Went to Suginami Aikikai last night. What a great place. Really like it there. Very traditional Aikido dojo, shrine to O Sensei, the works. Anyhow, they have a much bigger class then I was first lead to believe. My first time there over the holidays I had a class with like three people in it, including myself. Last night, though, whoa, much bigger. 12, 16, maybe 18 people. Women and men. Three black belts, blue belts, brown, purple, and a grip of white belts of course.
Lucio Muramatsu taught. He had us go over the basics, which is always good. We drilled and drilled and drilled guard sweeps from Open, De La Riva, and Spider Guard. The first two I got pretty well, but the sweep from Spider Guard, well, I muddled through it, but it just didn't flow very well. I got it, but it wasn't smooth.
After class I caught the train to Angel's and kept thinking, what did I do wrong? And halfway to Angel's, of course, it totally dawned on me. Too specific to go into here, but it had to do with shifting my hips so that I was getting off the line. I tried to look for a video that went into this, but it's such a Lucio variation, what he taught. Lucio is all about the philosophy and theory of BJJ. His variation is about using your body to get off the line, the line being your opponents main attack line, where he's putting all his force, AND where you're going to redirect the force, meaning make him/her fall flat forward, meanwhile, you're not there anymore, moved off to the side. Lucio has a saying: It's easier to move yourself than it is to move your opponent. And then once you do move yourself, you move into a position where it IS easier to move your opponent. Point is, move yourself first.
Anyhow, the following video isn't exactly the variation, but the end part, where he gets the shoulders perpendicular to the floor and then goes for the sweep, that's the same as how we finished it. I know, sounds like not a big deal, but I really got the concept of moving myself last night. Small victories.
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