Visualizing, in your sleep even

Not long ago, following his rib injury, [Mat] was talking about using visualisation to train. I was reminded of his post yesterday when, as I was standing by the side of the mat right before my class, our instructor was talking to the three students in his semi-private class. He talked to them about visualizing yourself in situation of self-defense, how sometimes people will freeze when attacked in real life situation and how he would often create scenarios in his head. Like while driving, as he sees the car behind coming a bit close, what if he rear ends me and the driver comes out in a rage? What would I do? How would I defend myself if he strikes me or attempts to strike me? If you don't think about these things, even if only every once in a while, when the time will come (if it comes) to use your self-defense knowledge, you could very well freeze and not be able to use the stuff you know, that you probably know very well too. I found that discussion very interesting. Proof that you can learn even from simply listening from a distance. :)

We then went to a great class of mostly freestyle self-defense, after working minimally on a couple katas. Paired up two by two, we would attack each other without giving out the attack beforehand. Straight punch, hook punch, lapel grab to start with, followed with combination attacks ( i.e. left jab followed by right hook punch). At first, the defender was simply to block and strike back. We were then instructed to keep on the block/strike combination but also finish it with a wrist lock. First a shionage lock on a few attacks, then some ending with a sankyo lock, then some with a nikkyo to finally end with some kotegaeshi locks. These attacks followed by us trying to work in the locks were great. Not saying I was great at it, far from it, but it was great to see how it was possible to work the locks in and try to find ways to position myself to be able to do the locks more easily.

We then moved on to something we've hardly worked on so far: throws. A simple, very basic, over the hip throw. Started with the same kind of attacks, block/strike but now followed with us trying to gain position to make the throw. We didn't do the throw at first. All we were doing was simply lift our attack so his feet would merely leave the ground. The guy I was first paired with worked well with me. He's set to test for his black belt at the beginning of June and as thus, is much more advanced than I, but I felt some hesitations from him on some moves. Me, I had lots of hesitations ;) We were then instructed to switch up partners and I was teamed with another fellow student who will also be testing for his black belt in June. This guy has done a couple other styles before coming to our school, including some judo and it showed. He asked me if it was all right that he did the throws completely and I said it was okay. I mean, I've learned how to fall and when you know where you're going to land, you don't hurt yourself. He's also a very good "faller" if I can say that, in the sense that he rolls well with punches/locks/throws so I got to try the complete throw a couple of times. Didn't go too badly I would say :) Lotsa work to do, but still felt very good to be able to do it.

All that class of self-defense, alway thinking not to myself be hit by the first strike, then work something out to get the locks done, and finally the throws done, well it made my mind work overtime. Couple that with the start of a cold and my sinuses being blocked that forced me to take some Sudafed (tm) before going to bed. That stuff is non-drowsy and works like charm for me during the day but tends to give me a bit more agitated night of sleep. Not impossible to sleep, but I move a bit more in my sleep. My mind was still working overtime on moving in the dojo though and a few times in the night, I changed position in the bed and I swear I thought I was still avoiding a strike, or finding a way to work one of these locks in. My wife didn't complain that I turned one of her wrists in an awkward position while sleeping, so I have to believe I only did it on my side of the bed... ;)

FM
PS: I'll get back maybe tomorrow with some links to videos of the locks we worked on. Interestingly enough, I'm finding plenty of aikido links with the locks mentionned in this post. Professor Cerio really took stuff from all over the place to create his style. Writing about it is forcing me to learn the origin, something I'd not done in the first three years of my practice of it. Thanks for reading me... :)