A Beginner's Point of View 315-316

Day 315:

In Iaido class, I arrived early to set up the dojo floor. Then I worked on my kata. The second kata is still a little awkward, but at least I’m coming closer to the answer. I’m still having trouble with the sageo. When I asked for some help, the instructor showed me how he uses his sageo. He explained that the beginning to-rei has you letting go of the sageo as you push it into your right hand, and then push it to the ki-saki. Allowing a small loop in the sageo is acceptable as long as you don’t fuss too much.

In Kendo, we did our warm-ups in a circle, like at tournament. After suburi, we got our men and dove right into a lot of kiri-kaeshi, men, and kote drills. Many of the students did not have bogu, but we taught them to receive kiri-kaeshi, men strikes, and kote strikes.

Day 316:

In Iaido, we had a full class. I squeezed in and did my kata without getting too close to the others. I remembered to place my left hand about midpoint on the iaito instead of close to the tsuba. It does make the tsuki motion easier and straighter.

In Kendo, our instructor didn’t show up until about too late. It turns out that he forgot to pack his bogu and uniform. Instead, he took video of the class during waza. I led the class in warm-ups and suburi. The instructor asked me to repeat a few suburi to make sure the class did it right. Then we broke into groups for suri-ashi drills with lots of kiai practice. We gave our loudest kiai, sometimes with our mouths closed to build up our lungs. During kiai and even suburi, I found my voice deepening and being louder. I wonder if I’m improving my kiai. We put on men and did a lot of kiri-kaeshi and menouchi drills. We finished by having a couple of keikos.