy’s armies invading a neighbouring camp on his own. For several minutes, the camp’s guard screamed “Alaaarm! Intruder! To arms!” and so on, while the enemy leader vented his displeasure in front of the camp (there’s a rule about no fighting within the camps themselves) and demanded he be given back his banner, which had obviously been seized. He had a really fitting voice for his role, kind of rough, deep and a little mean, and easily understandable on top of that, I was really impressed. He kept on shouting “Where’s my banner? If you value your lives, get me my banner! Tell your pathetic leader I want my banner!” After some minutes, his patience snapped and after several more “Alaaarm!” calls he yelled back “Alarm, alarm, who cares – I want my banner!!!”
Hilarious. =)
One of the most beautiful experiences for me happened ironically when I was visiting the latrines at night. They were located on the other side of our huge meadow, approx. a 5-minute walk away (the camps had been set up in the corners of the meadow, the center had been kept empty for the battles). It was late at night, probably 3 or 4 a.m. A few solitary fires were burning in the camps. Laughter and singing could be heard in a camp farther away, and our meadow was devoid of people, very dark and cold. I had brought my flashlight but did not want to use it, for fear of offending the other players with an outtime object (i.e. an object not fitting into the fantasy setting).
And then I looked up to sky. The impact was such that I’d have liked nothing better but to lie down in the wet, cold grass and never look away again. There were no clouds at all, and I have never in my life seen a more beautiful night sky. For the first time at all, I could really SEE the milky way – usually even in a village near Nuremberg, there is so much residual light that it is more of a “Well, over there the sky is a little bit lighter, so maybe that’s it” – but here, you could not miss it, it was that obvious. And on top of that there were so many more stars it was difficult to find the well-known constellations in between, more than I’ve ever seen. It was breathtakingly, almost painfully beautiful.
And then of course there was our little baby (who is not my baby at all, but the son of my sister, but I just don’t want to write “my nephew” every time, it sounds stiff after so many repetitions ^^). He had so much fun this past week… His afternoon nap, wrapped in blankets and furs instead of sleeping in a bed… so many people taking care of him, and also many strangers laughing and waving and coming over to talk to him… the “Aru” (whatever that was ) cuddling him and leaving him probably even more perplexed than us… his aunt (that would be me ) making him laugh every now and then by doing Aikido rolls =)) – so I guess I still look quite funny.
On the last day, Sunday, we were woken up at 4 a.m. by my nephew standing in his bed, giggling and cooing because in his opinion it was time to get up. We insisted on sleeping another two hours, however. Then we started dismantling the tent, packing and loading everything into the trailer again; at 6 p.m. we arrived at the storage room near Koblenz and put away the equipment. Then I left the others and drove the last 3 hours to Fürth, where I arrived at 11 p.m. and was able to collapse on my bed some time around 1 a.m. – only to get up at 6 a.m. to go to work. Oh well, who needs sleep anyway. =)
So, even if we did not often leave our tent and did not participate in the play at all, it definitely was a great experience for me as a non-player of LARP, and despite the exhausting circumstances it was nice to spend so much time with my sister and her family.
Another epiphany for rolling
In our free training yesterday, I had another epiphany. ^^ Up to now, I had always been a little afraid or at least hesitant when trying rolls from a standing position and had tried to work around these feelings by stooping low and starting the roll from a bent over position.
Comparing this low position with the way my front rolls came out of a throw during the seminar this past weekend (some of those were really nice), I noticed that those started from a higher position and with more forward movement. So I tried this yesterday, and indeed, as soon as I stopped thinking so much and enter the roll from a normal standing position without hesitation, it’s working… Yay!
This is another reason I’m glad I went to the seminar – otherwise I would have spent some months yet until I noticed this for sure. =)
Next week, unfortunately ^^, I will be on vacation, or rather, in Mythodea. After that I hope I’ll have lots of stories to tell and pictures to show… =)
