Happy New Year, everybody.  Remember, classes are free in January for new students.  Tell your friends and bring them along.

Had a great class to start 2016.  There were eight of us, with a mix of advanced and new students.  Bill Little has joined the dojo after John Thompson’s old dojo closed down.

We did a mix of basic and advanced techniques, to match the mix of experience.  Probably the main problem is extension.  Extension makes most techniques a lot easier, and even makes it harder for uke to hit us with his other hand.

We looked at the five parts of a technique (three for beginners), and broke them down for tsuki kote gaeshi.  We looked at the connection between uke and nage, and how critical small movements can be in managing this connection.  Working on the connection depends a lot on uke giving a consistent attack, which is quite difficult, especially if people get too competitive.

We worked on movement with multiple attackers.  Perhaps the worst case is if they attack simultaneously.  Then you need to move to change the timing.  If you move to the outside you get to put one uke in the way of another at least once, maybe twice.  We went on to practice movement with many attackers.  Timing is critical there, and if you want uke to follow you, you can move early.  If you don’t want uke to follow you, move as late as you can (without forgetting somebody may be coming up from behind).  We finished with randori.

After class, for the first time in a while, we went to Dogs for wings and beer.  Again, a good turnout, with five of us going.  This is a better time to talk about aikido (and other stuff) than on the mat.