A Beginner's Point of View 349-350

Day 349:

Today Sensei showed up again. He was moving slowly all throughout the class. I’m glad he’s getting better. The instructor waited for a couple of us to finish the seventh kata a couple of times before pulling us off to the side. He told us that during the seminar, a sensei corrected him on his seventh kata. Normally, we’ve been cutting into the first opponent, turning into jodan for the second, then cutting the second. The new way is to cut the first opponent, then hold the sword in the same place while you turn your body to face the second opponent, then you cut the second opponent. No stopping, just a fluid motion. It makes sense if the two opponents close together. By the end of class, I was really out of breath and my heart was beating more than usual. I was really tired when I went home.

Day 350:

Today Sensei was back again. Hopefully, this means he’s back for good. He was moving much slower because he was caring more for his form than speed. He also spent time imagining and practicing the logic of movements before performing them. I wonder if I will do that by the time I’m his rank. Right now, I’m working on keeping my feet closer to flat on the floor.

After Iaido, I tried Kendo again. I led the class in rei-hou but not in warm-ups. I was grateful, since I doubt I could finish suburi without hacking up a lung. The instructor led the class and pushed us at a grueling pace. However, there was a new student today, so he stopped and explained each type of suburi and strike. That gave me time to catch my breath. However, he threw in an extra forty haya-suburi just to make it a hundred in total. I actually lost my voice and the dojo seemed very quiet while doing the last few dozen. My form was also very sloppy as I had little energy at that time.

We put on men and moved into regular class. I received for kiri-kaeshi, menouchi, and lessons on sashi-men. We started by practicing ogami-men, in which you pull back to strike your own men-gane and then throw it forward. It seems I have not forgotten to perform sashi-men after all this time.

At the end of class, the instructor gave a lecture on using good kiai and mentally making decisions. You must decide to strike and give it your all, not just whimper and tap. You scream and strike firmly. It’s good to be careful, but you must give your all into the effort, not holding anything back.