A Beginner's Point of View 299-300

Day 299:

In Iaido class, I did my normal run through. The instructor noticed that my horizontal cut for the first and second kata was too high. I guess I need to swing my shoulder lower to avoid being so high.

In basic Kendo, I led the class for rei-hou and warm-ups. We were in the smaller space of our normal hardwood floor. So, no wind sprints of huge length but back to fumi-komi drills. Win some, lose some. After footwork, we put on men and I was asked to be motodachi. The students did kiri-kaeshi, men, kote, and doh drills. One student is new to bogu, so his strikes are awkward. During the doh drills, he swuing early and wide, striking my elbow right on the bony part twice in a row. My flesh bruised and swelled up right away.

In advanced Kendo, there were only five of us. We started with one round of kiri-kaeshi, and then went into many drills of men, kote, and doh. We spent a lot of time during nidan-waza, such as men-suriage-men and kote-suriage men.

The instructor had invented a drill that I call ‘Four-Square’ drill. Four people stand in a box formation. The one who starts in the position closest to shomen on the dan side will receive kakari-geiko from the one across form him. The other two positions are ‘rest’ positions. Once thirty seconds of kakari-geiko is done, everyone rotates to the right. So, the one who just performed kakari-geko will now receive it for thirty seconds. We rotate constantly every thirty seconds without waiting for bowing before and after a rotation. It’s a hard practice without stopping and those rest positions really come in handy. Without them, I’d have to stop to catch my breath. At the end of class, we practiced kata. I love kata. We did the first five kata for a refresher.

Day 300:

In Iaido, I did my run-through like usual. Sometime, I would rattle the sword in the saya. I need to twist the saya more and draw more slowly. When I slow down and do each step deliberately, I do better.

In basic Kendo, I led rei-hou and warm-ups. We did more footwork drills as a group. There was a time when I was part of a line of six kenshi going across the floor all at once. It was just a touch narrow, so I let the others go a full step before I went to avoid colliding. Also, the instructor advised us to put most of our weight upon our left foot instead of the left. This allows us to stop properly. It also allows us to do fumi-komi in a more controlled way. When we put on men, I was motodachi again. The students did men, kote, and doh drills again. That previous student who was swinging wildly did much better this time.

In advanced Kendo, we did kiri-kaeshi, men, kote, and doh drills. We then went back to having a single student receiving constantly from a line of kenshi one at a time. We practiced suriage drills this way for a while. We included a drill where the receiver would do keiko with each kenshi one at a time for fifteen seconds in a constant stream of fights. We continued until everyone had that chance with everyone else.