Intention, Depth, Ikkyo

Yesterday I attended practice at Takasago dojo in the morning and later in Tenjin dojo. While Suganuma sensei is in Israel there is other sensei taking responsibility on the classes. What was different for me yesterday was that we were did one technique for quite a long time during practice. This got us to really in to depth on Ikkyo. I was able to focus on being a good uke with intention and when I was nage I got to correct or change my approach many times before changing technique. I tried to be an uke with intention and not giving up my attack and also to get up after being thrown and attack again. In 30+ degrees celsius this is hard and you get tired, but I noticed that the techniques for nage was getting better when I as uke had this approach.

After class as I have mentioned before there is often plenty of time to work on the techniques that were shown in class earlier. Yesterday I was lucky to be able to practice together with a dan graded (black belt). I thought I would be brave and try out different techniques on uke doing tsuki. The biggest issue I have when someone is doing tsuki is that I do not know what to do else than Iriminage. We went through the attack many times and I got really good tips on where to put my focus. I often put my focus on the hand and then suddenly I had attackers hand in my hands and did not know what to do.. My very helpful and patient uke helped me to see that I need to not focus on the hand and instead see what openings there were. Being so occupied with what technique I should do really left me with tension in my body and when the attack finally came I would be stressed out trying to find the right technique. This does not happen as often on other attack types like shomen uchi or yokomen uchi. After a while I sometimes managed to let go of my control freak tendencies and just do what felt right. Suddenly I was doing very different techniques on tsuki that I before did not thought possible. A really nice session! And I think I suddenly understand why Ikkyo is called that name. It is not because it is the first technique you learn, but it is often the first you find when someone is attacking you with whatever.

So my tip to others having trouble on some attack type: Have someone throw it on you for a while and try different focus and speed. It really helped my yesterday and I hope to do it more tonight after class.

PS: I hope you guys at the NAF summer camp are enjoying the classes with Bjørn Eirik Olsen Sensei and Hideki Takemura Sensei.