Kelly Sensei from , Hobart, Tasmania Aikido Yuishinkai
by Charlene Willis
Hobart Aikido Yuishinkai dojo details
On Sunday the 28th May, I dragged myself out of bed to attend class with Peter Kelly Sensei from Tasmania. Most of you will know him as "big Pete" from the Byron national seminars. Kelly Sensei told us that due to the limited space we would start with techniques from the knees.
Now I don't know about you but I have a HUGE aversion to suwari-waza. James Sensei has been introducing it back into class for a while now and it always occurs around about the time that I develop an immediate need for a drinks break, that can take quite some time to alleviate. However, I now realise that my closed mind to suwari-waza has held back my aikido (a bit like when I used to hold the concept that aikidoka that played with weapons were either living a childhood fantasy or had inadequacy issues, but that's another story ?).
Suwari-waza shows up flaws in technique. If the person kneeling overextends at any time, he/she falls over. If they don't get off the line, they fall over, if they're not extending at the end of the technique, they fall over. There's no quick shuffling of feet to get everything back together.
(The following is a synopsis of what I took from the class. As per usual it's biased by the way I saw things being done or described, if you wanted an unbiased look, or you don't think I'm describing things well, I guess you should have turned up to class ?)
Our first technique was shomenuchi irimi. The breakdown is as follows. Hand and leg come up together but the knee comes back down bringing you belly to belly, by having the knee come back down, uke is forced to use the hand not involved in the technique to support themselves (i.e. no chance of them hitting you!), then the second leg comes up, however you do not follow your original line as this takes you past uke with nothing much else happening. Your second direction is 45 degrees from the first and straight into uke. Therefore they must get out of the way.
There was then some discussion about the types of people who do aikido. Kelly Sensei said there were three types of people. The first type being the question mark (?). These people think about the technique, from before the technique starts, during the technique and then reanalyse the technique once it's finished. Most people start this way. The second type is the exclamation mark (!) (fig 1). They admire their technique. They've got the expression on their faces of "God that was good, Did You See That Technique? FIGJAM!! The third type of person is the full stop (.) They are the calm and centred and focused on their partner type of person.
The second technique was ryokatadori koyonage first on the knees and then on the feet. The main take home message from these exercises was to finish the cut and to be aware of everything around you but to focus on your partner, they after all are the only people who will actually be attacking you. You need to stay attached to your partner (mentally) even after 'finishing' the technique. There was also talk on how much distance need to be maintained during technique. Kelly Sensei stated that even though (most of the class) were Aussie males, it was okay to embrace your partner (fig 2).
We then moved onto the rhythm method using the two B's. One back and one forward (i.e. one ryotodori koynonage, one shortened tenchen nage. The purpose of which was to stop constant moving backwards around the mat. The forward aspect was looked into in more detail. The leg does a moon-shadow foot off the line of attack (the body stays where it is to keep the attack directed in the initial position), then just before contact, transfer the weight to the 'moon-shadow' foot, bring the hand up the ukes' body (raising the sword) and then move across their body in a 45 degree angle at this point hand is in front of the face and then you cut, straight down to your knee. There is no waiving like the queen in this technique, i.e. arm out straight with hand flapping. I had problems with this technique until it was pointed out that I wasn't keeping my arm unified with my body, in essence I was leaving it behind. Keep everything in line with your seichesen, wonder where I've heard that before James Sensei ?.
To sum up, it was a good morning with a good attendance (even if some people seemed to think we were running on Byron time). I find with aikido that your own sensei can give you all the blocks you need to assemble your aikido but sometimes you just need to hear it from someone else for those blocks to fall into place.
See you on the mat,
Charlie.
Hobart Aikido Yuishinkai
Peter Kelly Sensei runs a permenant Aikido Yuishinkai dojo in the heart of Hobart with classes most days of the week.
See their details on the Aikido Tasmainia website
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