A Beginner's Point of View 325-326

Day 325:

Today was the start of a more structured class. We had a little free time to practice my kata freeform. I even got to practice my two new kata. After that, we had a class where the instructor would command us all to perform a certain kata all together a couple of times. Then he would give comments. We did that for the first three kata and then class was over. I did not skip out early like usual, but I rushed to put on doh and tare for Kendo.

I led the class in rei-hou but our ikkyu candidate led the class in warm-ups. However, I ran the class for footwork drills! I had been passively planning such a thing for months but it happened! I wonder if this is training for being a nidan/sandan who would teach the class. I had the class concentrate on zanshin by making sure everyone turned around and took chudan after the drill. If even one person did not finish properly, then the whole class had to repeat the drill. I had to force them to repeat a couple of times, making sure to say out loud that someone forgot to finish. We did long kiais, shomen, kote, and kote-men strikes. Then the instructor took over and arranged us in a serpentine maze for renzoku-men strikes without anyone wearing men. It was fun but a little dangerous. Everyone was forced to be aware of their partners and who was next and how far away they were.

Day 326:

Today was less structured than the last class. I just worked on my twelve kata over and over. I did get a comment from the instructor. On the tenth kata, I am thrusting to the tsuki while wrapping the blade around my body, which makes it off-target. I need to thrust it straight. It needs to move like in the fourth kata. I also need to show the side of the blade to the attacker in the third kata instead of the back of the blade.

In Kendo, I led the class in rei-hou and warm-ups. The other shodan led the class in footwork. We had more partner drills today, which helped keep our distance. The head instructor even did the sideways footwork drill with me while he was in jodan to see if he could keep the distance. We did menouchi drills without men and then we lined up to put on men. After doing kiri-kaeshi, menouchi, and koteouchi, the head instructor called for a new drill. Anyone not attending the advanced class would do kiri-kaeshi-men-men-men-men-kiri-kaeshi. I had a knot in my abdomen when I started, but I pushed through anyway. I was out of breath, but I kept pushing myself harder to break through. I did well. I only ran out of breath right at the end. I then closed out the class with rei-hou.