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*
