A Beginner's Point of View 100-101.5

Day 100:

Today we practiced an abbreviated opening ceremony in the advanced class. After that, we lined up to practice kiri-kaeshi over and over, trying to get it right. One of the beginner students stayed for the advanced class. Because there were four of us, plus sensei, I wound up paired with him over and over. He would perform men strikes multiple times to practice getting them right.

As the night went on, we practiced kata. I love kata. I was teamed up with someone close to my rank and we practiced the first three kata. I was really rusty since I was on vacation. I had to practice the third kata over and over to get the footwork right. When you are uchidachi, your recovery footwork after the tsuki seems opposite to when you are shidachi. The uchidachi must move right-left-right while the shidachi must move left-right-left-right-left. (I hope I got that right, it’s still confusing.)

Day 101:

We did the full opening ceremony today. I like the opening ceremony. It’s simple, yet profound. This time we did a little kiri-kaeshi and then aiuchi-men. We were trying to practice reacting to our opponent’s movement. After that, we would do a little ji-geiko for practice.

After that, it was more kata. I love kata. Although, today was different for choice of partners. Everyone was going to test for shodan, nidan, or ikkyu. I was far behind them and they had to practice several kata for testing. Eventually, sensei told me to rotate in with the two people who were testing for ikkyu. I watched them do the first five kata and then I rotated in for each of them to practice the same.

The one who I would displace would tutor me in their role. I did the first two kata just fine and needed a little instruction on the third. Then I needed full instruction on the fourth and fifth.

The fourth kata is a very intense one where sensei says you can really have “fire in your eyes”. The uchidachi goes into hasso and shidachi goes into waki-game. Both bokken clash overhead and are brought down to eye-level. The uchidachi attempts to tsuki and the shidachi rotates the bokken like a windmill and takes a diagonal step leftward to strike shomen.

The fifth one is thankfully a simple one that is a refinement of the first kata. The shidachi uses a different chudan to perform men-suriage-men on the uchidachi’s bokken. Each of my partners were practicing hard to pass their promotional later this month.

Sensei says they should be ready to test. A little refinement and they will do well.

Day 101.5:

Today we actually hosted a demonstration of Kendo and Iaido at my local firehouse. Today was the 75th anniversary of the firehouse’s founding. There were clubs and social groups from all over the town and surrounding areas as well as our club and another bare-handed martial arts dojo. We only had 20 minutes to show off both Kendo and Iaido to the crowd.

We had some of the beginner students show men strikes and doh strikes in a line just like in class. One of the advanced students would perform kote and men strikes on sensei who had on no bogu (he blocked with his shinai). Myself and another advanced student would demonstrate kiri-kaeshi and a short ji-geiko for 30 seconds. I didn’t use my full assertiveness and let him strike me a few times. The purpose was to make both of us look good while showing the onlookers what good spirit we had. We even did the proper bowing in and bowing out ceremony for the match, which really pleased the crowd.

Sensei says we will be giving another demonstration to another place in town. I can’t wait to show up and ji-geiko again for a crowd.