We're going to have to kill you. Nobody is supposed to know about WD-40.

I'll stick with the Glock 23, thanks.

Ow.

I have survived my first aikido class at Tenzan Aikido. I know I survived because if I had died and gone to hell, I wouldn't hurt this bad. I fell more times last night that I have in the previous fifteen years combined. I have pains in places I didn't know I had parts. Pass the ibuprophen, please.

SonofV's class was the first hour, and my class was the second hour. We took turns watching each other's class. Actually, SonofV spent much of his non-mat hour chatting up another youngster also waiting on her parent. He was stoked (about the class time). He was singled out a couple of times for doing the drill right by Bookman Sensei, and he beamed about it on the way to the car. In fact, to emphasize his mad skilz, he asked if I wanted to see his front rolls--no, wait, watch! And in the time it took me to wrestle the car keys out of my bag, he had done about eight of them on the parking strip grass next to the car. "See?!" Wow. Very cool.

He asked when he could get a gi. I told him if he sticks with it for the month, he can have a gi. Big carrot. We signed up for one month. I signed up for unlimited practice for the month, and SonofV for a once a week pace. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I can't imagine going three days a week, certainly not more, not now. But the difference isn't a lot of money, I don't begrudge that. I will try to use it as leverage to heave myself off my deathbed and go practice again.

I really did enjoy it, even more than I enjoy complaining about my sore muscles. The first 15-20 minutes were spent in quiet directed yoga / breathing exercises. Very very important, and useful. I liked that part. The class I was in was an All Levels class. Some (un)rank(ed) beginners like me, some with real gis and white belts, and about five with the black split skirt the name of which temporarily eludes me. I was paired with each of the advanced students, in turn, about 5-10 minutes each, and worked on some very elementary skills, many of which brought me into intimate contact with the canvas. I tell you, it's a long way down...followed immediately by a rapid deceleration. Oof.

But to watch the others, especially the... well, all of them looked graceful, powerful, beautiful. Aikido has the potential for some very smooth movements. Someday mine will be smooth too. I will not be a square wheel forever.

Well done V. I never got an explanation in biology class, just why our pain receptors seem to be concentrated in the corners. The upside of course, is that once the corners are gone, so is the pain. :D

Well done. Take a look at the move at 2:10. I took a few classes with Saito Sensei during a seminar back in the day. He is pretty amazing, I don't remember him smiling much though.

Foots , You goin ta let that Old man throw you around like that ???

I awoke this morning to stillness. Stillness of my body. I couldn't move out of bed. I felt as though I had been embalmed with concrete.

It's coming up to the end of the day and I can almost get myself in and out of my chair without help. I'm determined to get back on the pony tonight though. If by pony I mean the mat. Wish me luck.

You will make it dude!

When I was a bouncer I used it a lot.
That and Krav Maga.

aikido and various myths
 

You Dwellars know about bullshit already, but for any who haven't had enough yet i'd like to take a moment to say that almost all characterizations of this or that school of martial arts instruction or style are simplistic and/or wrong. To call aikido or judo "defensive" is like calling western wrestling purely defensive. The so-called style is a tool, like a gun or a knife is a tool, and can be used aggressively or not as the practicioner pleases.
The trend to call martial ways "gentle" or paths of peace, or non-violent started after Japan lost WW2. Before that terible lesson Japanese nationlists saw these practices as ways to export Japanese culture to the barbaric aliens outside the shores of Japan.While there has long been a philosophical and meditative aspect to Japanese (and other east asian) martial arts, there origins in , and utility in bloody violence is not forgotten by their cultures of origin.
Now that i've got that out of the way, Hooray for FamilyofV for starting aikido! It can be great fun!

You're off by thirteen centuries give or take a decade or two. It started in China around 500 AD as a way for Monks to meditate, stay in shape and, when necessary, defend the monastary. And just for the record, Martial Arts in Japan and China prior to WWII were taught in closed schools to hand-picked students and it was forbidden for anyone other than the Master to teach anyone outside the school.

The exception is Korean TKD; a post WWII martial art. Korea was most interested in exporting TKD far and wide as a matter of national pride. And any black belt is sanctioned to teach and promote students.

hm,,,
 

the legend of a chinese buddhist sect that practiced hand to hand combat at the same school they practiced ch'an meditation does not make all asian martial arts ways of peace. I lack the scholarly materials to definteively make a case one way or the other but I suggest that very few of the people who practiced martial arts through out history had the leisure and the security to practice for meditative or philosophical purposes. More likely in my view is that people learned how to do unto others as they were trying to do unto them. I believe that what makes the "way of peace" expression of martial arts possible is strong central government able to keep a rein on warlords and bandits with the accompaning economic prosperity that allows people time to train instead of struggling to produce enough food to eat every day.
On the other hand, every culture known has some sort of system of personal competition in the form of some sort of wrestling or boxing or hitting with implements. Why does it need to be fancier than that?

It's Friday. Wednesday's pledge to take my sore body to the mat again (and again) was not kept. Instead, I "played" in the snow. The first picture is a couple of blocks from my office, and it looked a little like that when I walked out of the office. The parking lot was bare, and I could see the very first tiny individual pellets of snow. They were about the size of a sesame seed. From the driveway to the beginning of the on ramp is about half a block. At the start of the on ramp, I could no longer see the lines on the road. At the end of the on ramp the wipers were on high. Across the bridge (maybe 1 mile as the crow flies) I couldn't see the island at the other end. The bridge disappeared in a gray cloud, punctuated by intermittent flashes of brake lights.

Intermittent because the wipers could only keep a small patch of windshield clear, and then...! none at all. The snow had become so fast and heavy that it overwhelmed my wipers. I put my left turn signal on and dove for the left shoulder, which was closest and downhill.

When I got out there was four inches of snow on the hood and the wipers were black slashes on a field of white and disappearing rapidly. The snow was coming down heavier and faster than I have ever seen. It was an avalanche from the sky. The snow was in little balls, not quite hail, softer, but the size of marbles. I shoveled the hood so that when I lifted it I wouldn't bury the windshield. The wipers had built up walls of packed snow under the cowl of the hood. In the time it took to excavate the wipers, four cars had stopped within a couple of car lengths of mine, but not exactly under control. They were pointing every which way.

I pushed them as the driver "steered" into a parked position on the shoulder. The fourth lady wasn't so lucky. She wanted to go forward, uphill (it was not very steep, only the incline of the bank of a freeway speed curve, a couple of degrees). It was uphill because she was perpendicular to the normal flow of traffic. I tried, nothing. As I talked to her, just standing, I was sliding backwards in my boots. It was that slick.

I told her that when I finished putting my chains on, she could have the spot I vacated. The other three people (Karen, Mustang; Hannah, Volvo wagon; Bill, BMW 5 series) were waiting in my car, since I offered to give them a ride westward into Seattle. It's only fair, I parked their cars....

So I pulled out with the chains, and about a mile later they came off. The road was merely wet from there all the way home. But the traffic was absolutely stacked up. My regular 25 minute commute was three hours. No mat time. Maybe tonight.

So, you arranged for a mini-blizzard to get out of rounding your corners. Damn, you Boy Scouts sure are resourceful. :smack:

be prepared, or in BigV's case, be repaired.