Went to my second day of Kokikai Aikido today, I was so excited: I got to do shoulder rolls! Wooooo

For my safety I’m pretty much ordered to take it slow - I don’t actually get thrown with any force (I’m not too stable anyway so it doesn’t take much), and I don’t really know how joint locks or bending motions work and I can cause some damage to other people if I don’t defend slowly as well. It’s making it somewhat frustrating, but still a lot of fun. Last class I went to, I’d get to a certain point (as an attacker) and the defender would just let go; let me naturally stumble backwards so I can fall on my own time.

Today’s class was somewhat opposite. A quite interesting throw was put into the mix; using my own forward momentum and twisting my arm so I end up carrying myself heavily to the ground. The whole key to the move is the forward energy I have, so it was really difficult to “do it right” for me as a beginner.

As defender it feels so right to do it quickly - you move as fast as the person is moving at you, and a little twist and light pull and whomp, they are on the ground. It takes a lot of effort to slow down the motion, and if you go too slow the momentum isn’t there and the attack is left standing with an elbow in your face.

So I got thrown properly for the first time today - quite by accident, but it was nice to see how you can actually fall over so easily as the victim.

End of class today we broke out the Jo (short staffish thing) and practiced some neat moves with that too. That was a lot of fun.