Little things

I've been paying attention to all the "little things" while I practice. I put "little things" in quotes, but I'm beginning to realize they are not so little after all.

As I've mentioned before, Doug Firestone has been bringing attention to my form during a typical throw, and I've been careful to pay attention to it more and more. The funniest part of it is, now that it's in my mind, it seems (almost) everyone I watch has some sort of deficiency in their posture. Little things I never noticed, like the foot placement, or which foot bears most of the weight and when, are suddenly starting to stick out when I watch myself or others. Not that I'm necessarily improving all that much, but at least I'm aware of it a bit. Certainly, that's better than before.

I'm also trying to do more weapons work, and this dovetails very nicely with my new focus on form. Since, for the most part, one doesn't have to throw an uke in weapons work, there is little to distract me from the form -- it's pretty much all form.

Weapons work, at least the way we do it in aikido, mirrors the form we should have during taijutsu. So, this is a particularly good practice for me right now. :)

By the way, it's a lot harder than it looks...