A Beginner's Point of View 463-464

Day 463:

Today we’re back at the dojo, only to find the floor sanded. There was a lot of sawdust all over the floor. Even when you sweep up, there’s still dust left.

There was a hard, large bead of wood glue on the floor. I slid my foot over it when stepping back in the ninth kata. It did not feel good.

I did three sets of kata. There was a new student, so the instructor had to spend all his time with him.

In Kendo, we did warm-ups, suburi, suri-ashi drills, and men-ouchi. After that, the instructor stopped us and had us both take off men. He then had the others practice taking a test just like shinsa. He would harshly grade them for each big mistake. He even asked my opinion whether or not I would pass them. I would pass two but fail the third. The third was constantly lowering his arm, making his strike the men-gane instead of men. He took my comments as ideas on what to tell them to work on.

Day 464:

Today I found the floor treated with wood stain. It was still sticky, showing it was just put down today. We would have to practice in the carpet room again. I did three sets of kata.

Today we did more kata. I would practice in lines with rotating partners with as many kata as possible. The students I practiced with practiced the first three kata. With the instructor, I practiced the first five. He was disappointed that I forgot all about what I learned on the sixth kata and didn’t know the seventh. He did correct me on the fourth kata to step to the left more. Otherwise, my cut does not look straight down.