The first thing that comes to mind is he deserves his title as a shihan. I have trouble remembering a specific technique. One was a shomenuchi kokyunage. Mike Jones described it to us the day after as raising both arms and attacking the uke with the butt of the sword. The move was a very aggressive irimi. Nage’s lead hand raises up like always. The second hand raises up underneath the attackers arm across their face. the lead foot is placed behind the attackers lead foot. Then you move in and take their center. You may find videos of it on the net. I saw several people taping him with their cameras.
Yokota Sensei was very humorous on the mat. He made the class laugh numerous times with his teaching tips. Later after class when everyone was asking to get their picture taken with him or get his autograph, I asked him why he doesn’t smile for pictures. He said that his serious face was, in fact, his version of a smile. It was funny, no one had ever heard of him before he came and now he’s a celebrity.
A couple of links to Yokota Sensei: Flickr and Quicktime.
A few more links.
Are you having fun linking Jerry?
Yup. Dee and I just watched the Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. 😛
Jackie Chan is type cast as the drunken master… I love that movie.
That must have taken a while Jerry. You should have used that time to update the hours on the site, or mail the newsletter.*cough cough* Ahem.
Ouch.
Yes. Band-aid? Or should we get Tonya down here?
😥
Aww, it’s OK. *pat pat* 😉
Howdy!
Yokota sensei’s Aikido is pretty amazing isn’t it? His teaching style is pretty cool too. He tends to throw out a couple of variations at a time, every time and then lets the class chew on whichever they actuallty caught. He paces his classes a bit differently than I have grown used to and that is also fun.
If you’ll pardon a gratutitous link to another blog, the following has two pictures of him.
http://ericrch.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/kagami-biraki-2009-2009?????/
I hope you enjoy your time as an uchi deshi! It sounds like a great experience.
Take care and happy rolling!
e.