A Beginner's Point of View 263-264

Day 263:

Today I went back to advanced practice. I need to keep coming to advanced practice to get ready for the promotional in a couple of months. Today was very hot. The instructor warned us to be careful of our health and to take breaks when we need to. We started off with a couple of rounds of kiri-kaeshi and men strikes. We even learned something called ai-kiri-kaeshi. Each side attempts to strike men using the same 4-5 pattern after the attacker strikes the first men. This way, both shinai crash together at the uke, forming a block. It’s really energy-draining, but a nice change of pace.

The focus today was on taking and keeping center. We did a neat little drill where each partner takes chudan and then holds it firm. Both step in and try to touch tsuki gently. Only one can do it if they hold center. By experimenting, we found the best way is to have loose hands for the first half of the distance, then squeeze the hands the rest of the way. We added a single sideways step to the drill to try to open up the angle. Finally, we did the drill in the center of the room around the center of the court. Sparsed around the drills we had the occasional ji-geiko focusing on using the center drills we were learning.

Today I thought I would have to take multiple breaks, but I did not need a single break. After the energy of the early class, I recovered on my own.

Day 264:

We started off class with a long lecture about how keeping shushin, or center of your spirit, powerful through your sword can make you near-invincible. When you have a strong spirit, your sword takes the center and your opponent cannot strike men, tsuki, or kote. We then did some ai-kiri-kaeshi and men strikes.

We then worked on a new drill. The attacker tries to strike kote. The defender strikes aiouchi-kote to nullify the point. Later, we enhanced the drill by having the defender follow up with a men strike to teach reactionary strikes to win. We then had a series of exchanges where we pressure the other into striking while we use oji-waza, such as harai-men.