A Beginner's Point of View 230-231

Day 230:

Sensei didn’t show up today. I guess he got delayed at work. So, the class was the three of us Iaido students just practicing what we wish to practice. I’ve been studying my checklist of opening and closing rei steps and I think I’ve mostly got it down. All that’s left is the little touches to smooth it out, like the smoothing of the sageo at various points. By practice, it seems that sliding the saya in the ‘outer loop’ of the obi makes things easier than close to the body. I practiced the opening rei and torei once. Then, I practiced the first kata over and over more than a dozen times. I could tell what major mistakes I was making, so I would do the kata over and over to correct them. Like not bringing the toes up on my left foot soon enough and doing chiburi before switching which foot is forward. At the end of class, I practiced bowing out. I felt rushed, so I left my obi on for Kendo class. I think that may have been a mistake. I get conflicting information about whether or not to wear it, so I’ll keep wearing it. Besides, if I took it off, I’d have to re-tie the hakama.

One of the higher-ranking students took over teaching the class. I offered to warm up the class for him, and did so. I pulled a sneaky trick by doing twenty haya-suburi, and then breathing. Once the warm-ups were over, I asked if anyone was out of breath. When everyone said no, I commanded us to do thirty more haya-suburi. Sempai asked what was being done in previous classes. I told him about footwork, fumi-komi, and kiri-kaeshi. He invented drills to test our footwork and keeping of spacing. At one point, he had everybody starting to do kiri-kaeshi without men on. That made me nervous. After the first drill, I called him aside and made the suggestion. I made sure not to challenge him, but I really wasn’t comfortable letting many unranked people strike and be struck by the head without protection. Sempai thought it was a good idea. We put men on and the higher-ranking people, including myself, formed a line on one side. The others rotated through the other side while doing kiri-kaeshi, one-step men, and one-step kote.

In advanced class, I decided to stay even though I had skipped dinner previously and might lose some sleep. We did a lot of one-step men strikes at first. Sempai asked what was done for advanced class, so I told him about what we were doing, which was uchi-komi. So, he started us on one-step men drills, one-step kote drills, and one-step kote-men to set us up. Then we did uchi-komi over and over. There were only four of us, so we did each drill four times. It started with me opposite Sempai and finished with me opposite Sempai. Then he would not rotate at first but introduce the next drill. I helped demonstrate each new drill before we did it. After uchi-komi, I felt really run down. The obi was causing me discomfort. I stepped out and took off men. I very slowly got my breath back, but still felt badly. I stayed out of class for the remainder while Sempai was teaching the steps to lead up to nuki-men. He was clearly not comfortable teaching the class. So, I made sure to keep track of the time for him. At the end of class, I stayed to help close up. He thanked me for helping him and watching after the students on a personal level.

Day 231:

Sensei was back today. He taught me the next step in the first kata for Iaido. He also taught me a secret tip for preparation. When rising up on my knees before the horizontal strike, I should curl up my toes on both feet. After making both cuts, I swing the iaito around to my right as if pointing towards an opponent behind me, then curl my elbow towards my temple. When doing noto, when the sword is halfway inside I lower down onto my right knee to touch the floor at the same time.

In beginner Kendo, I warmed up the class again and then put on bogu. I received for the class during kiri-kaeshi, one-step men, and one-step kote drills.

In advanced Kendo, we had a surprise. Guest Sensei from Japan showed up! I didn’t expect him until next year. We did kiri-kaeshi and one-step men drills primarily. Guest Sensei didn’t make any comments when I did waza with him, so I guess I was doing it properly.

When it came to uchi-komi, Guest Sensei was giving out lots of advice, such as making sure to strike doh with enthusiasm instead of being timid. He also told me to hold my arms so that the inside edges of my elbows would point upwards instead of outwards. He explained that by doing this, I shall ‘make BIG universe’ and my strikes will be more natural. I tried it and it does seem to be more natural. It’s another way to say to hold your arms so that you could balance a beach ball while in chudan-no-kamae.

I had to step out for breath for a bit. Then people were lining up for keiko and eager to keiko with Guest Sensei. I put on men again and did keiko with an unranked student to warm up, then got in line with Guest Sensei. He made a comment that he was out of breath and I almost made a joke about planning it that way to be sneaky. I decided not to say it just to be safe. Still, even though he was out of breath, he was still better than me at keiko. I would try to make openings and make lightning strikes, but he would beat me at every opportunity. He was just so fast. He could circle his shinai around mine and strike kote before I could finish raising up for men strike. It’s hard to believe anyone could be that fast.