A Beginner's Point of View 244-245

Day 244:

Today is a holiday and most people are home. Still, there are a few of us here. I am the only Iaido student present. So I took the floor and bowed in. Then I performed 1-2-6-7-12 over and over, repeating a kata as necessary to sharpen my technique.

In Kendo, we had a big class. So suburi was confined. We started with more suri-ashi drills such as men, men-men, and constant men going down. We then broke up into a serpentine striking men along five senior students. After I put on my bogu, I helped receive kiri-kaeshi, men strike, and kote strike.

Tonight was a rare night. I worked over the weekend, so I could stay late tonight because I’ll be going into work late tomorrow. We worked on a lot of different waza tonight. We started off doing kiri-kaeshi, men, kote, and kote-men. We then moved into more advanced waza such as kote-suriage-men, kote-suriage-doh, kote-nuki-men, and men-debana-kote. I had to stop for thirst. At first, I thought I could keep men on, but I realized that I had to dry out my men and forehead or else keep having it slip on my sweat. So, after a short break of water and breathing, I put men back on. The others were taking a break and were discussing techniques.

When we started up again, I started doing a round of kiri-kaeshi, and then moved into three keikos. My first keiko was against a nidan to pushed me to improve my speed. My second keiko was against a nidan who loved using alternate kamae such as jodan. I practiced my kamae-defeating techniques against him. Sometimes I won, sometimes he won. My third keiko was against a shodan. However, I was so tired and dehydrated, that I was slow and clumsy. I pushed myself and pushed myself, but he was still faster and more accurate than I was. Finally, I couldn’t keep breath in me, so I had to stop.

Day 245:

In Iaido, I started practicing my routine. Sensei was back from a trip to a tournament and promotional. He promised to teach me a new kata when I felt ready. Today I wanted to ask about the seventh kata and second kata. He said to keep my hands off the saya for the seventh to start, also to slide my left foot to the left when drawing the sword to help stabilize me.

In Kendo, we all congratulated of our own who had passed his sandan. We had a large class, so we spaced out wide for warm-ups and suburi. After practicing men strike a few times while charging, I put on my bogu and helped to receive. I learned that my fumi-komi works better if I imagine charging up steps instead of straight forward. If I imagine straight forward, my toes curl up and that shows the bottom of my foot. It's not only unstable, but apparently rude, too.

Sensei talked to me about testing for shodan. Before he wanted me to not think about it and enjoy my time as an ikkyu. Now he says he may pull enough yandans together to form a panel to test for shodan during our own tournament. I’d really like that since the other time this year will be very far away. Last fall the place to test for ikkyu was an all-day trip and it made me sick. This time it would be even farther.