Several of us who are working on our second degree black belt promotion have knee problems. (These aren’t injuries per se; my knee problems are congenital)  The test for second degree black belt (Koryu Dai San No Kata, or Classic Form number three) requires us to demonstrate 8 kneeling techniques.  Eric’s doctor has told him that he is never to do kneeling techniques again, so Eric and Geoff (our senior student) worked out  a set of standing techniques that demonstrated the same competence as the corresponding kneeling techniques.  We worked on those variations for the first part of class.

In my opinion, part of the point of the kneeling techniques is to impose constraints on techniques.  If you’re kneeling, your mobility is limited.  You simply can’t do the broad, open, flowing techniques.  You’ve also got a constraint in that there is very little up and down movement.   So we worked through standing techniques being mindful of those constraints.

Towards the end of class, I worked with one of our seniors on my standing and knife techniques.  Two notes to remember.

First, I need to remember that kote mawashi (kneel before zod) is a stronger technique if  I grasp uke’s wrist with my left hand and point my forefinger at his sternum.  The techniques works for me as I was originally taught, but it is a stronger, more resilient technique if I use both hands.  I have an intuitive notion that if I can form the habit here, it will carry over to other techniques.

Second, during  Ude-garume (first kidney) I need to make the parry palm up. Somehow I’d switched to parrying palm down. Palm up tempts me to rush through the technique and fold my arm over the top. But if I remember to use hands rather than arm, the palm up parry is more effective at interrupting the force of the strike. I’ll need to learn some precision as well – Geoff’s parry interrupts the strike in a way I don’t yet fully understand; I need to do it a couple of dozen times before I think I’ll really understand.