Thursday, March 15, 2012

A Beginner's Point of View 353-354

Day 353:

Today in Iaido I was not as tired as I have been, but I was wobbly on my feet. There seems to be a point when my feet can be too far apart and too close together. Also, the instructor corrected me on a point of the fourth kata. When I thrust behing myself, I have to remember to not raise the saki up when I turn back to the front. The sword is still ‘in’ the target, so this cut is a very big cut. However, it actually seems smoother this way.

I was late to Kendo from Iaido, so I missed rei-hou. I hate missing rei-hou. It’s my responsibility to lead the ceremony, but there’s just zero minutes allocated between Iaido and Kendo. It was a bad day, though. I could not finish the warm-ups and suburi without resting. We must have done a hundred suburi, but the last fourty I had to do without swinging. I just couldn’t get my breath back. But we did the same awesome footwork-waza drill as last time. Following the instructor in footwork with men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, and doh-ouchi interspersed in between intermissions.

Then we put on men and did drills of menouchi, kiri-kaeshi, and sashi-menouchi over and over. We capped it off with two keikos.

I talked to the instructors after class about my fumi-komi. My question raised great interest. The consensus about proper fumi-komi is that it is not quite like a galloping horse. You keep your heel off the floor and slap your front foot down. You then use it to pull yourself forward quickly. I spent the better part of a full year learning the ‘puppet’ method up sword-up-knee-up. Then a guest sensei told us to swing up first, then swing-down-foot-stomp. That’s very physically confusing. I keep getting confused as I am tempted to raise the foot up high. It must be much more forward than up.

Day 354:

Today in Iaido, I did my routine of 1-12 three times. The rest of the class was spent doing the fourth kata four times in a row. I couldn’t remember to keep the saki down. By the end of class it was more natural.

In Kendo, I could actually finish warm-ups and suburi without needing a rest. Instead of twenty slow ones and then fourty fast ones, the instructor surprised us with just fifty fast ones right away. If he asked us to do another fifty, I’d have had to put my sword away. After footwork, we put on men and then had a full day. We did several kiri-kaeshi, menouchi, sashi-menouchi, kakari-geiko, and keikos. We even split up the class to have young students have time to practice without being crowded and students without bogu the same. I kept having to make wider opening to encourage the students to attack, even in keiko. They need to be more confident in attacking. (Of course, I had the same problem at their level.) This was my first class back that I did not have to stop and rest.

After class, I checked my foot. The broken callous had pulled away enough to need trimming. I got the scissors and cut off several pieces far back until the root was exposed. Then I bandaged it. I hope some medicine will smooth it over until next week.

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