A Beginner's Point of View 108-109

Day 108:

Today Head Sensei was here and did he ever work us hard. We seemed to do endless iterations of kiri-kaeshi to get it right. After that, it was a series of drills that were variations on the theme of menouchi. We would do five men strikes and then let our partner do five men strikes. We would sometimes have it where the lesser-ranking partner would do five men strikes and then both would do five times aiouchi-men. Over and over we did this.

Eventually, Head Sensei would teach us “attacking kote” strikes. A “defensive kote” strike would be hiki-kote. Here, we would learn the forward-motion kote. We learned to make a smaller up-and-down motion to clear our opponent’s shinai and then we keep a forward motion while striking kote. We then step into our opponent to close the distance and keep them from counter-attacking us. We pull our shinai and arms to the left and back a little when we come in to stand face-to-face with our opponent.

I finally lost the last of my breath and had to sit down. I drank some water from my water bottle and relaxed for a bit. After a few minutes, I put my men and kote back on and got back into line. Then we would mix up what we did in line. Sometimes we would strike men and pass through. Sometimes we would strike kote. Sometimes we would strike kote-debana-men. When I got back to sensei in line, he told me that I was not flexing my right wrist as much as I should. If my right wrist is too stiff then I rob myself of reach. I started flexing it and got a little more reach for men strike. He had me do multiple kote strikes and men strikes to practice flexing and one-step charging into my opponent.

After that, I was exhausted again with no breath. I had to stop. I took off men and kote and just sat out the rest of class. My endurance must be improving because my heart does not hurt when I push myself. Still, having no breath makes my kendo sloppy and my shinai drift off-center. The class did keiko for a while and then Head Sensei showed us something new. It was called “kakari-geiko”. The teacher would give a slight opening and the student would immediately attack the opening with no counterattacking from the teacher. Once the student attacked, he either passed by or charged into the teacher and retreated. Immediately the teacher gives another opening and the student immediately attacks again. This goes on over and over very fast until the student is completely exhausted. This is meant to teach the student to strike any suki he sees without thinking and push the limits of his endurance. It looks like fun, but I’d want to be rested before I would try it.

Day 109:

Today was a lot of men strikes. We were practicing our one-step men hits for most of the class. Head Sensei reminded us that we attack with our spirits first by doing kiai. Second, we attack with our bodies by stepping forward. Finally, we attack with our swords by swinging.

We did a lot of drills where the dans would line up on one side of the dojo and the kyus would go from line to line, forming a two-person deep waiting line if need be and just keep going. Very efficient.

Today a few students from another dojo came to practice with us, including my former sempai. During a kiri-kaeshi drill, she reminded me that when performing kiri-kaeshi, each men strike should be “pretty” like it was the only men strike you should do. I think she was telling me to slow down and get the strikes right first before speeding up.

Also, my current sempai (who just got promoted to nidan this past weekend) did a trick where he would offensively flinch multiple ways to throw me off guard. It worked. My brain locked up and I went defensive. He explained to me that if someone does that, I should just attack because they are wide open.