A Beginner's Point of View 20-23

Day 20:

I was feeling poorly today, so I decided to stay home instead of making myself sick. I did spend some time practicing my footwork in the kitchen. The linoleum had square patterns like tile, so I could use the lines to keep my footwork straight.

Day 21:

No Kendo practice due to the holidays.

Day 22:

Today was the day of the potluck dinner and Balloon Kendo game. Since I didn't have my bogu yet, I wasn't allowed to compete. (I expected that.) There were students from other Kendo clubs here as well. We did a full set of warm-ups to start, making sure everyone got a chance to count out loud. The harmony and unity in the dojo was amazing. Everyone was working in unison for the same goal, and that was inspiring.

My laziness over the holdiay break was obvious. I was getting tired during warm-ups and even lost count a few times. It was embarrassing. Fortunately, no one said anything. At length, sempai had to tell me not to get so "excited" during warm-ups. I was overworking myself and bleeding away all of my energy. Once again, I was showing my lack of expertise and fitness. I should probably start exercising on a daily basis just to bring my endurance up.

Balloon Kendo was fun, even if I didn't compete. What happens is a balloon is inflated and then tied to the metal frame of the men. If necessary, the balloon is held back by tape. Sometimes, you will also tape a balloon to each of the kote, but today we didn't do this. Round balloons are not good for that. You fight one-on-one until someone pops the balloon. The one who pops gets a point while the other gets another balloon. The first 4 kendoka who get 5 points are the semifinalists. The semifinalists compete in one-round elimination and then the finalists fight. The winner receives "all the fame and glory", as sensei says.

Myself and one other did have have bogu, so we volunteered to tie balloons and mark points. It was easy at first, until we started running out of inflated balloons. Then it was a race to inflate balloons, mark points, and then tie balloons (sometimes in that order). I'm not sure how this would happen if everyone had bogu and was competing.

Day 23:

No Kendo practice due to the holidays.