Eran Vardi

It was Eran Vardi's turn to teach the Wednesday class. Eran alternated with Jerry on Wednesdays at 12:15.

Eran classes are certainly different than the norm. In fact, the whole dojo takes on a different feel to it on the days that he teaches. Lots of his students come, so the class is usually made up of people I don't know. His different approach and the different people make a nice change of pace.

As is usual for Eran, we did lots of suwari waza. I'd say about half the class. It's still hard for me to keep that up for so long, but it's definitely getting better. I even felt a little centered and relaxed during a few techniques before fatigue set in.

When I do suwari waza for that length of time, I can gauge how well I'm doing by the state of my knees afterward. I used to skin them to shreds, making them a bloody pulp. Of course, this shows that I am not centered and putting too much weight on my knees, but this tends to happen when fatigue sets in. Have to just keep plugging away at it!

Yesterday, I just wound up with just one lightly skinned knee. Although that's still far from good, it's a definite improvement! :)

It's very hard to describe the techniques we do in Eran's classes. They are usually a combination of at least two. I used to hate that, but these days, I'm learning to appreciate the different ways to approach the same positions and techniques. I don't know if I'd ever use them myself, as they are complex, but learning to "get there from here" is valuable practice.