Had a good practice today.  We worked a lot on the motion for kote gaeshi, doing a lot of Barbarella exercises and bokken to work on the movement, both for throwing and ukemi.  Though when we went back to regular kote gaeshi people had to be reminded to keep moving like in the exercises.

At the Hut, there used to be solid steel bars about 1″ diameter cut to 3 and 4′ to represent a bokken or jo.  You had to move your whole body to move those bars.  Maybe we need to get some for Enmei.

We also did a lot of shiho nage and nikkyo.  For any technique, we need to keep thinking about all three parts, but especially kuzushi.  If you take uke’s kuzushi, the rest is easy.  If you don’t, you are vulnerable to a continuation of uke’s attack.  And aikido is a martial art.

There are also three phases in learning a technique.  In the first phase, learning the movements, more than token resistance is counter productive.  In the second phase, learning how to use the technique, reasonable resistance is useful.  In the third phase, practicing executing the technique, resistance is futile.