Thursday, June 4, 2009

A Beginner's Point of View 66-67

Day 66:

First day back to advanced class wasn’t as great as I hoped. First, I caught the tail end of the beginner class where we actually practiced the tsuki attack. One of us had an extra pad that lined the throat under the throat guard of the men. In order to perform the tsuki attack, you step in and give a light, firm forward stab to the throat and then take a step back. This was done a couple of times before we bowed out.

For the advanced class, we lined up in two lines on opposite sides of the dojo like always, then we would practice whatever Sensei would decide. The drills were good. We practiced kiri-kaeshi, men-tai-atari, kote, kote-men, and doh strikes. By now, I was winded and my heart was racing. I decided to keep going until I reached the end of the rotation when I would sit out for a shift, being the odd one out. I did this and I felt very good just resting. Too soon it seemed I was back in for the next rotation. After a practice of doh strikes, it was keiko. Our dojo is really too small to have four pairs of kendoka practicing keiko, but we did it. Soon there were pairs rotating around each other and getting in the way of everyone else. I think we have enough room for two pairs, but not four.

In my keiko, I tried to use just men strikes and practice reaching until my right arm was fully extended. I think I did well. I got a few good men strikes because of my extended reach. However, I got winded again and lost energy. I had to stop keiko and sit down. My face felt flushed and my breath was slow to come back. Sempai was walking around, looking for an opportunity to practice, so I gave her my space. By the time I was back to normal, practice was over. It was time to leave, but Sensei wasn’t done yet.

We all practiced kata for a while. I said it before and I’ll say it again. I like kata. All the intensity without getting winded. I was out or practice with kata, but the first and second ones were easy to get back into quickly. My partner and I tried to do the third kata, but we did not succeed. It was frustrating that even after Sensei showed us how to do the third kata we still could not complete it. So, at the end each pair took turns practicing the kata they knew. The lesson was that even during a rote activity like kata, each pair had a little of their own interpretation that was unique to them. It was a good instruction.

Day 67:

Today was a good day of Kendo, and by “good” I mean “hard”. We lined up and began doing kiri-kaeshi over and over and over again. It was good practice for me. Kriri-kaeshi builds good spirits and good physical fitness, which I need more of. We would do kiri-kaeshi back and forth and then we did simple men strikes. Head Sensei was present today and invented a new drill. One partner would strike men and pass through five times. Then both would strike simultaneous men and pass through five times. Then the opposite partner would strike men and pass through five times. This means we wound up on the opposite side of the dojo, but we got in many good strikes for practice.

Head Sensei spent a long time teaching us about the first step in coming forward to strike men. He taught us about the spacing, timing, and even the speed of the right foot in relation to a good men strike. If you step too far or too short, then your strike will not be with the cutting edge of the shinai. If you time your foot movement with your arm movement, then you may miss the target all together as your feet bring your target into acceptable range. The speed at which your footwork moves brings your opponent closer to you. If your speed is too slow, you will give a suki to your opponent before you take their men. The finer points of footwork and men strike take a long time to master. Once you master them, you will appear to be very much a master of men strike. Of course, by the time you master the techniques, you may be a master of men strike anyway. My own problem was pointed out to be the fact that my arms seem to move faster than my feet, especially when I get tired. So, I need to practice on stepping faster when I swing.

After getting some personal instruction from Head Sensei, I kept drilling for a short time until I was out of breath. I had to stop to rest for most of the rest of class. After drilling, we bowed out. Once again, I was asked to lead the bowing out ceremony. I messed up the command to tell everyone to take off men and kote by accidentally telling them to put them on when they already had them on. Oops.

Finally, we closed out class with more kata. It was great instruction. We focused solely on the first kata this time. We learned some of the finer points of holding the bokken and the spacing of the cuts as higher Dans would perform the kata. We also learned to keep the tension fully happening throughout the entire kata. This will show our spirit to the judges. Next practice, we will be focusing on the second kata and the finer points therein.

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