Mistr

Looking for landmarks on the path Imagine for a moment that aikido is a single unified picture of all the ways people can interact. There are a lot of possible interactions, so the picture is divided into lots of small pieces to make teaching it easier. Next imagine that each person who studies is allotted a bin with all the parts. All the bins are the same, however a person only gets one piece out of the bin per class. Someone who attends 10 classes per week will get twice as many pieces as someone who attends 5 classes per week. Much like putting together a puzzle, every so often a person will get enough pieces that fit together that a larger pattern will emerge. Some patterns are obvious and others are more subtle. When O-Sensei died he left students who had different sets of pieces put together showing overlapping areas of the big picture. I have been to several seminars this summer. The overall theme has been sharing the insights each instructor has gathered. There is an appreciation that the first generation of aikidoka are rapidly passing and the second generation had better pay some attention to training their successors. Many of the first generation instructors were jealous and did not want their students to study with other instructors. As they have passed on, the current generation is mending fences and learning what pieces of the puzzle were collected by different lineages. The seminar I was at this past weekend was taught by Linda Holiday. She has been studying aikido for over 40 years. Her primary teacher, Anno sensei, has been studying for 60 years. He trained and traveled directly with O-Sensei. Her book, Journey to the Heart of Aikido, is about the insights from Anno sensei on the essentials of aikido. Not techniques but attitudes, goals and philosophy. These are the key to what makes aikido a path (do) rather than an applied art like its cousin aiki-jitsu. When I started training there was no discussion of philosophy on the mat. We would sometimes ask about things we had heard or read over drinks after class. There was a good reason our instructors did not talk about it. The senior instructor was a 2nd degree black belt. The founder of the group had moved halfway across the country. Twice a year we had seminars taught by Akira Tohei, our shihan. He had enough English to make himself understood on basic things but not enough to get across complex concepts. I think he was frustrated just getting us to see the difference between "do like this" and "no good". I went to seminars at the Chicago dojo (Midwest Aikido Center) because my instructors encouraged us all to go. When I went back to grad school our university club organized road trips to the seminars. It was a lot of fun to meet people from other dojos and train with them. However I did not notice that the techniques being taught were any different that what we usually did. I remember when the first Doshu (son of the founder) taught. Several people were disappointed that he showed basic techniques. Maybe they were expecting special, never-before-revealed-outside-Japan methods to deal with a punch? To give them credit, the mat was crowded and it was difficult to get close enough to see what Doshu was doing, much less see any subtle differences from our standard style. The real issue was that few of us were at a level where we were ready to learn anything subtle. We were still working on how to do basic techniques. My current chief instructors are both 6th degree black belts. Most seminar instructors are 4th to 7th degree. When they demonstrate basic technique slowly it looks exactly the same as when a shodan does the same technique correctly. Demonstration for teaching purposes is not doing aikido. When a really senior person starts moving at full speed you start to see the difference that the rank denotes. Mostly you only see a blur and the attacker ending up on the ground. You can feel the difference when they throw you. It is easy and relaxed. No resistance, no pressure. Making the transition from technical movement to artistry is what the dan ranks are all about. Holiday sensei said that aikido cannot be taught. The instructor offers examples and direction, then the student has to take those ideas and experiment with them. True learning happens only through personal discovery. The "what" of practice, the curriculum of techniques, is similar at all dojos. The "how" to practice is an entirely different story. I am two chapters into the book and it is exactly what I am looking for at this point in my training. The interviews at Guillaume Erard's website are another source of similar information. These are pointing out the landmarks that lead to the next stages on the path.

Dance in heels? Me? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. no. The tallest heels I own are ~1 inch. I have engineer boots with 2 inch heels, but those are full size, not pointy heels. I dance in jazz boots or ghillies. The jazz boots have about 1/4 inch of soft felt heel. Ghillies are like ballet slippers with tight lacing - no heel at all. If I was dancing with correct form my heels would never touch the ground except when I was standing and waiting my turn. I have never gotten the weird leg cramping from dancing. Sore knees and toes, yes. Foot cramps at night. Not leg cramps or shin splints. The blueberry peach cobbler is based on this recipe. They require a subscription to read the whole thing. I can send you my version if you want to make it. Very not Paleo.

I hope you are over the hump on your cold. I see what you are worried about for your shodan. You don't just have to show your moves once. You have to do competitions and other graded performances first. Do you think any of the improved sleep habits you have established recently would let you sleep in an unfamiliar place?

I agree with Teirin, the muscles in your sides look more defined. Can't really see your arm muscle definition from either angle. I like your writing. Keep practicing and sharing with us!

Welcome Cat!

Hi everyone <waves> I hear there is a challenge going on. What, you say it has been going for three weeks? Really?!?!? Like wow, I have some catching up to do. I came out of the alternate reality of aikido seminar world on Sunday. More on that in a bit. Short review of my weekend first. Friday - I gave myself permission to skip working out at lunch because I knew I would be on the mat two hours in the evening followed by more cleaning. I left work on time and still got to the dojo late because of traffic. Arrrgh. I was not the only one, but that is small consolation for being disrespectful to a guest instructor. Class was great and my knees felt normal and healthy at the end. Saturday - I woke up early worrying about everything I needed to get done. Also my right knee was achy. Maybe from aikido, maybe from my cat sleeping on it. Got several essential cleaning tasks done before heading to the dojo. Morning class continued awesome. About halfway through the muscles in my right calf and behind my knee started to cramp up. This has been happening at 60-90 minutes into class since about June. Grrrrr. By the time class was over I decided that my best course was to skip afternoon class. That gave me the time to go out to eat with out of town aikido friends, make food for the potluck and not be stressed about cleaning. I missed an interesting class with staff (bo or jo) work. I think I made the right decision. Walking a few blocks probably helped my leg loosen up. Certainly I felt more relaxed than I would have if I had dashed home to grab lunch, cook and dashed back to the dojo. I took a break and read the first part of Holiday sensei's book before diving into cooking and cleaning. By the time people were supposed to arrive I was happy with the state of my house. I gave up on getting the kitchen floor washed. Instead I cleaned the worst spots with my new favorite tool the Magic Eraser. I realized after the party that I forgot to put out the baby carrots. Aw, darn. There was plenty of food. If that is the worst I can point at it was a very successful party. Apparently class went late, so people showed up late. Everyone left about 8:30pm. The younger people had a long drive home and the older people were tired. I remembered parties going later only eight years ago when I moved here. I had plenty of time to put stuff away. Sunday - I slept much better with the stress behind me. I even had time to stop by the neighborhood farmer's market before aikido. The morning class was excellent. My leg went wonky again in spite of preventative rubbing with red Tiger Balm. I think driving home instead of walking around was a mistake. It took much longer to calm down. I had very little brain power left after being driven and focused for days. I did five loads of laundry, napped for an hour and made comfort food for dinner (hot dish and green beans). Overall rating for the week - success. I pushed my limits for getting things done and not getting stressed out. I don't want to pile this many responsibilities into two weeks again for a long time. I enjoyed having a clean house and a lot of good food by the end of the week.

I like Saga a lot. I've read the first three volumes. The art is excellent and I like the way the author is unfolding the story and introducing the reader to the world. Update Wednesday and Thursday I worked out at lunch. I had to force myself on Thursday. I talked myself into it thinking I would do lunges and some side hip extensions. Then one of my coworkers came in and starting using the machine I use for lunges. I ended up doing planks after all. The universe is funny that way. I didn't have much motivation by the time I got home Wednesday. The only stuff I put away was the pile of piano music I brought home from my mom's house. That counts. It was on the piano bench taking up a possible seat for the party. I even tried playing some of it. Thursday evening was almost all cooking. I stopped at the grocery on the way home to pick up more ground beef (on sale!) for shepherd's pie. I finally got that finished and in the oven, then picked up CSA veggies. I baked butternut squash along with the shepherds pie. Yum. After that I cooked the rest of the ground beef with onions to go into hot dish. And did dishes. Both guys were there for dinner and were vocal about their appreciation for my cooking. I think I just need to face the fact that most of the cooking inspiration in the house comes from me. My housemate was perfectly willing to help. He put together the shepherd's pie after I cooked the ingredients, and packed up food for grab-and-go lunches. Neither of them thinks of cooking with vegetables. When pushed to come up with a meal they will grill something and pick up a pint of potato salad or coleslaw for me. That said, they both express a strong interest in eating healthy food. The traditional gender roles make me cringe, but I don't see any way to get them to start thinking of cooking healthy food without getting them hooked on it first. Which means me taking responsibility for all the cooking. It is the responsibility part I mind, not the cooking part. Aside from my moral hesitation, I feel much better having a variety of good food in the house. I have additional ideas for two types of soup (potato-leek and borscht), hot dish, and chicken chili that I will make for the potluck tomorrow. Also apple crisp because it is fall. I have two pie pumpkins that will serve as decorations tomorrow and get made into something tasty later this month. Hopefully going back to eating home cooked food will get my weight moving back in the right direction. This morning I made good decisions about what to get done before work. I took an inventory of what party supplies I need. I was tempted to do more cleaning. There is a lot of cleaning still to be done but it can wait. It makes most sense for me to go shopping after aikido tonight. Thus I needed to write the list this morning. I also put stuff away while going back and forth hunting for things. Continuing my time management theme, I gave myself permission to skip working out at lunch because I'll be doing two hours of aikido tonight. Followed by vacuuming. My partner called and told me that he vacuumed the living room and put away all the piles of books before heading out of town for the weekend. Yay! I only asked him to do the books. I feel like I can get the house in good shape with a focused round of cleaning tonight and tomorrow.

You've had a great week. Weird sleeping schedule aside, you are doing all the things you wanted to do. Way to go! I hope someone steps up at the last minute to take your shift on Sunday.

I agree. Enjoy your time away from your regular routine. At the very least, you get a break from housework. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and your running will be all the better for a few days off.

Wait a second, what makes you think your own assessment has anything to do with your rank? I have no idea what the judo criteria are for shodan. In aikido a person has to know the repertoire of basic techniques. That gives one the basis to start really learning the art. People have this funny idea that a black belt means you are good at it. Not at all. It means you are serious about learning it. True, you have some things to work on. Discuss them with your sensei and the senior students. I'll bet they will be willing to help you. I see that kind of 1:1 tutoring happening all the time at our Sunday open mat. The camp sounds like a lot of fun. I always find it easier to practice with people close to my size. Networking with people from other dojos is fun too. Plus camp! Yay for a good night of sleep! So true. I read that and thought "gee, I spend a several hours a week learning new physical skills". Have a great weekend!

You'll notice there is a theme here... I'm glad this is helping you. Awwww, what you are seeing is just me being willing to tell the world where it can stuff it. Yay! A workout that would have destroyed a lesser mortal, a good TKD session and good food. You are getting back to normal. I don't know what it is about dojos that inspires so much politics. We joke about how ironic it is that the most senior people in the Art of Harmony are not able to get along. It's not like anyone gets rich running a dojo. Maybe there is some cultural tradition in Asian marital arts that when you get to some level you have to open your own school to prove you are the next big thing. As if your ego depends on how many personal students you have. Here in North America people are more likely to look at you and say "you spend your free time doing what???!". We have the same conversation at work about career paths. People who are good at what they do ought to be encouraged to do more of it. Maybe mentor other people to learn how to do it too. Not to be pushed into management where they have to learn a completely new skill set and stop being happy and productive. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for opening a new dojo. Moving to a town that doesn't have one is at the top of the list. One of the things I've picked up from listening to senior people is that at some point you realize you have a moral obligation to share what you learned. Other people shared their time to give it to you, and you owe it to your lineage to pass it to the next generation. This tends to come with a sense of being personally unworthy to take on such a responsibility. I would much rather train with someone who has that humble outlook than with someone who feels he has the inside scoop on how the art really should be done. Okay, so you are at the level where you are giving back to your art. You are already taking a lot of responsibility in your dojo for teaching and administration. Assuming for the moment that increasing the number of people practicing TKD is the goal, would you be more effective opening a whole new school? Or would offering more classes through your current school be a better plan? Maybe in collaboration with a local community center or college? I have a pretty good idea how much work and headache is involved with running a dojo. I'm willing to take on a small piece of that responsibility to support my dojo. No way would I sign up to open a new dojo by myself. Even working with a group of other black belts who would share teaching would be hard. Just because you have the potential to be a good chief instructor does not obligate you to take on that role. Think long and hard about what kind of life you want before you let your Grand Master push you into what he wants.

Good for you for keeping up on the things you can do even though you are not feeling well. I hope your houseguests get their new place and out of your hair soon. With that stress gone you may be able to rest and recover.

Who says? I love the photo with RP and the mobility tools. He looks so happy. Your knee must be getting better if you could run stairs. Has it turned interesting colors yet? That is always a sign that it is healing. Volleyball kneepads are a good choice for padding without support.

My partner is like that. I read the quote and nodded. However, that is not how things started for us. I did not find a perfect partner. I found a great person who I could relate to and we worked through problem after problem to figure out how to make things work for us. It took both of us making changes and giving up preconceived notions of what a relationship should be before we got something that actually works. What you are looking for is someone who is worth putting in that level of effort.

Yummmm, steak. However the going broke part is too true. I've been picking up chicken thighs at $0.99/pound on special. I have to take the skin off myself at that price. Still, it is an easy and cheap source of high quality protein.

I hope you were able to sleep all that off without after effects. Maybe the sprints burned off some of it.

Who around here is claiming to be a lady? We are MONKS! I'm glad you don't think 30 is old. I just turned 52 and I don't think that is old. Another 30 years and maybe I will be old. Really, aside from having creaky joints I don't feel old. I am stronger now than I was 10 years ago. My endurance needs work. That is because I've been focusing on strength. Right now I'm happy with the trade-off for increased skill. I remember when I was 29 and dreading turning 30. I realized I had a mental image of people over 30 as being out of shape and dull. Probably a combination of my family and too much TV. Once I figured out that the problem was in my head and not with the calendar, I worked my butt off to get in shape. I was in the best shape of my life the year I was 30. You have had a string of events all hit at the same time as a significant number birthday. Maybe the universe is trying to tell you something. Like take a good hard look at your expectations. Why do you care about having those things this year? Would you care just as much if you were turning 33 1/3? Having goals for your life is a good thing. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for women to pick up cultural expectations about what they should be doing that are completely unreasonable and unexamined. I agree with cline. Training is what you do to get better in your art. Testing is a whole different thing. At some point it becomes a question of what difference the rank will make. I don't know how that works in competitive martial arts. I know that in most schools increased rank comes with increased responsibility. In my dojo I see that happening with seniority, regardless of rank. People get invited to teach seminars at other dojos more often as they move up to the high ranks. Aside from that, they teach classes, attend classes and keep the dojo running. The same at 6th dan as at 2nd dan. What will change for you when you get your 6th dan?

We have two aikido classes a week for all ages and a third class for the older (11-17) kids. Some kids can make to to one class a week and others can make it to two or more. Just like the adults. More practice -> more skills. Some of the smaller kids clearly know what they are doing. One girl started when she was 5 and is now 13. She is getting good. Another 13 year old practices mainly with the adults. I tend to think of her as a short, very flexible adult. She is 2nd kyu (brown belt) now. I'm sure she will be a black belt by the time she is 16. I took an introductory project management class a couple years ago. There are some tools and concepts you might find useful. I especially liked the workflow tool that maps a project based on constraints. You plot out which tasks can happen anytime and which things are dependent on other things happening first. The skills are transferable to any type of project. For that reason it might be worth your while to take a certified course instead of a free one. I'm glad your kitties like the new food. My kitty is on the special renal diet. The vet just notified us they were switching brands. Luckily for me, she prefers the new brand and it is cheaper. She does better on dry food than on wet food. She likes to nibble occasionally all day. She won't eat the wet food after it has sat out a few hours. The dry food gets stale to her after about 12 hours. That is much more compatible with my work schedule.

It looks like more when I write it as a list. I didn't feel like I got all that much done. It came to less than a third of my to-do before the party list. Also some of the things take soaking time instead of hands-on time, like cleaning the soap dish. Last night I mostly did cooking. The other part was goofing off and reading Saga, a set of graphic novels that someone left on the dining room table. I got a lot of prep done and no finished food. This morning I cooked the chicken that had been marinating for days. That was worthwhile. I had chicken, baked sweet potato and brocoli for lunch. Back on track with quality food. I had no trouble ignoring the grocery store danish that someone brought in to work this morning. As a bonus, I got a lot of cooking dishes washed while the chicken was frying. Exercise: Upper body set B. Slow and steady progress with the add 1 rep a week plan. This evening I am going to go home and deal with stuff. Things like the boxes of vinyl records that we brought in from the garage months ago and never unpacked. I've lived without them for years. Clearly I don't need them. I have to decide if I want to keep the music of my youth in its original form, replace it with digital copies, or just let it go. Maybe I'll have a nostalgia fest while I clean. As proof of how much I procrastinated, the box of winter boots has been waiting to go up to the attic since May. Now I can just unpack it and take the sandals up to the attic.

I was thinking "I haven't seen Teirin post in a long time on her own thread, just comments". Then I realized I had missed your thread completely. Mea culpa. I will get caught up tomorrow. I'm looking forward to reading about how you have been kicking ass.

Yes. Knee pads are a smart investment. I'm debating whether I should go to practice on Wednesday or rest up for the seminar this weekend. Mat time. Yep. I am right there with you freaking out on regaining after losing weight. I'm not trying to bulk up either. Hopefully circumstances will allow both of us to make healthier choices this week.

Gah! I am beat. I've worked harder today than I can remember in a long time. Summary first, then my boasting/whining about today. Week 2 picking up at Wednesday 9/24 Catching up at work and at home. No exercise, no cooking. Laundry. Thursday 9/25 Did some knee exercises and foam rolling. Good meal and social evening. Cooked dessert. Friday 9/26 Upper body exercise. More full pushups! Did both aikido classes but did not feel coordinated. Spent the rest of the evening trying to get my new phone activated. Out of patience by the end, even though the customer service rep was great. Saturday 9/27 Did short Vitamoves warmup. Ran out of time and coordination to cook breakfast. Picked up a danish at the farmers market before the demo. The actual demo went beautifully. Bought apples and red cabbage at the market afterwards. Great weather. Did some spinning and more laundry. No cooking - got Chinese take-out. Sunday 9/28 Did some PT and cooked a good breakfast before dojo cleaning. Not as many people turned out to help as I was hoping but we got the important things done in ~3 hours. I stopped at my favorite bakery on the way home and had pastries and decaf for lunch. All my virtue was used up in doing responsible things all week. No way was I going to go home and cook. I spent the afternoon working in the yard. I finally sprayed the weeds with herbicide, planted the mint so I don't have to baby it inside over the winter, washed the pot, and brought in all the starter trays that have been sitting outside since spring. I even washed some of the trays with bleach and detergent. I felt good getting things done that I'd been putting off for weeks. Knowing I had Monday off made Sunday much more relaxed. Overall I am happy about the choices I made with my time. I completely dropped cooking and it showed in my eating over the weekend. Also in my weight on Monday morning. I got done the things I committed to doing and a bunch of stuff at home. I took breaks and did spinning most days. ----------- Today I started off with the full Vitamoves warm up, two type of leg circle PT exercises, and Cheechoe's hip stretches and kicks. From there I started in on cleaning. I thought about trying to do a systematic job and decided against it. It was my day off and I got to do what I wanted. I still have three more days to get the house in shape for a party. What I did: Dusted the fireplace room, dining room, living room, my office, the hallway and the bedroom (the entire upper floor)Cleaned the toaster oven. No more burnt pizza bits.Cleaned the outside of the microwave and the control area of the stovePut away clean dishes and washed more dishesSwept bathroom and hall floor.Soaked the bathroom soap dish and toothbrush holder in vinegar and washed them.Scrubbed the tub and wiped down the shower walls.Scrubbed the bathroom sink and counter.Cleaned the bathroom mirror and window (both were fogged up after I showered)Scrubbed the bathroom floor (it was BAD)Moved everything off my desk, cleaned the surface, and put things back.Put away all the CDs sitting on the stereo.Vacuumed my office and the bedroom.Cleaned marks off the walls and doors in the entrywayI had plans to cook and just dropped them. I so rarely feel motivated to clean that I wanted to get as much done as I could while it lasted. I took breaks to spin or read every hour or so. Scrubbing the bathroom floor was the hard part. I scrubbed the bathroom floor in the dojo on Sunday and that went very quickly. That is because the dojo floor is lineoleum and people don't use the bathroom much. My bathroom has tiles that make a flower pattern. The grout is rough and holds dirt. Much scrubbing with a scrub brush on my hands and knees. My shoulders, back and knees all feel it. The kneeling pad I used at home is not as cushy as the sitting pillow I used at the dojo. Last weekends one of my aikido friends introduced me to this great thing called Magic Erasers. There was a section of wall that was badly scuffed up that the chief instructor wanted us to paint. It would have been a huge project, but my friend said he could take a Magic Eraser to it and fix it. He did and it looked great. I had never heard of them, but found a whole array in the cleaning section of my grocery. The magic part is assisted by a generous application of elbow grease. They work great on painted surfaces, not quite as great but still effective on metal doors. I made it to aikido. Getting up and down was more of a challenge that usual. Sensei said that anyone over 55 could use their hands to get up from a back fall (during warm ups). That was directed at the new people. I didn't use my hands, but I sure felt creaky. My blending and movement was better than Friday. However, my knees let me know that ushiro ukemi after an hour of hands-and-knees scrubbing was more than enough for a day. I left after one hour of class. Part of me wants to soak in a hot bath. The rest of me does not want to get the tub dirty again after I just washed it. I feel good about having cleaned things that really bugged me. The toaster oven, my office and the dirty scuff marks in the front entrance top my list. The rest of the party prep list looks managable. Tomorrow night I plan to spend cooking. Once again I have a fridge full of ingredients and nothing to eat.

I am interested in seeing the numbers you calculate. I have not had the patience to look up nutrient content and weigh my food. It sounds like our eating habits are similar (when I'm eating healthy - not recently). I can piggyback on your research. I agree that you have been getting plenty of miles in. And cross training consistently. You've been working on stamina, strength and flexibility. My sympathy on not seeing the speed you want. It sounds like you have a good plan to figure out where to focus your efforts.

Well, we do practice flying through the air all the time. However I know a dance team whose motto is "gravity is optional". Clearly this is not limited to aikidoka. Floating Lunge: This was recommended by my physical therapist as an alternative to standard lunges. Stand in front of a sturdy bar at about waist height. Both feet are pointed straight forward, comfortable width apart, six inches back from the bar. With both hands on the bar, move your hips back and extend one foot back as far as you can until the toes just touch the floor. As you stand up, bring the moving knee up as close to your chest as you can before starting the next rep. Similar to , but my PT emphasized always keeping the knee of the supporting leg back of the toes. The supporting leg should be making 90 degree angles at the knee and ankle at the bottom of the movement. I feel these in my glutes. Maybe I should start working on using my arms less as I come up. I'm doing 3 sets to fatigue. I certainly feel it in my legs at the time and the next day.

I am with you on the just-keep-moving workouts. There are times for focus and their are times when a different ball needs to be in the air. It sounds like you are doing well on the rest and recovery right now. We are here to support you. You can say "my friends will get on my case if I don't go to sleep now".