Alexiel’s Heaven

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.