A Beginner's Point of View 220-221

Day 220:

Another day of stretching my injury back into shape. It’s almost fully healed but it still bothers me if I raise my arms high enough. Today there were not so many advanced students, so I was drafted to help the beginners learn again. We started out with stretches and suburi. We did thirty of each of okii-suburi, shomen-suburi, katate-suburi, and haya-suburi. Afterwards, we put on men and began the drills.

The point of practice today was kiri-kaeshi. Most of the students did not understand how to do kiri-kaeshi. It was not that they did it awkwardly; they just did not know all the steps. I found myself spending a lot of time explaining how to do it. Eventually, I found that just counting out loud the four steps forward, and then the five steps backwards seemed to help the most. Then the drill switched to one-step men strike and then one-step kote. Finally, the instructor wanted to move back to kiri-kaeshi practice. The students seemed to do better this time.

At the end of practice, the instructors mentioned to the class that the purpose is to keep the students moving from line to line quickly and not to spend too much time talking to them. I can see what they are saying. They also said that if a student is not doing the drill properly, then they should be correcting them. It seems to make sense. They are higher-ranking than me, so they have a keener eye for errors. Still, it is hard not to give advice when the cause is so obvious. I’ll have to remember just to give a word or two of encouragement and be done at that.

Day 221:

Today was the day before a holiday so not many students overall were present. I was asked to warm up the beginner class. We started out with stretches and suburi. We did thirty of each of okii-suburi, shomen-suburi, katate-suburi, and haya-suburi. Afterwards, we put on men and began the drills.

We broke up into four lines and put on men. The main focus of today was more kiri-kaeshi and one-step men. The beginner students were getting better at kir-kaeshi. I hardly had to count out loud for them. They still need to polish, especially with starting distance. However, that will come with time.

We did a kind of toned-down drill I like to call ‘Kenshi in the Middle’. There were two of us surrounded by other students. Each of the outside students would take turns attacking on a specified drill, such as kote-debana-men. After one student completes the drill, the kenshi in the middle turns around to face the other student right away. It’s fun, but better when there are two long lines of many students. After class, I led us in ending rei-hou. My arm was feeling better, so I stayed for advanced class.

There were only four of us for advanced class, but two of the beginner students stayed as well. We started off with several rounds of kiri-kaeshi and then aiouchi-men with many repetitions. I found myself losing my breath very fast. I guess I might be out of shape from all the rest from my arm injury. I’ll have to start coming to just advanced class from now on to build up stamina.

A short rest and I put man back on to practice. More shomen-waza and harai-kote drills. The harai-kote drills seemed easier and smoother than other drills. Maybe I just have talent for it or maybe I just simply do harai-kote naturally more often than other waza.

I had to stop again because the tightness in my chest was coming back again along with the lack of breath. I had to miss out on keiko but that was fine. No sense harming myself over practice.

The instructor decided to spend some time doing kata. I love kata. The two beginner students did not have bokken, so one of the instructors loaned one of them a bokken. The other student had to use a shinai, but I volunteered to use a shinai to match them. We reviewed kata number two, which he did fairly well. We then moved on and I taught him the shidachi role for kata number one. We did not have the time for me to teach him the uchidachi role, but that will be for another time.