aikido

Damn the blogger and eating my post! It was going pretty good! So, if when reading this you feel that I have written a disaster, remember that the good version was lost by the evil computer. Hold on a second while I save this one.
Well save didn't work. You can't see it, but right now I'm typing with one hand because the other is poking myself in the eye. Get your mind out of the gutter.
ANYWAY...
Pat made a point a while back the class size always works in cycles. I have no idea why this is true, but gosh darn it if it ain't. We haven't had a new white belt in months and on Monday three new ones walked in the door. One of them was a judo guy looking for some sweet cross training but three new guys is three new guys!
Its great to have some new blood in the club. Its been close to four months since I've worked with someone that wasn't rocking a black belt. While that's good, its also good to teach the basics and work with an uke thats not as cooperative. Or at least, one that's moving in unexpected ways.
So, from this experience I have two points.
First, eventually all of us learn to move in very similar ways. Taking into account size and age and such things, we've learned the efficent way to get around. White belts move in seemingly random ways. I'm almost always suprised at how an untrained individual gets from point A to point B. Their body movement is different as well. How they move and where they move is different from what you're expecting. It really highlights which parts I'm doing by rote and which parts I'm doing by feel.
This really brings me to my second point. When I first got my black belt I dreaded working with the white belts. Not because they weren't fun people or because I didn't enjoy teaching but because in all honestly, I feared the white belt. I assume we've all gone through this phase where everything feels like its working but then when you work with a white belt the wheels fall off and nothing works. I did/do. I could do the 23 (our main set of techniques) like a pro when I was working with other black belts. But, hell was cold and satan was wearing a parka before I could get it to go on damn white belt. I've had that argument where I'm near tears pleading with the newbie to "just attack right!" It's a moment that lives on in shame.
The point is, for a long while (longer then we think) we've only learned the techniques by rote, or as Karl would say, we've learned the choreography. There's plenty of folks that never get beyond that. And, most of the time, I would say that's fine. At "full speed" or on the street, many of the varriables that occur in practice are lost and the choreography is close enough to be effective.
But, back to my point. When I finally learned the priniple of the techniques, everything started to work more often. I wasn't really doing a technique anymore I was following prinicple and following uke and that was causing a techinque. One that looked remarkably similar to the choreographed techinque. In fact I might be bold enought to say that only uke and I knew it was any different.
I guess that's why it's hard to tell good martial artist from bad by just watching a demo.

anyway, be good folks.