Thursday, October 13, 2011

A Beginner's Point of View 311-312

Day 311:

I did not go to class because I was buying a new car. I thought I had scheduled plenty of time, but the sales staff kept me at the dealership all afternoon and into the night. Business just does not respect dojo class times.

Day 312:

In Iaido class, I worked on my kata again. A couple of instructors watched me, but did not comment. I noticed the sharp edge of the iaito was turned inward a couple of times when practicing the eighth kata. That didn’t seem quite right, so I asked the instructor. He confirmed that the sharp edge should be outward. I also practiced turning in the second kata. It’s awkward, but getting better. I’m putting my weight on my right knee and using my left toe to provide the leverage. After turning, I’m practicing getting the left leg right with the horizontal cut.

In Kendo class, we had extra sandans show up. Apparently, they’re going to be joining us from now on when they can show up. We did stretches and suburi. We then did footwork drills and men strikes in bogu. At the end of class, a sandan made comments about posture and breathing to the class.

In advanced Kendo, we did lots of kiri-kaeshi, men, kote, and ji-geiko. I had to sit out for a while until they started organizing for three-square. I stepped in for that, getting the same group as the new sandan. Afterwards, he commented on how I was doing well but I should relax my shoulders. Apparently, I have that old problem again. He also complimented the other student with us on his accuracy and balance.

Then we took a water break and split up into groups for shiai. We did it informally, without shinpan, but we did it with the attitude of being tested. The lower-ranking students were rebuked for their lax attitude towards the opening rei-hou. After that, they sharpened up. I had my shiai against a ni-kyu. We pushed each other well. I pushed him to speed up and attack. He pushed me to slow down and take control.

After class, then new sandan commented amongst us dans about how the moksuo for rei-hou was too short. Our instructor explained that we were advised not to moksuo or at least make it short. I told him about how I measure the three breaths with two heartbeats for each part of breath. It’s something that we’ll have to nail down definitively.

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