A Beginner's Point of View 415-416

Day 415:

Today was weird. When I showed up, the dojo was closed and dark. Usually it’s either just closed or one person ahead of me clearing the floor. Well, I turned the lights on, changed into my uniform, cleared the floor, and then swept up.

I began practicing my kata, trying to include vision into it. It seems that I can remember to either turn my head to look at the ‘opponent’ or I can lower my gaze during the final strike. I need to be able to do both.

I noticed that only one person showed up for Kendo during Iaido class. No other students, no instructors. I began to wonder if I had to offer a class to him to avoid him feeling cheated. I’ve only taught one class before and that was under the supervision of a nidan. I guess since I had neither shinai nor key to the equipment closet, I would have done warm-ups, footwork, wind sprints, and then shomen and kote suburi. After the fact, I hope that I would have remembered to show Kendo kata. What a thing to forget after doing so much Iaido.

I cleared the floor after deciding that there was to be no Kendo tonight. The student left before it was class time anyway. After I got home, I got the message about no practice tonight. Well, at least I got a free practice.

Day 416:


Today as well as next class will be in the gymnasium. I hate the gymnasium. It’s a concrete floor with thin artificial covering to look kinda like wood. It hurts to fumi-komi.

There was class, but our new student needed attention. So no structured class since we would have to start with the fourth kata. I made some progress with memorizing more vision. The vision is called ‘metsuke’, meaning more focus that just seeing. You keep your attention and focus on your ‘next’ opponent. You must look before you draw and attack.

I did two sets and then a couple of iterations of the first, fourth, and tenth kata to get the idea of metsuke down for those kata. It will take some time before it is all memorized.