A Beginner's Point of View 142-143

Day 142:

Today my job is interfering with my ability to be in the advanced class, so I showed up for the beginner class. Sensei didn’t show up again. I hear he is working extra hours at his job. So, I led the class in warm-ups. I went through the basic set: okii-suburi, shomen-suburi, and katate-suburi. To finish it off, I decided to teach the class something new for them. I showed them how to do kiri-kae-suburi. I like doing that one, it’s fun. The others were a little clumsy, but no more than I was when I first started. We then did the breathing exercise and bowed out.

The most senior student decided to take over the class and instructed anyone who had bogu to put it on right away. Regardless of rank, all of the students who had bogu were on the ‘dan’ side while everyone else was on the ‘kyu’ side. The people on the kyu side would do the instructed drill and then rotate, while the ones on the dan side would stay in place. I spent the whole class helping others by letting them strike my men and kote while reminding them to keep center. It reminds me of how my old sempai used to train me.

I bought a new shinai because my old one had broken enough staves to not have four full staves anymore, even with trying to fit in replacements form the previous shinai. However, at first I thought the shinai were the wrong size or meant for the other gender because they were so much thinner and felt lighter than all my previous shinai. However, it was stamped ‘39’ like it should. All of the shinai in the bulk set were this way so it was not a fluke. I’m going to ask sensei about it next class.

Day 143:

Today I attended both beginner and advanced classes. The beginner class was much of the same as Monday, except Sensei was present. I was in full bogu all class and allowed the students to strike me. There was a lot more kiri-kaeshi today. Letting all those students strike my men was giving me a headache.

Sensei gave the beginner class (and by extension the advanced class) a lecture on the two different types of shinai. He pointed out that a thicker and thinner shinai are both legal because of length and weight class, because weight class is a range rather than a target number. The thicker shinai have a different center of mass than the thinner shinai so you may torque it quickly to circumvent your opponent’s kamae quicker. The thinner one’s center of mass allows it to swing forward faster for distance strikes.

Afterwards in advanced class, there was only myself, one other student, and Sensei. Sensei decided to have a ‘lab’ day where instead of working hard, we practice more precisely and work on our finesse. We spent a lot of time listening to him lecture on not just how to do a strike or hold a kamae, but why you do it the way you do it. He would demonstrate the proper way as being the one where you may attack or defend efficiently. We worked on kote strike, kote-debana-kote, and kote-suriage-men. Afterwards, we did kata. I love kata. We quickly went through the first three kata and then practiced kata number eight and ten. Sensei brought both of his bokken to class, the smaller one and the larger one. We took turns practicing the uchidachi side of kata eight and ten while Sensei would perform the shidachi side. Sensei says he loves katas eight through ten because using the shorter bokken means you have to get closer to your opponent. It’s a much more intense match.