A Beginner's Point of View 68-69

Day 68-69:

Tonight was better for Kendo. I had more endurance by a few minutes than before. I think I’m getting more in shape a little each week. Like usual, we formed two lines and did whatever drill Sensei decided. He told us to do kiri-kaeshi for three rotations. After that, we did men strikes to practice “attacking with the body”. It was an extension of the Head Sensei’s lessons on proper maai and sequence. First you semin, which is attacking with the spirit. Next you step forward, which is attacking with the body. Finally, you raise the shinai and strike, which is attacking with the sword. You must do these things in that order, which will lead to a proper strike. If you attack with the shinai first, you will be too far away to strike well. If you attack with the body first, then you may not have a suki to attack. Afterwards, we practiced kata again.

Sensei said that we’re heading towards a chance for promotional in a couple of months and those testing for ikkyu and shodan must be polished in their kata for testing. This time, we mixed it up a little. We paired off in two lines like usual. Then we would perform a kata chosen by Sensei several times. Half of the times one partner would be the uchidachi and the other would be shidachi. For the second half of the drill, the partners would switch roles. Once the drill was complete, we would rotate like in the lines for Kendo waza drills. This let us practice with different partners, which is good for us. Overall, we performed kata one and two over a dozen times each, until we got it down again, then smoothed our technique. I should probably read my book again to memorize the footwork. After the promotional is over, there will be another tournament and promotional a couple of months after this one. Perhaps after that, Sensei will start leading us in learning kata three, which is very complicated to watch and more so to do.