We had a fantastic class yesterday, with 14 of us there.

Jerald is back from a tweaked shoulder – so I have been stressing that people should keep their arms in omote position – in front of the line through the shoulders.  This is where we are strongest and least likely to get injured.  And don’t strain, especially on the mat.  If you are straining, you are doing something wrong, either as uke or nage.  Of course, a force that is on the limit of straining is greater for a bigger person.  So a big person can be doing good aikido and be more forceful than a smaller person.  Smaller people have to be technically better – Segal throwing Matsuoka is not impressive.  Matsuoka throwing Segal would be.

Position is very important.  Much of aikido is about positioning your body so that you are able to overpower uke without even trying.

Several of the students are working on their 4th kyu, so we did a lot of techniques from shomen uchi and yokomen uchi.  While both are strikes, they are very different, even though they blend into one another.  Shomen is more direct, both for uke and nage.  Yokomen is more flowing.

We finished with randori, as we often do.  I don’t know if it was the larger class size, but most people seemed to do better than usual.