A Beginner's Point of View 118-119

Day 118:

Today sensei could not attend practice. He got a new job and he told us he would be spending a lot of time training. So, the class was run by a pair of sempai today. They ran the beginner class and the advanced class. Today we practiced men-uchi and kote-uchi today. We did a lot of strikes like you would do for promotional testing. We even worked up into kote-men strikes. The big lesson today was working some oji-waza (like a parry-riposte combo).

We learned to watch our opponent and time our movements correctly so that we deflect their strike and counterattack. For example, we learned to do men-suriage-men. We wait until their shinai is coming down, then we deflect their sword using the right side of our sword, then we strike men. One problem I’ve noticed is that if you take a big step doing this drill, then you run into your opponent while missing the target. It may be best just to not move at all or maybe just a tiny step forward. You also need to swing your shinai very fast to strike your opponent.

I also spent a lot of time being the target for a student who does not have bogu. Even though I was mostly out of breath by the end of class, I volunteered to give him lots of practice so he doesn’t feel like he’s wasting his money. Besides, even though I follow his movements and give openings, I can catch my breath while helping him.

Day 119--

I decided to skip class today because my wrists were hurting again. Maybe I pushed myself too hard in the last class. I did notice that my center was drifting as I got tired.