A Beginner's Point of View 295-296

Day 295:

Today we were back in the hard-floored gymnasium. I did my routine of kata over and over. The no-slip floor was throwing my steps off-balance. I had some trouble remembering if I was supposed to kneel or stand at the conclusion of the fifth kata. I stayed standing and asked the instructor. He agreed that it was standing.

There was a new student. He wanted to study Iaido and Kendo together. The instructor spent most of his time with him teaching him to stand, walk, and swing.

I felt it was a good time to try Kendo again. My wrist was stiff but not painful. It was also Guest Sensei’s last day here with us. We used bokken for suburi. Guest Sensei didn’t like the way I did shomen strikes. He was saying that I was raising too high and not stretching far enough on the down swing. He showed me how to do it by positioning my arms. It was awkward but it was working and it was faster. I guess he’s right. I need to remember how to do that.

We did kiri-kaeshi and shomen suburi with shinai and then we broke up for matches. We only had time for three matches by the students lower ranking than myself. I’m almost disappointed and almost happy at the same time. I’m so rusty after many weeks of no Kendo I must look terrible. Still, I’m grateful to Guest Sensei for his advice. I’ll have to try to remember it.

Day 296:

Today in Iaido I learned that the ‘sonkyo’ position to finish the fourth kata is not a true sonkyo like in Kendo before and after a match. It’s with the left knee on the floor and tight right foot slid back past the left knee. That’s much easier than what I’ve been trying to do. It may even hurt less. That’s good.

Also, at the tail end of class, the instructor had us practice the second kata all together. He reminded us that we begin to draw as we start to turn around and ‘snap’ the last movement into place when we flick the sword out. It looks like he’s pivoting on his right knee instead of the left foot like I’ve been doing. I need to start doing that.

In Kendo, we did more suburi with lectures along the way about form. I’m trying to do men strike like Guest Sensei instructed. Raise up so the left fist is at the forehead and you just barely see underneath. Then snap your left arm forward on the downstroke. I’ll have to practice that a lot.

After suburi, we did wind sprints. Very good exercises, but left me breathless. Then we put on men and did more men strikes and kote strikes, but only the strike, not passing by. I made the mistake of using full charging speed so I almost keep bumping into my partner. I did correct myself after a bit, though.