Aches and Pains

[pecunium]

I did a lot of Aikido this past week. I have a problem right now, which is the timing of the classes. In SLO they ran from 1800-2000 (6-8 p.m.), given the traffic (even on busy days it wasn't more than 20 minutes to get the 12 miles to the dojo). Here they run from 1900-2100, and the distance is 24 miles, and on a good day it's half an hour, on a normal day it's 40 minutes, and if I want to go to weapons, on Friday nights; which starts at 1800, I have to figure an hour.

Which means it eats up 3+ hours a night, and hours which are the meat of my time to spend with people. It's a trifle discouraging.

But then I go to the Kyu exams, or have a really good night, as I did on Monday, and it all seems worth it. What I'm having trouble doing is getting a routine. So perhaps a trifle more effort at making it more routine will make it easier. If I wanted to avoid some of the driving, I could make sure to go on Sunday (which would be four days in a row, in the weeks I do weapons). I don't know if my body is up to that level of abuse (even when everything is going swimmingly, I still have some sore muscles. I don't land as softly as I'd like. Joanne's classes on Monday are really good for that, and bad. She spends a lot of time on ukemi for the first hour, and each of us only has 10-20 minutes of training in the second hour, but those minutes in the second hour are intense. She tries to make sure everyone gets a session of observed, training, where she looks at the flow, or the technique, or both. It rewarding; some of the best regular training there is, but doing a session of technique, and then joining in a rondori (serial attacks againt one person, with the idea being to push them to the fine limit of control, so they can improve zanshin and tempo, and balance and the use of space and flow, and, and, and...) make up for the forty minutes sitting in seiza, which is also training.

I went to weapons for the first time last week. It was interesting. On Weds. last Sensei only taught for one hour (and I was shocked to be the recipient of directed praise, before the entire class. It seems I am both sincere, and have an attentive, and waiting mind). He asked Wayne to spend the second hour doing weapons. It was fun, and so I went to John's dedicated Friday night class.

Whooo... I know weapons. I've spent decades playing with them. I've spent no small part of the past fifteen years with a basic knowledge of them being one of the tools of my trade. I like them. I have spent hours, uncounted, sparring with sword, knife, stick, spear, rifle, pistol and every other thing which comes to mind. I've studied how people react to fights, and how to upset them (what the best weapon in a bar-brawl/pool hall fight? Not the cues, but the balls. Toss a few of them at people and the dynamic changes. Keep one to add some heft to the swings you make at the other guy's arms and things move to your advantange, even when he's Bubba the Biker Dude. Here endeth the lesson).

And I was able to leave almost all of that at the door. Because Aikido is not a weapon art. The weapons we use (knife, sword and stick) are for form. To make them move properly, and gracefully, requires the wielder be more balanced, more centered and more extended, than they can be without them.

So I've learned a new way to cut (it looks odd, and feels odd, but when I do it empty handed, it makes sense; and it shows the difference between shinai kendo, which I've done, and steel, which; for very sensible reasons, I've not; at least not with a katana).

On Monday, for the first time in months, I went riding. I got to ride Junior, who belongs, in some complicated way, to skeetermonkey Not only am I out of practice, but Junior trots. I've not really been on a trotting horse in years (all of the horses Maia's family owns are "gaited", at least since four years ago when Brio was sold off). So I had to post. Happily I was well trained to posting, so much so that Sola, who is a critical observer of those who ride, said I was posting well. This came as news to me, since I thought I was a trifle behind the beat. I didn't correct her, in part because I can't see myself, in part because I didn't want to draw her eye to whatever flaws I did have and in part out of shock.

On the other hand, getting the beast to trot at all was work. Getting him to walk was work (he likes to plod).

Riding a horse is easy.

Heels down, feet in, calves loose, knees in, thighs in contact, hips free, seat down, chest out, shoulders back, arms loose, hands in contact, don't pull, head up, eyes wide, and relax.

Anyone can do it.

Actually anyone can. If they can relax, and learn to stay relaxed, the rest will come. Even now, when I am comfortable on horses, and the sense of being eight feet above the ground holds no terror, I still try to keep one of that laundry list at the very front of my mind, and improve it.

With Junior, my aim was integration. Keeping all those elements in balance. That seems an awful lot (and I suspect the Aikido is the only reason I was able to attempt it. Mostly what I did was try to ride, "centered", and that helps. I discovered this trick back in April).

Junior, you see, to go back to the plodding, needs to be told what to do. Leus, he wants to go. Maia has been teaching him to trot, so his pace will be smoother when he gaits. She has to tell him to do that. Give him some open trail, and he wants to canter, or gallop.

Junior wants to plod. So one has to tell him, with each step, that he has to speed up. This means holding the knees in, and shifting one's weight to the front, as he steps. This has a slight figure eight to it, because he as four "shoulders" and they are moving in a 1-2-3-4 pattern. Each time a front leg goes forward, it has to be pushed a little.

By the end of the two-hours we were in the saddle, he was almost walking a good pace without encouragement. I did get to where he would trot when asked.

That evening I went to the Dojo. My lower back is stiff. Not sore, but stiff.

Tonight I'll go in and loosen it up.

Comments

You know...

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

...this piece qualifies as lifestyle pr0n.

Re: You know...

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I guess lots of my writing does. I have war-writing of a similar nature, way back at the beginning of this thing.

TK

[michael-b-lee.livejournal.com]

So I've learned a knew way to cut (it looks odd, and feels odd, but when I do it empty handed, it makes sense; and it shows the difference between shinai kendo, which I've done, and steel, which; for very sensible reasons, I've not; at least not with a katana).

This sounds really interesting. Can you describe the cut?

Now that I'm on the verge of leaving the day job and finally becoming a full-time writer I now have twice as much available time than I've had in more than 10 years. If I can swing the finances I'm very interested in joining the local Aikido dojo.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Ok. It's a quirk of physics. A blade's edge (when seen under a microscope) is just a very fine saw (unless one is looking to collodial edges; i.e. glasses, which are mono-crystalline/single molecules). To cut they have to move.

This is why cavalry use sabres, the curved edges keeps an acute angle of incidence, and so cuts more cleanly. If it were a straight sword, it would be more of an ax. This wasn't a problem for knights, they tended to be astride, but more stationary; when using swords, a mace is a sledgehammer, and at a trot/canter/gallop one of the two riders; is probably going out the back door, but I dgress).

I was cutting straight down. This is more ax-like (the nature of the katana's shape is such that it still glides, and slices). But John had me (well, all of us) move it out (from a position above, and slightly behind the head, with the arms wide; for peripheral vision, but that's nothing new, to me) and then down, as the hands come back to a place in front of the navel (one's hara i.e. center).

It's not hard, but it's subtle. The simple is not always easy.

TK

[michael-b-lee.livejournal.com]

Ah! I know exactly what you are referring to. Interestingly, we covered that as a basic men-uchi in kendo.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Well, the katana is a strange weapon. A, relatively, straight cut, will still work.

A shinai, however, really doesn't benefit from the extra motion, as it steals speed, and the straightness/lightness of the weapon work against the actuall function of it. Were one to use a straight sword in that way, one would be less effective.

When using a straight sword, the draw aspect of the cut is made after contact.

TK

[michael-b-lee.livejournal.com]

When we were first learning the strike the sempai had us practice using bokken rather than shinai. It made a big difference.

Typically, when I would spar with straight swords, each strike wasn't so much of a draw as a push, driving the blade "through" the point of contact. Mind you, I've never had the opportunity to practice this on anything more dense than melons (I'd love to try my hand at tameshigiri at some point), so I don't know how effective the technique would be against a flesh-and-bone target.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

And I wasn't actually cutting straight down, I was gettig the increase in incidence with my wrists. I was also not, per John, "following through."

This is one of the aspects of training which I am having a harder time releasing. Give me a target, and I'll hit it. I was, in fact, hitting my target, which was to end with my blade in the guard position. I didn't have anyone/thing, to pass into, and so I could/did, aim at working the hard stop, without the need to recover guard.

Form, it's all about form.

TK

[michael-b-lee.livejournal.com]

And I wasn't actually cutting straight down, I was gettig the increase in incidence with my wrists. I was also not, per John, "following through."

Were you practicing shibori - the "rag wringing" motion of the wrists at the moment of impact? I could never quite get the hang of that. I was always way too tense. Relaxing always felt too loose and unfocused, when I knew intellecutally that it was exactly the opposite.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Well first, John was incorrect in the estimation of my follow through.

Yes, I do use shibori (which, t the linguisticly inclined actully comes from the Japanese arts of fabric dyeing, it comes to swordwork as the motion of, "twisting the towel," and is the late, not quite terminal, locking of the hands, into the grip, with opposing forces on the top and bottom hands).

My troubles come from being more expert with Western styles, which are point centered, not edge. The grip/control is reversered, with the primary being the first two fingers, and thumb, instead of the last two, and heel.

The trick is to feel the solidity of conclusion, and then learn to apply it as a continuum. The shibori is begun slightly before the point of contact, and concludes at the point in which the blade's motion stops.

Cutting (with straight, or curved blades) is differnt, and there are push moves (esp. with curved blades, and the moreso in two-handed styles) to engage the target, but pulling is ususally (and almost exclusively, when using a straight-edged weapon) the more efficient, stable, and safest stroke.

Be it a melon, a side of beef, or a person.

TK

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

I remember learning to post. It seemed so scary and difficult at the time, and gradually it was easy. I was so excited when I realized that I had learned to feel the correct diagonal.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

But can you switch leads? I still have trouble with that, esp. in the canter. Hell, I have trouble choosing a lead (if this is why, or because, I don't do dressage is an open question).

TK

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

Yes. I found switching leads was easy to do. I was getting "yelled at" all the time for being on the wrong diagonal, and one day it just clicked and I didn't have to look down to know what diagonal I was on. Though I often glanced just to make sure because I had a hard time trusting what I felt. I stopped taking lessons right around the time I was learning to trot over cavallettis and to canter.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Ok, I was unclear... switching which lead the horse is on, not adjusting yourself to be on the same lead.

Which, now as I think on it, doesn't apply to trot. That's just choosing one diagonal over the other. There isn't a lead.

Sorry.

TK

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

It's been a few years, so I'm not up on the terminology any more. By "lead" I thought you meant this, which I'll describe with an example because I don't know the right words: Say you're doing a posting trot in a figure eight. As you go around one end of the eight you're on a certain diagonal, but when you cross over the middle of the eight you have to switch your diagonal because the inside/outside legs just switched. Does that make sense? Anyway, that's what I was taught. My instructor took retired race horses and retrained them to do dressage and cross-country eventing.

Any wouldn't there be a lead leg when going around a bend or circle even in a trot, especially in a tight circle? So even in a trot, to go more smoothly around a corner, you want to be off the horse's back to take the weight off him so that it's easier for the horse to reach for that long step with the outside leg (since the outside of a circle is a longer path than the inside).

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, and no. That is choosing the correct diagonal, but there isn't really a "lead." The legs are doing equal work.

When cantering, which is a three-beat gait, one leg reaches further forward than the other, that's the lead. Most horses have one they prefer, but the ideal is that the outside leg, of a turn's direction, ought to be the lead.

A good dressage horse will know how to do a flying lead change (i.e. no need to stop, and re-start), a good rider will know how, and when, to tell the horse to do this.

I'm happy when I can intiate a lead on the side to which I plan to turn, flying changes are beyond me.

The other time leads matter is when planning a multiple jump. Then the direction of turn is crucial, not so much for the sake of being able to do it, but for shaving the time, and making sure the rails aren't brushed, if the horse gets crowded, but that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

TK